It’s an older thread, but I will write about my experience.
I’m using a thin, PTFE based lubricant on all rods since 2 years, both carbon and the two steel ones left and right. The lubricant I’m using is Tri-Flow.
About once every 50h of printing or so I clean all rods with 2-Propanol, and re-lube them. There is always some black residue on the rods, but fewer than before I used the lubricant.
Also I never got any error messages, and the toolhead is moving very smoothly and silent. I hope that helps!
1 Like
So, I must admit: I “accidentally” (more like didn’t read the official maintenance manual) lubricated the carbon rods on both of my P1S printers with sewing machine oil. I’ve had them like that for a few months. There’s now what appears to be carbon residue on both side of each rod. Have I damaged them?
I don’t really have any issues with print quality, so I’m hoping they’ll be fine. I will now be cleaning both with 70% Isopropyl Alcohol.
I wonder how much they’ll cost to replace? I must have a look
90 USD, if that is carbon (it sounds like it’s just dirty grease) then you should replace them.
The build up comes from the carbon wearing off and ending there with the excess oil.
I worked with carbon rods quite a lot in the past, like for kites and also for structural parts.
But all the really good advise I got came from a good friend who uses them for mechanical applications like with bearings, sliders and all that.
I will try to sum it up in lame terms everyone can follow >
Like steel our carbon rods are nothing more than a base for whatever moves on them.
But unlike steel linear rods with linear bearings Bambu went went light.
Sadly they see the carbon rods as consumables.
It would have been far better to use proper sliders/bearing rated for carbon rods as consumables but that would have meant sever design changes to allow for a quick and easy easy replacement.
Keep in mind that even a total noob is supposed to be able to do this…
There is a few options to make linear systems usable with carbon rods but Bambu went for the cheapest one - cheap for them, not for us.
The sliders in the print head are super thin for their contact surfaces, meaning it does not take long for them to wear out.
Problem here is that then they have too much free play, resulting in the metal ends, not the full body to rub on the carbon rods.
We have no easy ways to check how well worn the sliders are, resulting in us not replacing them on time and then ruining the carbon rods as intended.
I use soap on my carbon rods because it works now for almost a year without a hickup and very little carbon dust showing up when cleaning them.
The soap breaks up, creeps into all cavities and won’t really allow for much wear and tear.
The only downside is a slight binding effect is the printer wasn’t use for a while and the humidity was high - but that rarely happens as there is always something to print and once it moved it moves smooth and almost silent…
Is it ideal ?
Nope and certainly not for everyone.
Ideally we would use PTFE dry lube sticks on our rods but cleaning them properly is then near impossible if you value your health.
Hence soap as it clean off quickly with just minute amounts of water and then dries quickly with the build build plate turned on…
Just saying…
2 Likes
Well, I appreciate your reply very much. I’ll be ordering some new carbon rods and other parts (for the future). I’ll have them ready once the need to replace them arises.
I concur with this. Especially with the cheapness of the carbon rod assembly. In my case, the epoxy on the gantry failed and rods started to move a bit creating noise.
1 Like
I’ve wondered about their verbiage of ‘self lubricating’. I postulate lubrication isn’t necessary (aside from them mentioning it) to point out, the more you print, the more plastic particulates will coat the rods, thus “lubricating”. Because unless I’m mistaken, isopropanol doesn’t dissolve any of the plastics we’re using… (so how would it remove anything other than a carbon buildup from burnt particulates and/or actual wear, to which I have 2000 hours on my printer and can’t say the carbon rods look any different)
Keep in mind that we talk about tight tolerances here.
Keeping those rods in good condition extents their lifespan.
But the main factor for us is not the rods not those sliders in the head.
The rods start to wear out at an accelerated rate once those sliders lost those few microns of contact surface, leaving only the bare metal.
With good care all should be fine till well above the 5000 mark but then replacing just the carbon rods might be a misplaced investment.
Not sure if the replacement pack finally includes the parts for the head but if not one should always replace those sliders when replacing the rods.
Self lubricating in Bambu terms is a bit like saying that ceramic bearings are self lubricating.
Both is used all over the place abut you have a hard time finding an offer/listing actually explaining how it works.
In the ideal world the self lubricating means you sacrifice a certain amount of material to provide a fine powder that has a lower friction factor than that the used contact surfaces.
Problem with carbon rods combined with linear sliders that are meant to have a limited lifespan is the uncertainty.
Low speeds and low acceleration values certainly translate to less wear and tear compared to always printing at the highest possible speeds.
There is no easy way of calculation the due date and measuring the wear and tear isn’t that easy.
Remember how you had to do this initial hardware calibration where your printer rattled around for god know how long?
Apart from a lot of other things this routine determined resonant frequencies.
IF we would be able to keep this date and also able to examine it we could use the hardware calibration to check on the health of those carbon rods and sliders…
But then again and despite my usual dislike toward Bambu > their consumables, including those rods and head assemblies/sliders are quite reasonable priced.
Compared to the rip off we got so used to from our paper printers and other hardware I think we can’t really complain about the cost factor for consumables.
Maybe a bit about the lifespan but that’s a different (marketing) story.
Things only get rather ugly if you happen to be in regions Bambu does not officially supports or no longer supports directly.
A replacement part that would cost a ‘normal’ user $100US then might mean having to fork out $130US or even more.
With Trumps trade tariff war no one knows what the future holds for consumer prices…
Be in the wrong part of the globe and not only postage costs eat up but also customs nightmares and price hikes if you decide on local options.
Not affected by any of this mean, IMHO the Bambu spares are still prices well within acceptable price limits…
I reckon wet lubricant would attract dirt, grime… to the rod and this accelerates the wear to the slider. Think about it, all lubricants are sticky or a bit sticky. That includes the natural lubricant coming out of your little buddy during sex.
But if you use silicone based dry lubricant or teflon based dry lubricant, no dust can stick to the rod. I think it would be safe.