Hello, my J1 has developed a squeaky left extruder. It is particularly notable when it is printing on the front left quarter of the bed, but non existent on the right side of the bed, front or back. I have greased all the rail groves where the bearings run with white lithium grease but this has not resolved the issue.
Does anyone have any thoughts, or managed to solve this same issue? There doesn’t appear to be any rubbing elsewhere with the PTFE tubing or other components, it definitely sounds like the rails/bearings are dry. I’m a bit puzzled by this.
Where exactly did you apply the grease? I’m not sure how that would help as the belt doesn’t contact the extruder, except in the fixed position. The noise is now no longer confined to an area of the bed and appears more general.
EDIT: I think I discovered the source, the PTFE tubing that leads into the extruder. I pulled it out of the swivel guide and the squeak resolved.
EDIT2: No it didn’t it’s back! Sigh!
EDIT3: I’m now wondering if it is a result of using the incorrect grease viscosity, I see in a thread by i3sven a specific viscosity may be required for the bearings. I have previously used grease supplied for my prusa i3 rails.
Viscosity should not be much of a problem - NLGI class 2 is the standard for linear rails, but NLGI 1 works as well. You just need to be cautious when it comes to NLGI class 0 or 00 - the first one may cause a chemical reaction when mixed with other viscosities if my information is correct, and the second one just tends to drop out of your linear rails.
Since you seem to have temporarily cured the issue with removing the PTEF tubing: might the swivel guide cause the noise? It only has a rather minimal distance towards the housing at the top
Completely pulling the tubing away from the extruder so a large length of filament is exposed seems to stop the guide from swiveling, and eliminated the squeak, but my print is finishing up now, so it might need further testing.
Maybe your situation is different but my printer also made a squeeking sound when printing over a specific area. I suppose it was the contact/alignment between the pulley and the belt that created the squeeking sound. At first I also thaught it came from the extruder but it was the pulley.
Anyways, I just put a little bit of grease on my finger and smudged it on the tooth-side of the belts (left and right side).
Thanks @Rwide, by listening closely it’s coming from the extruder for sure. I’m 99.9% sure it’s either the swivel guide, or the tubing rubbing against something.