Maintaining Your Prusa 3D Printer: STEP BY STEP!

[@XatxiFly]

All great information efficiently presented, thanks very much! I learned a lot. I wouldn't have even been sure whether it was safe to turn the printer sideways!

[@3DMusketeers]

Yep you can technically print at any angle you want lol

[@jimmyjohansson84]

I'd strongly suggest to place a paper towel or something on the bed, or holding the paper underneath while applying lubrication. Sure, it can be cleaned off, but one missed drop of lubricant on the bed and fun days figuring out why stuff doesn't stick anymore will be ahead! (I usually use a spray lubricant and hold a paper towel like a U around the rod so I don't get any splash on anything. Even the belts might slip if lubed!)

[@3DMusketeers]

That's a great idea! Good thinking! We've seen this before from people, oil on the bed means no stick!

[@Hachiro]

Thanks for the video! Got myself a Mk4 last month, and I'm loving it. Only have 2.5 days of printing on it so far, but like my car, I'm going to be doing maintenance on it more often than most. (I do engine oil changes every 3k miles. Overkill maybe, but I want to make sure it'll last during my ownership. Might help with resale value too, if I document everything)

[@snuups]

2000 Subscribers? Victoria has a growing fan base.

[@3DMusketeers]

Sounds about right LOL

[@erikwithaknotac]

To save time if you want to move the z axis. Just hold down the button and it immediately goes into z axis move mode. No going through the menu

[@3DMusketeers]

I do not think it did back when I filmed this video, but yes they do now! If it did, I forgot to show it ha ha!

[@Ben-wp5rx]

Thanks for the video, about after how many print hours do you do this process?

[@3DMusketeers]

every 500 - 1000 hours or as I see it pick up dust.

[@CarAudioInc]

you seem like a good dude, thanks for the video

[@samalmo]

Great video. Do you have a set routine for getting the printer all calibrated (like what calibrations to run before your ready to print) after you complete maintenance on?

[@3DMusketeers]

Run what prusa has, make sure my z offset is good, and then clean the bed with windex in preparation to print

[@alanb76]

I bought a MK3 when they came out, and used oils for a long time. They didn't last very long and picked up a lot of dust. Then I read more about linear bearings and saw the Misumi and Prusa recommended the thin grease. At least on older linear bearings you can get past the seals with a thin layer on the rods and re-grease the bearing without disassembly. It's not as good as a full disassembly perhaps but it is easy, is recommended by Prusa, and it works better than the oils for me (lasts a lot longer, collects a lot less dust, stays in the bearing and keeps it quiet longer). Either works as long as you use something. Happy Printing!

[@3DMusketeers]

When in doubt, lubricate! I found that grease collected more crap than a very light machine oil, but environments are all different.

[@dingdongdaddy589]

Multimillion dollar semiconductor equipment with similar linear rails and screws are always greased with something like Isoflex nbu15…

[@namiepham]

I may have missed it, but do you have links to the y tensioner and z lead screw STLs?

[@3DMusketeers]

you definitely did not miss it, seems we never put those in the video! I just added them! Thanks for pointing that out!

[@namiepham]

@@3DMusketeers awesome! Thanks! Love your content and quick response too. Keep it up! Subbed

[@3DMusketeers]

Thanks for your support! Project video Wednesday, one of our first, hope you like it! :) If you ever have ideas for videos or have an issue feel free to leave a comment somewhere, tag us on socials, or even email us, we have a public KZbin email :)

[@yannickhenschel8010]

If lubricating with oil do you still pack your bearing with something like superlube? Or is this a bad idea when using oil on the rods? If so do you also repack them after time?

[@3DMusketeers]

We repack on assembly, but have not done it as a measure of maintenance. If you are repacking the bearings as maintenance, you will not need to oil them.

[@FAB1150]

The One thing that confuses me is lubing it up, as everybody uses and recommends thin oils like sowing machine oil, except Prusa that specifically says to use the thicker lithium greases and not oils. I've already packed the bearing while assembling the printer, but that's a fair bit of work...

[@3DMusketeers]

I have NEVER liked lithium for this, I find it too thick personally. With the thin oils, AS LONG AS IT IS COMPATIBLE, it can get past the wiper and keep the bearing itself moving. As for their reason, I do not know, I have been using a setup like this for nearly a decade and it has served me well. I would be curious to see how it is done with lithium, its so thick... Yeah, re packing is a pain for sure, not worth it to me unless I am putting new ones on, and in that case the hard work is already required. There are some nice prints though for the top of super lube tubes to instantly pack the bearings nicely though.

[@alanb76]

@@3DMusketeers Early recommendations for oil that were made years ago are no longer suggested. Misumi recommends lithium grease. Prusa recommends and supplies lithium grease and gives procedures for re-greasing without disassembly that work well. Recently I've been using the special spray lithium grease that was also recommended for the garage door opener tracks on new linear rail sliders instead of packing them. Nero and others have shown that in use. It doesn't have to be full packed, you want the balls to flow through after all. Oil works but it must be done much more often and attracts a lot more dust. Thanks for your content.

[@jed2055]

@@alanb76 What you said....

[@mrjackson2k]

You should open the idler door and clean that area out too, it gets full of strings and dust.

[@3DMusketeers]

OOOH YES! Good idea!

[@chrishead4123]

Beat upgrades, capricorn bowden tube, All metal hotend, TH3D textured pei flexplate.

[@3DMusketeers]

I mean, clearly not to a Prusa? Or are you cutting a piece of capricorn tubing for a prusa? I figured the All Metal Hotend was a clear "not for prusa" lol

[@chrishead4123]

@@3DMusketeers Yeah no way Prusa. Good printer but not for the price. Over priced IMHO. I can buy a printer with more features for $65.

[@3DMusketeers]

Similar to how Apple is popular because it just works, Prusa fits that category (even for me as an avid android user) in the 3D space. Sure, it is more expensive than, say, an ender 3, but you dont need to do ANYTHING to it. They just work, and they work amazingly well. As a business, we could not deal with a bunch of ender printers, they are simply not reliable enough and require so many upgrades that at some point it is a bit moot especially when you consider your time to do them all. We are planning a series on upgrading the Ender 3 though, as we do want to see how close we have to get to a prusa to give it a run for it's money with as close to identical settings as possible.

[@FAB1150]

@@chrishead4123 i come from an old (very upgraded) Anet A8, an ender 3 and another $300 one I don't remember the brand of. Let me tell you, the prusa was absolutely worth the money. It's a bit steep, sure, but it works very well right out of the box, and it's actually fun to work on, without requiring the hours of frustration that come with the other ones. I might have spent more money on upgrading the other three printers than on the unmodified mk3s+ itself... And the prusa prints way better than any of them. It's not the fastest, not the highest quality, it doesn't have the best firmware... But it's _almost_ all of them in one package, it's a great all-rounder. Plus it has arguably the best software support and it's actually fun to build.

[@jed2055]

@@chrishead4123 Printer farm = Prusa. Game over Chris.

[@stones-ds1yy]

Great video thank you. If anyone from the U.K can recommend some lubricant it would be appreciated

[@3DMusketeers]

Super Lube is what prusa recommends you use, but then you have to re pack the bearings. Any sewing machine oil should do the trick :)

[@prongATO]

Nano oil is my jam.. I’ll use that for my mini..

[@3DMusketeers]

never heard of nano oil...

[@jed2055]

I get it that you have a printer farm and know a hell of a lot more than me. Me, who doesn't own a 3D printer BUT a guy who has sold thousands of Prusa printers told me grease is better but not just any grease or the two you mentioned in the video. Nope, it's a special grease and he gave the reasons why it is better. He was an aircraft mechanic in the airforce and knows stuff. The grease he uses now is super fine and he imports it from the US. So you Americans can get it easier and cheaper. What is it? Sorry, I don't know but it is low-tack, super-fine and food grade. It's expensive for the amount you get but he swears by it after using it now for over 3 years. He also has a printer farm. Oil leaks out over time and leaves material and a residue inside the bearing which then "allows" these tiny sub millimetre bearings to stick to each other; something you definitely do not want. Flat spots yeah, all part of the problem using oils. Use the product Prusa recommends because they know what works best and have 900 printers, 500 of them working 24/7 in its Czechoslovakian factory. I reckon they would know quite a bit about lubrication.

[@3DMusketeers]

Oh yeah, I dont disagree, BUT if you dont want to take the damn thing completely apart, sewing machine oil works just fine. Super Lube, which is what Prusa recommends I believe, is great, and when we do FULL teardowns we absolutely use it, however for in-between maintenance we use oil. You can choose otherwise. I will say, we only have one machine with a flat spot, and that was from accidentally not re lubing it after cleaning everything out. Easy enough fix though and everything is working. And to be clear, I am not saying this is any better, this is what we do and it works well.

[@DiomedesDominguez]

Are you still hiring?

[@3DMusketeers]

for engineers, no we are not. But we have openings on the media side of the company

[@chrishead4123]

Where is your discord?

[@3DMusketeers]

Only accessible via Patreon right now. We will eventually open it up, but for now, it is gated behind Patreon. We have seen other communities that will open up immediately and you get a fair bit of trolling, so hopefully this can help us find our core supporters, make mods out of them too so I don't have to spend my days policing shenanigans lol.

[@chrishead4123]

@@3DMusketeers I see, $10 is a bit much to chat on a discord server. I would like to see a public server with a private Patreon channel. You can even assign roles that can include patron members.

[@3DMusketeers]

We are not ready for that just yet, in the future, likely, but right now, Patreon only. We don't have enough mods yet for a public release lol.

[@k.fegleyvipergtsr20]

once a year or longer

[@3DMusketeers]

We do it based on print time every 750-1000 hours generally.

[@russnbish]

no subscribe

[@3DMusketeers]

um ok?