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

[Geoff]

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.....

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.