It seems that one of the bearings has failed on the Z axis. I spent some time tonight cleaning/lubing it to see if there was some sort of grit/object/obstruction that could be worked out. It did not improve. A more in depth cleaning would require disassembly, but I want that to wait until I have parts to replace them.
It will not home, so it has been taken out of service. We do not have the need spare part(s), so I am trying to get them ordered tonight, so they would be here over the weekend.
If anyone happens to have a LMK12LUU flanged bearing you have laying around please let me know.
Good news I found some bearing that could be here by sat. I was able to take the Ultimaker apart tonight to verify I could access the bearings. And a last ditch effort to flush the bearings to see if it could be working again short term.
With the shafts off the machine I was able to review them. One of the shafts has deteriorated to the point chrome plating is flaking off. I will not be able to source shafts by this weekend and I will be out of town for 2 weeks.
I will review the new bearings on the existing shaft(s) for the short term. We may be able limp along until replacements can arrive.
12 mm shafts of various lengths are available overnight or 2nd day free shipping from Amazon. Any reason we can’t order a longer one and cut it down to fit?
I have not had a ton of time to research the rods since I found out they were bad last night.
Your idea is a perfectly valid option. I have never researched linear rod quality, so anything we get will be a shot in the dark from amazon. If they work great. If they don’t we will have to find a better option. It would just impact quality of the prints.
I have sat to work on it. Then I will be out of town. I have not had a chance to talk to anyone other than Christian since he was sitting there.
I was going to check out a better quality bearing/rod supplier since this is our best printer. I was looking at https://us.misumi-ec.com/ they seem to be highly rated. I do not have time to reserch anything until after work today. Paying the extra to overnight it might be acceptable. First you have to figure out what you are going to order.
I can recommend Thomson as a high quality manufacturer of linear slides and bearings.
Here’s the relevant Amazon listing for a 12mm x 500mm rod ($15.18) that you can overnight for an extra $11 or get it on Sunday for no extra charge:
I don’t know how much work it is to put it back together, but a replacement rod of unknown quality (certainly good enough for temporary use) would run us around $13 with free 2 day shipping, or $20-ish overnight. And there also might be a 12 mm rod on the bottom shelf in the ERP lab, under where the multimeters are kept. I’d check, but I just left there.
Okay, scratch that. I just found a shaft in my garage that looks to be a 12 mm that’s about 20 inches long. If I can find a proper caliper, I’ll double-check it, and will drop it off later today if it correct. I’ll also report back here as soon as I verify the diameter.
Regarding all the rods in the ERP lab, I think there is some that are 10 or 12mm, but I don’t think any that are left will have a 13" section free of screw holes or lock rings.
I have an update, but it is not good new. I replaced the bearings on the machine, and it moved much better, but when reassembling everything the state was the same.
Zac the fab lab assistance continued investigating tonight and found that the wiring on the z axis had been over heating.
The ultimaker will be down until the controller can be sorted out. There is a question about what damage was caused by the heat. If the board can be repaired or we can swap to the second extruder controller. We may be able to get up and going sooner. There are several EE’s at the space that can help make the determination of safety.
As soon as I have any new information I will pass it along.
FYI, after some work on the control board (thanks christian) the ultimaker runs under it’s own power again. I was not able to finish reassembling the parts this weekend. We also need to add additional cooling to the control board, so this does not happen again. It is my goal to finish assembling and testing, so it is back in service this weekend.
