Maintenance?

It’s been about a month with my A1 mini and I noticed the X axis is kind of stuttering and the Z axis is quite loud. I lubricated the Y axis a few days after getting it out the box so I’m assuming both need lubrication sooner rather than later.

My question is, what’s the best? I know vaguely how to (put oil on thing, move oil around, move limb around) but I’m not sure what lubricant to buy when I inevitably run out of the little tube that came in the box.

Reddit is, naturally, not helpful as there’s a few different answers. Someone said sewing machine oil, someone else said it evaporates quickly (or something similar) and articles and websites all tell me different things, the only consistent one being “use the recommend one by the printer brand” which sorry I’m not doing, the lubricant is a bit expensive with unreliable delivery if I can use something similar with no issues.

So yes, sewing machine oil? Silicone based oil? Mineral oil even? I’m leaning more towards sewing machine oil since it’s cheap and I can buy it easily where I live but if it doesn’t work too well, there’s no point.

Any other maintenance tips? I’m still yet to clean my print bed and to be honest I don’t know how to take the plate off…

I have heard that Super Lube is what you want to get. Amazon Link

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About the tips, here’s the official guide:

With the build plate, it’s held down magnetically just grab the front and lift up.

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I use sewing machine oil on all 5 of my printers, never had an issue.

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Cool! I’ll go for that then, I’d use super lube but it’s weirdly hard to find in the UK

Thank you! I’m not great at finding this type of stuff

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I’m going to echo what others have said. Super Lube is the way to go.

I agree

Super Lube Multi-Purpose Synthetic Grease for z axis
Super Lube Multi-Use Synthetic Oil for x & y

both with Syncholon (silicone) works best for me.

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