U-joint fail (Rostock MAX V1)

[DSteck]

Hey everyone! I recently finished (long overdue) my Rostock MAX V1 that I bought during Black Friday 2013. I went through the initial head banging of getting everything ready to print and finally successfully printed some ABS parts (not sticking to the bed was a huge issue... but thanks to Aquanet, it's all good). After about 20 hours worth of printing, I started noticing layer shifting after about 4mm, and then after 2mm, it would clear back up and recenter. It was bizarre that it would come back into alignment... I checked each carriage, tightened them up, checked for flat spots... No problems there.

Then things started to get worse. Layers would shift, then shift again, and it had serious problems with making the infill meet the perimeter. Holes were not laying in the correct spot relative to perimeters. Parts were getting ripped off the bed (normally, I have to really pry to get them off the bed after they're done). I couldn't get things to print worth a damn. Dimensionally, parts were just way off.

At this point, I had already put an E3D V6 hot end with 0.25mm stainless nozzle on order (which is awesome by the way) as well as the Trick Laser CF arms on order. When they arrived, I disassembled the arms and the platform from the machine. Upon disassembly, I found that three of the metal u-joints had completely seized onto the metal rod. Frankly, I have no idea how this thing was even able to move. One on the X carriage, one on the Y carriage, and one on the platform. I had to physically hammer a socket into them to get them off the rod. I stuck the rods in a drill and ran them against a Scotchbrite pad which allowed the u-joints to slide back on. None of that mattered anyway since I had the new CF arms, but I just wanted to see if the rods had been scored too bad for them to move.

Point being... check your joints if you have the metal ones! I have no idea how mine seized up like that in such a short time. Admittedly, there was no lubricant on there, but I still can't believe it.

[teoman]

Yep, that happened to me aswell.

Now they are well lubricated and the problem seems to be solved. If you do not put any lubircation, it will become a recurring problem every 6 months (depending on how much you print and humidity levels where you live).

[geneb]

You might want to get a set of the new injection molded u-joints. Problem goes away.

g.

[DSteck]

I already have the Trick Laser arms, so I'm good now.

[Shizuma]

I had the same problem on mine, it was maybe a year into having it, so I took them off and used a dry Teflon lube on them and it seemed fine, till I started having problems again 1-2 months down the line. Most of them were seized, one was seized to the point that it may as well been welded into place, I was never able to get it off the rod, the rod bent trying to get it off and it still didn't budge at all so I also went to the tricklaser arms. Those joints are probably the one main bad design on the printer, at very least they should have been a self lubricating brass, but the ball joint design is definitely better in design, reliability and ease of assembly.

[DSteck]

Now that I have everything dialed in with the new E3D V6 and the carbon fiber arms, prints come out perfect with no shifting. It's amazing how much of a difference there is now.