wd40/grease your ultimakers

[yoveo 0]

I realised yesterday how much of a difference it makes

to have your ultimaker greased. while moving my printhead

by hand I could always feel quite some friction but I always

thought that's normal, and I was also greasing it at times with

the lubricant that came with my ultimaker.

well, yesterday I tried to use wd40 to grease the rods, and guess

what, suddenly my prints are incredibly smooth...

maybe that's a very obvious fact to you, but I'm very excited right

now of what kind of quality the ultimaker is capable of...

[Daid 306]

WD40 attracts dirt, it might run smooth now, but it will grind to a hold soon. WD40 is not a lube! It's a water-displacing anti-corrosion tool.

Best is to use machine-oil (sewing machine oil), on the rods. Note that some machine that have been collecting dirt in the bushing will push out the dirt with the oil after applying oil. If you see black stuff on the rods during printing, clean the rods and apply new oil. Repeat until it stays clean. This could take quite a few prints.

[yoveo 0]

hey daid

thank's for your reply, I'll try the sewing machine oil...

[yzorg 9]

i also took some sewing machine oil.

but what about dry graphite lubricant powder.

can this be an option too?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dry_lubricant

 

[snowygrouch 1]

Do not under ANY circumstaces use graphite dry lubricant. I already posted about that before.

Graphite is a very good electrical conductor, and using a dry lube means there is nothing keeping the graphite stuck to your rods. You also have several fans on the machine....do you see where this is going....conductive dust blown through your electronics board, your fan motors etc etc.

Do not use graphite on your UM !

[yzorg 9]

good point.