Solved Bearing problem but solved it ROBO3d R1

So my Y was binding and I couldn't figure out why. removed the tension belt, then still felt the binding.... pulled it all apart (a lot of work IMO) and one of the bearings was bad. Replaced it with an extra I had on hand and VOILA! Good as new! I guess the fact that I built my own first 3d printer paid off, I had the extra bearings on hand to repair it... Would recommend people buying a few extras in case you need them in the future.... These should be parts available in the robo3d store, with directions on how to replace them...

 

Yea, one was so jammed when I pulled it off, some of the bearing balls fell out....Any 3d printer owner should have a few of these on reserve....

 

I think I might have a similar problem, maybe someone could weight in? Recently I started hearing weird sound from the x-axis (with some additional vibration). Here's a video showing my x-axis sound issue.



It doesn't always happen, but it seems to be more prevalent when it's moving fast in the x-direction. It doesn't appear that the carriage is getting stuck anywhere.

I've tried several things, such as cleaning the rods on which the x-carriage travels, and made sure the belt is nice and tight. Come to think of it, I remember seeing a little metal ball fall on top of the bed a while back, but had no idea where it came from at the time. Would a bad bearing explain the sound you're hearing?

 

Bad bearing may do that. Especially if you saw a ball fall out

 

I just ordered a set of LM8uu bearings off Amazon and will give it a shot.

If it's not the bearings, do you have any ideas of what the potential suspects could be? I can't recreate the sound issue when I move the x-axis manually by hand (either by the carriage of by pulling the belt). I did install the lead screw upgrade recently, but can't recall if the issue started happening around the same time or later. I don't think that is related.

I tried drastically decreasing the acceleration parameters (Accel=500, Vxy-jerk=9, and Amax-x=3400). The sound/vibration seemed to disappear, but I didn't try printing with these settings extensively. The print time increased about two-fold with the values I used.

I have a feeling that the sound/vibration is caused when the x axis is moving back and forth. I'm not very mechanically inclined, but I was thinking (or at least hoping) that a bad bearing is the smoking gun.

Thank you for your help!