I know…
Bambu makes clear how to clean and take care of our carbon rods…
But I also worked quite a bit with carbon rods in other applications and could not resist…
So why soap?
Well, first let me clear that I did not use any odd soap.
I used a block of very old, very dry and plain laundry soap, fragrance and whatever free, just soap.
If you are a fan of vintage furniture you know why soap works best on wooden runners for drawers or to stop noises from moving parts.
Soap is not only slippery when when but also when dry and polished.
On those rods the soap acts both as a filler and lubricant, a dry lube.
My idea was that keeping the rods smooth will reduce the noise and that results in less wear.
Did it work though ?
Initially I thought it all failed.
I applied the soap gently and rubbed the rods with a lint free cloth until they felt smooth and looked a bit shiny.
Only took a few rolls though for the noise to come back.
During the cleaning I noticed that there is still a surprising amount of carbon dust present.
All this however kept going down with every new clean and soap application.
Eventually it dawned on me that something is still causing more wear than what it should.
I put those thoughts down after considering how many kilometres the head travels of those rods compared to some old kitchen drawers.
A while later I had to do it all again and for the first time noticed a bit of fine residue in the head.
Soap and a little bit of carbon and other dust I guess…
Cleaned it off and kept going.
The residue in the head is now no longer really a concern as even this reduced over time.
I have not taken the rods out yet as all works just too well - never break a working thing for no reason…
But I guess what is happening or happened is this:
Once those rods were smooth from the soap those crappy sliders with their tiny bushes/dots still kept scraping on the rods.
A little free play goes a long way here at high speeds…
Seems that now those bushings are basically filled up with soap…
Can’t feel and free play, head moves fine and that with an average speed for simple PLA prints of around 450mm/s as the default speed (E3D Obxidian).
Would I advise to use soap ?
Of course not, just because it works for me does not have to mean it works for everyone.
But if your machine did a lot of hard work and those carbon rods are well past their due date for a replacement…
New rods means new sliders in the head, means a lot of work and also some downtime.
Good thing about soap is that the solvent to clean it off properly is widely available and in most home even comes fresh from the tap…
So, if you have nothing to loose and still wait for those replacement parts to arrive 