FFCP: About to install new z axis rod & motor. Installation steps or tips?

It looks like it will be a relatively straight forward procedure honestly. I am having the z axis rod and motor replaced under warranty from flashforge on my creator pro, but I told them I would do the install myself rather than to send it in and wait.

Anyone have install instructions or any general tips from those that have done this before?

I guess what I am asking is that I don't know if I am going to have to re-calibrate the steps per mm for z height in firmware, or if the placement and tension on the installation is so fine tuned that I may cause serious print issues if I don't do the install correctly, or God knows what.

It looks it could a relatively plug and play repair and installation(well kinda), but I could be way wrong.....

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Originally Posted by Grindeddown

It looks like it will be a relatively straight forward procedure honestly. I am having the z axis rod and motor replaced under warranty from flashforge on my creator pro, but I told them I would do the install myself rather than to send it in and wait.

Anyone have install instructions or any general tips from those that have done this before?

I guess what I am asking is that I don't know if I am going to have to re-calibrate the steps per mm for z height in firmware, or if the placement and tension on the installation is so fine tuned that I may cause serious print issues if I don't do the install correctly, or God knows what.

It looks it could a relatively plug and play repair and installation(well kinda), but I could be way wrong.....

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It is relatively easy, and no you shouldn't need to recalibrate anything if you are using the same sort of rod as the previous one.

If it's like my old one, the threaded rod comes attached already to the stepper motor, so you will need to do it in the following order...

1. Unscrew all the screws on the top panel, remove the top panel (JUST the top panel) and the two covers of the top of each 8mm smooth rods (if you have them, old wooden one does)
2. Push hot end to the front of the machine and get it out of the way.
3. Unlplug the Heatbed. With both hands lift the hot bed (the entire gantry, both black arms) (forcing the steppers to turn obviously) and keep going slowly until you get it off the machine, put it aside.
4. Flip the machine, remove the bottom plate, remove the stepper motor and threaded rod you need to replace. Unplug its power, unscrew it, etc you know what do do.
5. Hot bed goes on easily, just hold it with one hand and slide it just over the two smooth rods, turn the threaded rod with your fingers to manually move the bed down into the machine.

If it's like mine, there is 4 bearings , 2 on either side of the threaded rod, once both are over the smooth rods, just push down and it will go into the machine, don't be afraid of pushing or pulling it. It's a single threaded rod, it will move fine - Prusa and other machines with 2 threaded rods, you can't do this, so yeah it's ok on a flashforge, you won't break anything - you can turn the thing manually by fingers if you really want to be gentle until its in the machine. The printer will find the end stops anyway and stop where it's supposed to when you reboot the thing.

Thank you very much sir, you're the man! Yeah the rod is attached directly to the motor.

Yeah it looks relatively simple, but I know that sometimes with these machines, even the simple looking stuff can be quite the adventure haha.

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Originally Posted by Grindeddown

Thank you very much sir, you're the man! Yeah the rod is attached directly to the motor.

Yeah it looks relatively simple, but I know that sometimes with these machines, even the simple looking stuff can be quite the adventure haha.

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Really, it's been the easiest machine of mine to maintain and pretty much from now on the only machines I will buy are in that configuration or a Kossel configuration because things are so easy to get to.

I love the look of the Flashforge Dreamer, the Finder... but they are enclosed cases. I don't believe this technology is at the point where it's so good you never need to do anything or open it up (I mean, just take a look at Makerbot 5th gen issues people have had.. They have to just remove the entire "smart" extruder and replace it - very expensive, not alot of maintenance options for $4000-$5000

I want a dumb extruder! one that really doesn't care about anything other than getting hot and squirting plastic out a nozzle!

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Originally Posted by Geoff

Really, it's been the easiest machine of mine to maintain and pretty much from now on the only machines I will buy are in that configuration or a Kossel configuration because things are so easy to get to.

I love the look of the Flashforge Dreamer, the Finder... but they are enclosed cases. I don't believe this technology is at the point where it's so good you never need to do anything or open it up (I mean, just take a look at Makerbot 5th gen issues people have had.. They have to just remove the entire "smart" extruder and replace it - very expensive, not alot of maintenance options for $4000-$5000

I want a dumb extruder! one that really doesn't care about anything other than getting hot and squirting plastic out a nozzle!

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Yeah the ease of which you can provide maintenance for the machine is such a huge draw for me. You're right too, I think that the enclosed case style really isn't gonna work just yet. I can see why they would do it so that people who are new to 3D printing have to get their warrant, parts, support, etc from the company. The problem is that FDM printing isn't ready for that kind of ecosystem just yet. There are just so many freaking nuances!

Thanks again for the help btw. Cheers to easy-to-maintain machines! ��

So I have a few Flashforge/PowerSpec/Monoprice dual extruder printers. My z axis nut stripped out and ordered an entire z axis assembly..so the above steps will greatly help swapping it out. A day later another one of my printers z axis nuts stripped out. Now bare in mind that my printers run for upwords of 18-20 hours a day...every day. So they are work horses for me. Now I have 2 questions:

#1 Where can I purchase just the z axis nut from US?
#2 Other than using lithium grease on all the rails...how do I stop the damn squeaking and going from home bed position to ready to print position? As lithium grease has not proved to do anything for me and imagine 11 printers making such sounds LOL...not too pleasant.

Much thanks!!!