After your machine is up and running, you need to keep it in good shape…
1-7 Lubrication
Supplying insufficient lubrication to the guideway will greatly reduce the service life due to an increase in rolling friction. The lubricant provides the following functions; ï‚¢ Reduces the rolling friction between the contact surfaces to avoid abrasion and surface burning of the guideway. ï‚¢ Generates a lubricant film between the rolling surfaces and decreases fatigue. ï‚¢ Anti-corrosion .
1-7-1 Grease
Linear guideway must be lubricated with the lithium soap based grease before installation. After the linear guideway is installed, we recommend that the guideway be re-lubricated every 100 km. It is possible to carry out the lubrication through the grease nipple. Generally, grease is applied for speeds that do not exceed 60 m/min faster speeds will require high-viscosity oil as a lubricant.
1-7-2 Oil
The recommended viscosity of oil is about 32~150cSt. The standard grease nipple may be replaced by an oil piping joint for oil lubrication. Since oil evaporates quicker than grease, the recommended oil feed rate is approximate 0.3cm3/hr.
Mini Grease Gun Bulk Loading One Hand Operation All Purpose Bike Boat Machinery
Amazon Multipurpose lithium grease
Our ball screws and linear bearings are typically knock-offs of HIWIN parts, so we are referring to those instructions for lubrication.
All information is taken from this HIWIN manual
The bearings are lubricated with grease to their grease nipples / zerks. The required grease is general purpose white lithium grease. It must not contain any solid particles like Molybdenum disulfide (MOS2) or graphite. It’s consistency should be declared as NLGI 2.
If you are not sure if a specific grease is suitable you can look for a specification according to DIN51502 which could read e.g.:
KP2K or K2K
which means (more info here):
K: Grease is for ball bearings, this is mandatory
P: This letter is totally optional, it means there are (liquid) additives for high load in the grease. It is important that there is no letter F in this position or between P and 2 which would mean there are solid particles in the grease.
2: This is the NLGI consistency. In generall NLGI 2 is recommended although some of the officially recommended greases are NLGI 1
K: This last letter is the upper operation temperature limit. Minimum is E (80°C), K is 120°C, Letter further down the alphabet are higher temperatures.
For the linear rails the amount of grease per relubrication is 0.5cm³, for the ball screws it is 0.2cm³ for 1204 and 0.8cm³ for 1604. In general, one pump action per bearing is enough. For the initial lubrication it is recommended to first lubricate, then move the carriage at least 2x its length and repeat that 2 times (or more if there is no visible trace of grease on the rail afterwards).
The grease fittings are easy to break off. Be careful to not exert high forces on them with a lever action grease gun. If your grease gun has a screw type coupler you need to rotate it to loosen it in order to fit over the grease fitting before and after applying the grease. A quick release coupler with a lever to unlock makes this easier
DIY CNC Lubrication Kit- For Linear rails & Ballscrews- Part 2 of 2