Sticky X axis, linear rail lube or something else?

I noticed that the X axis wasn’t very smooth - when I moved the carriage by hand it was kind of sticky in two specific locations. I think it’s gotten worse and yesterday it made awful sounds and something slipped because the X position skipped. Here’s some video: https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipPrrFIT1_m70LonvvVKr7YwF4Yu22276rE_vgO2CWSrtjY4DLIFlsYAQFSvADq2WA?key=Q1lHMXJDem5WTjdQWFpiQXM3eVNRclJfeU1neXlB

I took off the motor and pulley to make sure it wasn’t a bad motor or something with the belt, and it’s definitely just the X carriage on the rails that’s sticky. Around 25% from the left, and then the very right are the two trouble spots.

I found this thread on lubrication Rail and linear guide maintenance. That lube is gonna take 1-2 weeks to arrive. In the mean time has anyone else had this issue? My plan is to wipe out the rails and make sure they’re fully lubed, is that going to work?

The machine should come lubricated, and it should last longer than that — please contact us at support@carbide3d.com

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Thanks, I contacted support.

Our X axis is also ‘grabby’ in certain spots but was told by support this would not be an issue? Y axis is perfectly smooth in comparison though. :thinking:

The closer the rails the less tolerance allowed (X vs Y) and the longer the span the more give honestly in our extrusion frame. Motion will never be smooth by hand, The balls are overcoming the preload along with bumping into each other, caged balls carriages will move a bit smoother. While the motion under power should be smoother than by hand binding can still cause issues.

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I agree with William. That’s not right. Mine is smooth as silk across X and Y. It might not be a huge issue but I’d talk to C3D regarding it.
My old HDZ after about a year got to was sounding rough. Luke D’Lonra-Bonathan recommended some kind of special oil that I used to oil the bearing blocks and as soon as I did it went right back to normal.

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I have the same issue. I purchased some of the recommended oil, oiled the machine, and ran the machine a few times and it seems to be getting better. Carbide support said i may need to run the machine for a few months and it should get better. It seems to run pretty quiet when jogging but when running a job it is quite noisy.

Mine behaved in many of the same manners as yours during operation when I first received it. By chance, I went through and checked all of the x-axis wires. I discovered that I had one wire that was not attached at all to the connector. Another wire was seated in one of the metal tabs that fit in the connector, but the metal tab was not seated fully into the connector, and it made an intermittent connection. Once these were fixed, it took care of my problems while it is under power. With that being said, mine does occasionally “stick” slightly in random areas when it is moved by hand. Operation wise, it works great though. You probably already checked this, but in the off chance you have not, you might give each of your wires a tug to make sure they are seated.

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I’m emailing back and forth with Carbide support, they’ve been great. They had me remove the X/Z assembly and then re-check. Loosening that axis helped but didn’t resolve the situation. They asked how X and Y compare in stickiness so I took all the pulleys off and Y is silky smooth compared to X. I’ll update once we get further.

That’s a great point Gary. Whether or not there is a binding issue, there could also be intermittent wiring confusing the issue. I’ll check all the connector seatings after the mechanical debugging with C3D support.

Here’s what it looks like with X/Z loosened then removed https://photos.app.goo.gl/xM7uasM6MFd25y638

Yeah, that X movement looks and sounds terrible, hopefully support can get that resolved fairly quickly for you.

For comparison (while not a SO Pro) my modded SO3 is down for maintenance and had the belts off:
https://1drv.ms/u/s!Ali_AtWaDf1evPJix21nEKTA6ju1sg?e=6yeL5X

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Your videos are exactly what we have as well! I wonder if that’s why our cut quality might be poor.

Please contact us at support@carbide3d.com about this.

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Have. Said it is normal and that it shouldn’t be an issue.