Left Y-rod moving

[peter-parnes 0]

My left Y-rod has starting moving by about 4-5mm back and forth and this of course makes printing impossible. I have tightened the covers over the holes where the rod goes in/out.

Is it just the covers that should hold it in place or am I missing something crucial?

Anybody have any ideas on how to solve this?

The other rods are not moving at all.

 

[illuminarti 18]

Sounds like we're talking about the original Ultimaker.

Why does it make printing impossible? If the covers are over the holes, it shouldn't make too much difference. All that's happening is that when the belt moves the head in Y, it is pulling the axis rod with it, rather than sliding over it. That doesn't really make much difference, except for moving the X-axis pulleys back and forth a bit.

Start by adding some lubricant to the axis rods, so that they are less likely to stick. Sewing machine oil works well.

The back and forth slap can be annoying, of course, and it's certainly isn't ideal for print quality overall, so you might look at printing some replacement end caps such as Jeremie's parametric ones:

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:23835

Or their derivatives (I just use the standard ones, fwiw.) These allow you to adjust the height of the center 'pin' as needed to hold the rods in place with minimal movement. You just need to be careful not to put too much pressure on the rod ends, as they do have to be able to rotate freely.

 

[peter-parnes 0]

Thank you. I give it some love with sewing machine oil.

And yes, this is on my UM1 because I still do have any UM2