Hello, recently bought a KE and am having issues printing away from the centre of the build plate, and upon closer inspection I notice the linear rod for the Y-axis on the right hand side has just a small amount of play where it’s supported at the front of the printer (when I pull up on the rod it makes a small clicking sound and there is a small amount of visible movement).
It’s just supported by the plastic housing of the based it seems. I have tightened all the screws around it however there doesn’t seem to be a way to secure it better and I’m also not sure how I can ensure it is/stays level.
Has anyone else with this model experienced a similar issue? Other than replacing this linear roads with linear rails is there any other ways to eliminate the play in the rod?
I’ve read of a few people that have had rod issues, there is no adjustment, contacting support for new rods is the only route, other than a rail conversion.
+1 @Bonfireman but make sure to take a video and send it along with your replacement request. Make sure you compress that video to a very small size otherwise they won’t/can’t open it. Ask me how I know
I’m not sure replacement rods will fix this or not, will have to tinker a little and see if I can figure out what the issue really is. Meanwhile ended up getting a nasty blob that swallowed up the whole hotend (omg!), broke a few wires trying to extract them so ordering a new hotend now too.
Ouch, touch wood I have only had meltdowns on my Ender 5 Plus, that too needed new thermistor and heater to get working again…touch wood it has been trouble free for about a year except for a stepper motor cable to the MicroSwiss hotend, developed a fault, its a little extension cable that is quite exposed.
Both front screws on my Ender 3 V3 SE were too short by exactly 0.5 mm and thus were not applying any pressure on the Y axis rods. Some folks are utilizing a grub screw (no head ) so that they can now insert it deeper to apply pressure on the rod.
I had spare longer screws that were slightly longer than the OEM screws; be careful to make sure that if you are going to get a longer screw that the bottom of the bed plate will clear it; there isn’t much room to spare!
Also don’t excessively snug down the new screw because chances are you will be pulling out the brass threaded fitting when the longer replacement screw starts pushing against the rod.
Very easy for anyone else to see if they have the same issue with screws not applying pressure on the rods. If the base of the head of the screw is 100% flush with the plastic housing (no gap) then those screws are not touching the rods.
When I had the screws out and peered into the hole with a light; there appears that maybe the intent was to have some bushing in place at the very end of those rods and maybe that screw would secure the bushing in place.
Will Creality confirm what the intent of those screws were for?
This is great info, thanks for replying. I still haven’t taken this apart to see how the rods are supported but your description of the problem might make perfect sense. So maybe I just need to find some slightly longer set screws. Do you know what threads these screws use?
The fitted screws are M3x4.0 so an M3x5.0 tickled down with a file would work but the M3x5.0 grub screw would be easier. I have just replaced mine with M3x5.0 grub screws, just to have a look, not that I had any movement even with no screws fitted. It would appear that Creality need to look at the their tolerance analysis. All is still rock solid, the grub screws is a good call.
Mine are flush and the right rod has a bit of play but that’s in the back. The front is secure. Maybe that screw was not intended to compress the rod but maybe pass through a hole in the rod?
