SoliForum - 3D Printing Community — What grease do you use?

Re: What grease do you use?

null@example.com (autoxer) — Fri, 18 Apr 2014 00:08:13 +0000

Well I have just been using a tube of white lithium grease from lowes I originally got to grease the windows. It seems to work just fine, but I notice that the printer is a lot happier if I clean and redo after about 10 hours of print time. It seems to get dirty really fast, which I am guessing is from the outgassing of the ABS.

If you put a lot of grease on its just going to get pushed out to the ends 5 seconds later, so there is no point in that.

Re: What grease do you use?

null@example.com (Antron007) — Thu, 17 Apr 2014 15:47:48 +0000

Thanks Ward. I did know not to over lube so i'm good there. i got a little on my z axsis mod and it hasnt harmed it at all so I'm pretty sure I just hit the panic button. The little white blocks are teflon.

Re: What grease do you use?

null@example.com (wardjr) — Thu, 17 Apr 2014 03:29:41 +0000

Relax... I'm sure your printer will be just fine. I would like to point out that more isn't always better. I recently bought two used SD3's from users on this forum. Both of them were way over greased. One of them came with two whole tubes of grease that came in a three pack. Wanna guess where the other tube was? If you apply the appropriate amount to the rods the only plastic that comes in contact with it are the little white blocks. Everything else is metal on metal unless you use too much grease. Of course grease is petroleum based it's grease. Some is just more compatable with plastic. So now that you've lubed everything with grease you can wipe 90% of it off. Then you'll have the right amount of lubrication.
Those little white blocks seem to handle petroleum just fine. I don't know what they are made of but it isn't ABS.

Re: What grease do you use?

null@example.com (Antron007) — Thu, 17 Apr 2014 00:10:53 +0000

I've been reading up on lubrication and I just want to point out that one major point is to not use anything petroleum based. I bring it up because, for the most part, everyone, everywhere simply says "Use Lithium Grease." Maybe I got some bad info but my research shows MOST LITHIUM GREASE CONTAINS PETROLEUM! I didn't know that until I had already lubed my printer l;ast night and spent my whole day at work worried about weather I just ruined my printer. I see on my MSDS Sheet that it has all kinds of petroliem in it. My printer seems A OK but I'm waiting for disaster to strike at any moment.

I'm fairly new to a lot of this so I may be mistaken but my MSDS doesn't lie. I'm glad I have a whole set of parts printed. I just hope I don't have to use them because I simply used "Lithium Grease" as recommended not knowing there are lots of different types of it and very few are suitable for use on your solidoodle. I just figured the way it was always mentioned that, Lithium was the alternative to petroleum. That, and I've seen brands that with warnings that specified it did contain petroleum which, led me to believe that it was not a common ingredient in Lithium Grease.

Maybe some one could clarify this for me? Is it true that most lithium grease contains petroleum? If so why are people using it when petroleum eats plastic? I just think people (Like the SD website for example) should be a little more specific when mentioning these sort of things. Like specifying "White Lithium Grease" or "Petroleum Free" or whatever instead of simply saying, "use lithium grease." I feel like I may have gotten lucky this time so I just want to help out any other newbies like me before they go ahead and think "It's lithium grease, that's all that matters." Be very sure to buy a brand that does not contain Petroleum.

Re: What grease do you use?

null@example.com (Briggs) — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 18:13:06 +0000

Ultra lube white lithium grease from Lowe's. It's bio based. Soy bean or something. Has PTFE.

As for skips, my printer will skip within ten minutes flat if I don't turn on my controller fan. I'm going to hard wire it to my printer so I don't keep forgetting to plug it in, right after I finish painting the windows, cleaning up the garage....

Other folks have no issues with skips devilman2075, and you may not either. My printer needs cooling, period. Without it it skips. With it it doesn't.

See the following thread for more info. http://www.soliforum.com/topic/2566/yax … r-newbies/

Re: What grease do you use?

null@example.com (2n2r5) — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 15:19:41 +0000

I just tried some last night on my idler pulleys since they are hard to get to and it seemed to be okay. Lithium grease is still the way to go IMO. I think that the silicone lubricant will be too light.

Someone who owned a farm once told me," nothin' ever broke 'cuz it had too much greez' "

Re: What grease do you use?

null@example.com (RavensCrest) — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 14:13:20 +0000

does silicone lubricant works? i got some from changing my car's break.. was wondering if i can use it

Re: What grease do you use?

null@example.com (dkeeling728) — Sun, 09 Jun 2013 17:34:34 +0000

Aron wrote:

I am just using regular bike grease. "Park Tool" and "Finish Line" both make bicycle grease that should work for the rails. As the artical above stated: don't use WD40!

-Aron

yup. seems that's what comes on the printers from the factory. in a few weeks i'll probably clean it all off and replace with white lithium or some PTFE grease, but seems to be working great for now

to add to the WD-40 thing. its amazing how many people don't realize that WD-40 isn't even a lubricant at all. its a penatrant and a rust inhibitor primarily. you NEVER want to use it on any fine tolerance machine parts because it varnishes into a film that interferes with clearance. heard horror stories of rednecks using it to lube their guns etc.

Re: What grease do you use?

null@example.com (Aron) — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 23:10:26 +0000

I am just using regular bike grease. "Park Tool" and "Finish Line" both make bicycle grease that should work for the rails. As the artical above stated: don't use WD40!

-Aron

Re: What grease do you use?

null@example.com (Stoney) — Sun, 09 Sep 2012 15:39:55 +0000

some good notes here too ..
http://reprap.org/wiki/Lubrication

Re: What grease do you use?

null@example.com (Stoney) — Sun, 09 Sep 2012 15:24:04 +0000

just a thought, this thread woukd be better in 'repair and maintenance' i reckon.
I was in the hardware store today and bought '3 in 1' dry lubricant with PTFE.

I will have a read up to make sure it can handle the oressure in the linear bearings, i remember it being good stuff though used sparingly..

Re: What grease do you use?

null@example.com (Stoney) — Sun, 09 Sep 2012 04:26:05 +0000

devilman2075 wrote:

I really hope solidoodle is looking into these issues with missing steps. Really starting to scare me as if I might be throwing money into something with bugs that still need to be worked out.

I don't expect a perfect solution, i figure there will be bugs to work out..
if its only software though, how scary can it be ?

Re: What grease do you use?

null@example.com (Stoney) — Sun, 09 Sep 2012 04:24:09 +0000

Has anyone tried a moly disulphide grease, like engine assembly paste ?
more expensive but it bonds with metal, it lasts the life of a motor in the bearings etc..

Re: What grease do you use?

null@example.com (lawsy) — Sun, 09 Sep 2012 02:39:51 +0000

I've printed a whole bunch of stuff now and the only times I've had missing steps were due to operator error:
-Tangled filament stopping y axis from moving.
-Failure to remove previous part, nozzle smashed into it.
-Hit wrong button in software when manually moving the print head.

Re: What grease do you use?

null@example.com (devilman2075) — Sat, 08 Sep 2012 23:59:23 +0000

I really hope solidoodle is looking into these issues with missing steps. Really starting to scare me as if I might be throwing money into something with bugs that still need to be worked out.