CAN Bed Carriage wheels wear out

HELLO I have about a 1 year old Ender 3 Pro. In that year I know i printed cpl things every week. I just installed a Extender 300XL kit. I noticed today the carriage wheels were "loose". I tightened the nut and then the wheels against the 4040 extruded. No matter how tight or thinking closest to the extruded, the carriage still seems to have a small movement it shouldnt. I wonder if the outer diameter of the carriage wheels are to blame. The printer is used hard. If I have to get new wheels, any type material I should shoot for?

Polycarbonate or PC is a better material to use for the V-wheels. Ones like these: SIMAX3D[13pcs/Pack] 3D Printer Wheel,Clear POM Polycarbonate Roller 626zz, wear-Resistant/Silent/Burr-Free for Creality CR10, Ender 3, Anet A8, Artillery X1 Upgrade Accessories: Amazon.com: Industrial & Scientific

But the better solution for a commonly used printer and especially for the bed is to convert to linear rails and guides. These will perform a lot better and last a whole lot longer than any V wheel you will find. And they bolt directly to the aluminum extrusion so all you will need is to make pieces to bolt the cars to your bed. You can get good quality rails and cars here: Motion Constrained | Hiwin Linear Motion Guide Rail and Block Store

The HIWIN stuff is true CNC grade stuff and it will blow your mind at how utterly smooth the action is with light preload. The same is sadly not true with any other brand. I made a short video displaying this and how awesome they are right here: Genuine HIWIN linear guides - YouTube

AW So it is possible they wore down enough to cause the concentric adjusters to have little proper effect?ALSO If I do go the Linear rail option, I would need two of them because I now have 4040 extruded the heat bed carriage rides on?

Yes. 2 rails and 4 cars..

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/xq90/924/HdfP4Q.jpg

I mounted mine to the top of the extrusion and made a carriage to sit under the oem carriage..

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/xq90/923/o7bMpt.jpg

And then the bed mounts to that. Everything fits snugly together on it's own before any hardware goes in. This way there will be no deflection under load and inertia away from where the drive belt is..

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/xq90/923/HUgXAn.jpg

In my specific design I put the 2 linear rails on top of the extrusion and then on top of that I made a thick carriage that sits under the bed carriage. All this came at a cost of build height and I think if I had mounted the rails to the sides of the extrusion I could have gotten the bed to sit a bit lower and ultimately enjoyed a greater build volume.

Sweet machine

Thank you. I would love to tell you it's story on how it got to the HIWINS if you got a minute. I feel it is relevant. So this printer looked more like this when I first built it in 2017..

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/xq90/922/T2YyZ5.jpg

I know there are many but one of the bigger problems for the Tevo Black Widow was the mini V-wheels used for Z. They were mounted on the inside of the 8020 extrusion in the cutout where the leadscrew was. This made making adjustments impossible when everything is together and assembled. There is just no good way to get to the adjuster nuts. Here is what those mini V-wheels on the end of the stock Black Widow gantry look like..

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/xq90/923/51yZQk.jpg

There was a kit made by 3Dvice.co called an 'outer Z wheel kit' that used bigger plates and mounted the wheels on the outside of the frame. This made adjustments so much easier and also used the bigger wheels that had more meat on them. Here is that kit installed on the gantry..

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/xq90/924/U3gNqR.jpg

Here is the difference in wheel size..

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/xq90/924/bE18ze.jpg

Pretty noticeable, huh? Well even with all this there is still deflection. Z banding if I put the leadscrew in a bearing on both ends. And they still take wear. The linear rails and guides are metal on metal. Keep them oiled and they will last indefinitely. And they have zero deflection. Well the good ones, anyways. The cheap ones do this..

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/xq90/923/1I6aVq.jpg

I have had a few different solutions on this printer before I ended up with these. I could have saved and just started off with these. But beware. there is nothing like HIWIN out there. Everything else isn't just machined to lesser tolerances, it is also made from a less pure metal. Here is a side by side comparison of the genuine HIWIN rail and a ali/ebay/any other rail..

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/xq90/922/OOAFCS.jpg

HIWIN will make you happy. As soon as you're done choking on the price that is.

when I saw they "custom cut to length" I paused thinking im sure its the best. I WILL look into them Thank You

another alternative is to go the original prusa I3 route and fit a couple of steel rods either side of the bed and use linear guides.
Cheap and almost as effective as the rails.

But yeah, the sideways wheels on a piece of centra extrusion, was never a good idea, just a cheap and -barely - functional one.

The tyre material can wear out, the bearings can wear and the slightest imperfection on the extrusion will effect the bed's level and smoothness.
The central mount wuth zero support for the edges of the bed can cause tilting.
It was never a sound piece of engineering.

Rods and liner bearings wouild be my choice.
But unlike autowiz, I have to take cost into account :-)

The problem with a Ender 3Pro and ender extender 300xl kit, its no longer a ender 3. I have a lot of DIY to see what dimensions are out there for my now enlarged frame. I have some info on linear rails but I have to see how would place rails as mainboard box still in stock location. I saw these ( sorry for long hyperlink, dont know how to do it in one word) 1 set Creality CR 10 Y axis Hiwin original MGN12H linear rails kit For Creality CR 10S 3D Printer|3D Printer Parts & Accessories| - AliExpress Just a thought

well autowiz would probably say they are too cheap.

Me, I'm cheap, so I reckon they'd do a pretty decent job :-)

I've got cheap linear rails on my sapphire pro - and they're awesome.

CA What do you think of those tubular rails I see??

The $84.00 doesn't seem too bad but $64.00 shipping ouch.

Ya I steered away from those when saw shipping