Grease VS Oil

[chopmeister 0]

I used to lubricate the rods on my UM with multi purpose grease, something similar to what shipped with the UM. And I thought it worked fine. Yesterday I found a bottle of Michelin precision oil for bicycle chains I bought a while ago and forgot about, so I cleaned all the grease and put on a generous amount of this instead, and WOW! My UM just got twice as fast. I used to be able to print at 90ish mm/s and move at 150, yesterday I printed at 150 and moved at 300 without any hiccups. It never sounded better and the head moves effortlessly when the motors are off. So my advice to everybody who hasn't yet done it - ditch the grease and get yourself some precision machine oil, your UM will thank you.

Oh and one more thing while we're on this subject. Don't use WD40 to lubricate the rods. It will seem very good at first, but in the long run it will ruin your rods.

[thedudevt 0]

Chopmeister you rock!

I wiped off the green stock grease and used some light machine oil I had kicking around. The ways are much smoother when moved by hand, and all the troubles I've been having with the Y axis skipping in the last month are gone! This is great!

I suspect my issues stem from worn belts caused by my own experimenting. I've got new ones on order, but they haven't come yet. Once they come I'll try speeding up the frame. 150/300 sounds really good.

thank you!

Kyle

[ian 32]

can you tell me what is the exact name on the bottle or even better can you make a photo.

Im here in germany and i know from experience if i go into a shop with the words Michelin precision oil , the man will try and sell me a oily cats tail or something.

thanks for the great tip.

Ian :-)

[joergen 2]

can you tell me what is the exact name on the bottle or even better can you make a photo.

Im here in germany and i know from experience if i go into a shop with the words Michelin precision oil , the man will try and sell me a oily cats tail or something.

thanks for the great tip.

I am running my UM with simple machine oil (Nähmaschinenöl)... costs next to nothing, and works great. reapply a drop every time the rods feel dry.