#1

As it seems by mail is impossible to have this informations I try trough the forum.
I recently bought a Cetus Mk3 ( found a good deal on Amazon).
The Y carriage was faulty, had since the beginning a lot of play, so I disassembled and I discovered balls were missing.

As the amazon deal price was really good I decided to repair myself, but really I can’t find exaustive informations on the carriage brand. The questions to Cetus assistance were:

-What is balls size of the carriage, and number of balls needed (so I can buy the right size balls to fix my carriage)
-Which is the brand and model number of the carriage (so I can eventually supply myself if balls were not the only problem of that carriage or if the option will be “cheaper” than spending 3 hours patiently installing the new balls).

Seems these question can’t be answered by cetus assistance so I guess somebody in the community has figured out and can give me a proprer answer.

#2

Asking to assistance the brand of the carriage they say information is not “allowed to be provided according to our company’s policy”.
So first generation of Cetus was firstly Hiwin and than IKO, second generation were IKO.
Now for third generation why this information should be secret?
我不介意问brand if they provide me the required information (size of the balls of the carriage) but tiertime assistance say they don’t have this information in their available specs. Moreover they prevent me to ask it directly to the company who makes the carriages and the rail.
Really disappointing!!!

#3

yeah good luck trying to get any help from tiertime. if they cant sell you something or there is no opportunity to make any money off you then they wont bother. or, at least thats been my experience with them. had a similar issue when i bought an as is unit from them, and they just threw a bunch of printer parts into a box with no padding or protection when packaging, and many parts got damaged during shipping. any they absolutely refused to do anything about it until i showed them a bunch of pictures of the box and the way it was packaged. long after i had ALREAD UNPACKED EVERYTHING. as if i was trying to scam and cheat them over a $100 item. this was the third printer i had purchased from them by the way. ill never buy anything from tiertime again. buy anyway…

youre specifically asking about the size of the linear rail slide unit, right? i can provide you with an answer when i get hone later today. but to be honest, you might be better off just buying a new rail and slide unit altogether.

#4

You know also for me it is 3rd printer (I already have a late MK1 and a mk2) . So I will have all the patience to replace the balls. Just if they could offer me a carriage only for a decent price I would have avoid the hassle and used the shipnment to buy some extra upgrade (that I will not buy now). Just I find super annoying all the behaviour, I asked simple questions (or what they were supposed to be simple questions for them) and they promised an (unrequested) free spare to change their mind, give no replacement and no answer to my questions. Super annoying. If you have possibility to tell me the size I will be super grateful, balls are cheap, a good carriage-rail set not so much and chinese Hiwin clones are not always reliable. But don’t brother if you have to disassemble the carriage for give me this answer, just if you are already doing it for your mantenance.

#5

Balls in my MK3 printer are exactly 2.5mm in diameter.

#6

That’s great! Thanks, I’ll take them today, and this week end I will work on fix it!

#7

Also, bearing is marked as “Staf MB-12-S”.

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#8

I didn’t see the STAF marking on mine. I guessed in the end they should be STAF (or STAF clones) as number on plastik part matched (somehow) with STAF models numbers. But also STAF company didn’t seems having balls specifications on their site. I got the balls, sunday I try to fit them inside:slight_smile: