'Crunchy' Y-Axis Rails - V3.1 300

Hello fellow riggers!

My Y-Axis rails are sounding very crunchy, do you have a recommendation on the best way to clean them and what lubrication/grease should be used?

I've spent a good few hours on reddit posts and YouTube videos about this subject but everyone seems to counter each others points and it's driving me a little crazy so i figured best to ask the guys that know..

I live in the U.K. if you can recommend anything I can grab from a store/amazon!

TheTik•3/7/24, 1:30 PM

Clean with IPA, use whatever grease and light oil that is handy. None of it makes enough of a difference to matter on our machines

TheTik•3/7/24, 1:30 PM

Grease the carriage, oil the rail, to be clear

smeekOP•3/7/24, 1:34 PM

@TheTik thanks for replying! i have Lithium grease i can use on the carriage, and the only 'oil' i have is WD40-PTFE High Performance lubricant?

TheTik•3/7/24, 1:34 PM

Sounds great

smeekOP•3/7/24, 1:36 PM

great, thank you! regarding cleaing with IPA, shall i remove the carriage and let it soak for a few minutes or i can attack it with degreaser?

TheTik•3/7/24, 1:39 PM

I'm lazy and would let it soak

smeekOP•3/7/24, 1:41 PM

i can get onboard with your style sir, thank you again

smeekOP•3/7/24, 1:41 PM

i'll keep the thread open until i've done it and follow up with progress for archive purposes

RRBender•3/7/24, 3:46 PM

Are they crunchy while not mounted?

smeekOP•3/7/24, 3:52 PM

less so

RRBender•3/7/24, 4:01 PM

Then it is not an issue with the rails or carriages itself, it's an issue with the gantry not being straight or the two rails/carriages not being in one plane.

RRBender•3/7/24, 4:02 PM

You can test that by loosening the screws on the gantry joiner plates that connect to the rail carriages, if it gets better with loose screws, it's mis-aligned.

smeekOP•3/7/24, 4:11 PM

great tip - thank you i will try that, shall i loosen the belts prior or just loosen the screws as is?

RRBender•3/7/24, 4:21 PM

Ye, best is to test without belts to feel it better. If you give it a push, it should still "roll" a little further and not stop right away.

smeekOP•3/7/24, 4:28 PM

okay - detach the belts from the front and back and remove them from the x gantry assembly entierly?

RRBender•3/7/24, 4:32 PM

Doesn't really matter how you do it as long as the Gantry can move freely. Did you do Step 15 here? https://ratrig.dozuki.com/Guide/06.+X-Axis+Assembly/139?lang=en#s962

Rat Rig

06. X-Axis Assembly

smeekOP•3/7/24, 4:41 PM

i did, and it was free and didn't stop the moment i let go, there was a moment or free movement

RRBender•3/7/24, 5:25 PM

If it moved freely and it didn't get worse after tightening the gantry joiner plate screws it was probably aligned right. But you said it was less crunchy when not installed?

RRRBender If it moved freely and it didn't get worse after tightening the gantry joiner pl...

smeekOP•3/7/24, 5:31 PM

correct, so it may very well be misaligned

zJark•3/7/24, 5:39 PM

How old is your kit? My kit is from about 5/-23 230h run time. 3 rails are flaking their nickel coating ,that ofcourse means that it ends up in carriage and gives all kind of headaches. Ratrig told me "The flakes are from an extra coating of nickel plating we've been experimenting with. Most linear rails on the market don't have this coating, but we tried to add it as an extra protection against corrosion. It looks like the idea comes with some drawbacks, and sometimes the coating starts to peel under the pressure of the bearings. "
They have given up with nickelcoating by now. Apparently it was failure.

zJark•3/7/24, 5:42 PM

This z-rail is extremely rough

RRBender•3/7/24, 5:42 PM

Yeah, the rails in the Kits are not good in general, lots of reports of crappy rails. I also had one that started shedding metal flakes after 2 hours of runtime or so, and was completely dead after like 8 more hours.

RRBender•3/7/24, 5:43 PM

Question is, is it because the rails are just crap or if it's binding because frame not straight, gantry not straight etc.

zJark•3/7/24, 5:49 PM

Answer is that it is poorly executed coating-experiment. I'm currently chatting with their customer service and try to get new rails from warrenty (quote from ratrig "Under EU law, the V-Core 3.1, including the extra add-on components, is covered by a standard European 3-year limited warranty.")
Premium coreXY machine , as they call it, should have motionsystem components that lasts more that couple of hours.
I suggest you contact them.

zJark•3/7/24, 5:53 PM

My failure rate is 5/6. Only right Y-rail feels and sound about normal.

RRBender•3/7/24, 6:01 PM

Other ones are okay (not good) so far. Yeah, some parts in the kits are not the best. ...

RRBender•3/7/24, 6:02 PM

I didn't bother contacting them because I had a spare rail from the gantry (because I got an MGN9 for the gantry) so I just used that as replacement.

smeekOP•3/8/24, 6:28 PM

Mine was given to me with less than 100hrs print time on it but it was left as the previous owner bought a P1S shortly after and didn't want to deal with it anymore. I think mine isn't square anymore as I've just added a concrete slab under it to reduce the vibrations and it doesn't sit flush, left hand corner is slightly lifted. Any tips on squaring it up whilst it's built or so I need to strip it down completely and start again?

smeekOP•3/8/24, 6:28 PM

Would make sense to the crunchy Y as well if the frame isn't square

TheTik•3/8/24, 7:25 PM

You can slightly loosen the joiner plates and bump bits around

TheTik•3/8/24, 7:26 PM

See what is actually not square, don't just make it sit flat. The feet might be different heights even

smeekOP•3/8/24, 7:35 PM

thanks @TheTik

blacksmithforlife•3/8/24, 8:41 PM

take a look at the pinned video in #fix-my-mesh too to get some idea of what to adjust to affect the squareness

'Crunchy' Y-Axis Rails - V3.1 300

Similar Threads

Similar Threads

Similar Threads