Re-lubricating the Carriage Guide Rail - Epson ET-8550

[Ansley]

Hello everyone!

I was wondering if it is possible to re-lubricate the carriage guide rail on my ET-8550?

If it is possible, I have two main questions:

1. What type of lubricant is recommended
2. What is the best application method?

Any tips would be greatly appreciated, thank you!

 

[Epatcola]

A service manual is viewable here (or was if it isn't there when you look)

 

[Ansley]

A service manual is viewable here (or was if it isn't there when you look)

Thank you for the link to the manual. I looked in the manual at the parts regarding the rail, maintenance and cleaning but could not find anything that answered my questions unfortunately.

 

[PeterBJ]

The manual from Scribd seems to work, but there are a lot of advertising breaks and after the breaks pages are very slow to load. I only had patience to check the first 30 pages.

I looked for a downloadable and free version but found none. A commercial download of the service manual is available here at $9.90 and the parts catalog here at $1.20.

 

[Epatcola]

There are sites which can download pdfs from scribd. This one for example.

The lubrication section starts on page 161. The carriage rail needs a little under 2g of Epson G-97 grease which looks like it is white lithium based probably lower viscosity than typical and possibly with added PTFE.

There is a diagram showing where on the rail it needs to go, but, not much useful instruction on how to put it there.

 

[The Hat]

The carriage rail needs a little under 2g of Epson G-97 grease which looks like it is white lithium based

I use this stuff on my 3D printers..

 

[ice-t]

Hi Ansley, i use normal silicone spray for my Epson 1500W ( i have a few 1000 prints in 10 years ) ( Pharmacist told me that )

 

[Loomray]

If you have a mechanical keyboard you can use the light grease for the switches too.
The cheeper one on amazon

 

[PeterBJ]

It might not be a good idea to use silicone products inside electronics. See this and this.

 

[ice-t]

It might not be a good idea to use silicone products inside electronics. See this and this.

I just spray it on the metal rod, but you always have unintended overspray, i do it 2 maybe3 times a year for the last 7 or 8 years, but it seems there are better options to use like ptfe spray..