I’ve had my new A1 set up and running for a little over a week, now; not very long. In my house, we utilize 3 oversize HEPA air filters which on average are measuring next to no particles in the air. One of those filters is dedicated to the room the A1 is in. I’m OCD, and the air and environment of our house shows it; it’s significantly less dusty than the average home.
That being said, I’m already noticing what to me looks like excessive dust building up/sticking to the oil on the x axis rail. How much dust here is too much? How often should I be cleaning and re-lubricating this?
What kind of air filters are you using? I’m curious if you can recommend one. i Just bought one specifically for my A1 printer and am waiting for it to arrive, but I didn’t do a ton of research before clicking purchase.
I’m more concerned about plastic falling underneath the y-axis upper cover. For instance on the Y axis linear rail, if lubricated well, will pick up dust/plastic overtime and impede sliding.
Considering user feedback regarding the stickiness of the lubricant grease and its potential to attract dust and debris, we have conducted extensive verification tests and decided to switch the lubricant for the Y-axis guide rail of the A1 model. Therefore, for the Y-axis guide rail of the A1 model, we recommend using lubricant oil for lubrication. We suggest switching to lubricant oil for future maintenance if you have previously used lubricant grease. During the lubrication process, you can also wipe off the lubricant grease on the guide rail and then follow the guide to applying the lubricant oil.
They added this after the complaints deep in their maintenance guidelines but i found out the hard way.
edit: also looking at the pictures vs reading how they lubricate is very misleading. It looks like they recommend OIL in text, but the pictures use GREASE. This is for X and Y.
Purposes of Lubricant Oil: Used for X-axis linear rail, Y-axis guide rail, and eliminating noise from idler wheels.
Purposes of Lubricant Grease: Used for lubricating lead screws and extruder wheels.
I’m using a Levoit Core 600S for the main house, a Winnix 5500-2 in the bedroom and a Levoit Core 300P in the room with the A1 printer.
I have since purchased a TopCube enclosure from Amazon for the A1 to keep it free from dust and it’s working amazingly! Bonus is that it also helps maintain ideal ambient temps around the printer when in use.
See the response I just posted; for me, an enclosure was the key to stopping all dust accumulation from the lubricant oil. The grease is ONLY for the lead screws and extruder wheels. The rails use the oil.
