Looking to replace the linear rods and bearings on my printer. I’ve used the cheap no-name brand ones for a while now and they always wear out and have a lot of slop, even new. Searched the net for info on brands and sources, but nothing very conclusive. Can anyone recommend some semi high quality replacements and/or sources(preferably U.S.)?
I don’t know of a good source for these, but have you considered linear motion guides? You can find 10mm wide ones on ebay for not a lot of money, sometimes, and they are permanent solutions: they should be able to go decades without wearing out, have next to zero flex, and can take loads hundreds of times that of linear shafts. They do require some redesign. but man they are nice. I use them on milling machines and production positioning devices for the semiconductor industry. THK and HiWin both make some pretty good ones.
I have thought about those, but would require some pretty fancy mods to my printer. I’m leaning towards brass bushings. But that still leaves me with finding some good quality shafts that are the right size. :S
When it comes to bearings and making them last longer our newly designed machined carriages for the bed and extruder are made from the same flat aluminum as the bed. Eliminating the warp from the stamped versions allows the bearings to line up nice and straight on the rods and greatly reduces the wear on them. The carriages glide much smoother as a result.
I would recommend 4E3D’s rods. I replaced my X & Y rods with ones from @Heath_Harper and got a 10 x 10" build plate leveled to ±.002" with a glass build surface on top…Can’t get better than that without lapping the surface.
