Evening fellas,
for the Z axis, do you grease / lube your leadscrews and smooth rods?
If yes, what do you use?
TIA
Depends on what lead screw and rods. Must use lithium grease but some are meant to use nothing or are self-lubricating. What printer do you have?
Im printing on a toolson mk2, based on a p3steel frame. Cartesian style.
I ordered some new hardened steel smooth rods
Does it use brass bushings for the Z rods like X and Y or recurculating ball bushings?
@Adam_Steinmark
No. Standard lm8uu. I also converted Y back to lm8uu. The brass bushings are only left on the x axis
Standard lithium grease should be fine then. You may want to double check with the manufacturer about the Z screws though, I couldn’t find any info on what type of lead nut is being used
The new ones I ordered use copper nuts, according to the Amazon description.
I have some Lithium grease here. Whats your opinion about gun oil?
“Copper” is a common translation error from Chinese, the nuts are usually brass. In either case, lithium grease is ok to use on spindles and will reduce friction, even for Delrin (black plastic) or IGUS Drylin (beige plastic) nuts.
I’ve put some ptfe grease (superlube) on mine, but most of it bunched up to the ends. Not sure if a liquid would be better.
I’m converting my p3steel to toolson (but tr8 z rods) and a Titan aero right now!
@Thomas_Sanladerer
Danke Thomas.
I assumed this. Common Chinglish 
Is it advised so also lubricate LM8UU’s? If yes, is lithium grease also suitable?
Greetings from Munich.
@raykholo
Yep, i also converted to tr8 rods. They seem more reliable to me
Lithium grease works great.
Agreed, the M5 were binding on me. Also were warped.
Do you know which thingiverse items you printed for the tr8?
I printed this: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1572575 and the remixed motor one which removes the indent at the bottom.
@raykholo
I printed these (21mm version), but reused the toolson x endstop
@Paul_Arnold lithium grease is usually ok for LM8UU, but at most you’ll be able to apply a thin layer to the rails as it’s quite hard to have it find its own way into the bearing. Some greases are actually thick enough to keep the bearing balls from circulating easily, which can become an issue in the super-light-load scenarios 3D printing poses.
Overall it doesn’t matter much, but a standard machine oil is also a good choice for LM8UU
LM bearings must be greased or oiled. Brass lead screw nuts should be greased or oiled. Either performs fine but grease lasts way longer. Yes, they push grease to the ends of the rods, that’s expected. Re-grease periodically. Either lithium grease or a synthetic like Superlube is fine; just don’t mix different grease types. I like Superlube because it’s food contact grade and totally safe to get on your hands.
Sintered bronze bushings should only be oiled. Typical igus polymers can be run dry, oiled, or greased.
Thank you guys!