I am curious how often do you service the linear rails on the 3D-printer:
- How often do you lubricate them (MGN9 or MGN12)?
- How do you lubricate them?
- What volume of lube do you use?
Explanation of how often you should do it (HIWIN Lubricating instructions for linear guideways and ballscrews)
Most 3D-printer use MGN12. Reading the HIWIN documentation they shall be lubricated every 20-50km (depends on a lot of factors).
How much is 50km in print time? Assuming an average speed of 300mm/s that would be approx. 46 hours!
In other words, the generic MGN12H carriage needs 1-2 times per week maintenance.
How much lube is suggested (horizontal mounting)? 70µL for MGN12H. For MGN9H it is 30µL!
If I’m honest? probably nowhere near enough.
The 46 hours is assuming it moves at 300mm/s on that axis for 46 hours, which just isn’t the case.
I say this, but as a ballpark figure this is still useful. Even if typical prints probably take longer than that to reach 50km on an axis, that still tells me I certainly don’t lubricate them as often as I should.
Maybe that’s something printer firmwares could one day be modified to calculate and warn the user about.
Marlin has this feature (time based) but most manefacturer didn’t enabled it.
Duet doesn’t have it
Klipper doesn’t (has a time counter so you could implement it easily).