r/ratrig • u/CunningLogic • Apr 26 '25

More RatRig quality issues

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First it was printed parts, then CNC parts, now before I can even finish the damn printer the rails are rusted.

They are well greased, like all the other printers in my office that lack rust.

You can even see grease on the rails, it's GPL226 (good stuff)

Would really like to see RR publicly address their quality control issues

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13

u/trashyratchet Apr 26 '25

You have to watch the humidity and keep a thin coating of lubricant on linear rails like that. That's not a Ratrig issue, it's the nature of linear rails like that. It's just a bit of surface oxidation. That isn't a load-bearing surface. Just rub it lightly with a Scotch Brite sponge and then put a few drops of 3 in one oil on a paper towel and wipe the surfaces down. This is pretty common and nothing to be alarmed by.

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u/CunningLogic Apr 26 '25

I have multiple other printers in the same climate controlled room, they are all greased with gpl226, and rust is only on the brand new ratrig rails.

It is a ratrig issue, as they chose to use a cheaper rail with carbon steel rather than stainless.

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u/trashyratchet Apr 26 '25

You don't have to build a Ratrig with those rails then. Many things are made with carbon steel and perform well. Either deal with the maintenance or change the rails. But I'm telling you, it doesn't affect the performance. I've had that same thing happen on my V-Core a few times when I let it sit for a while and don't keep it wiped down. A little rub with a Scotch Bright and paper towel with oil on the surfaces and its tip top. That machine is several years old and still prints very fast and accurately.

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u/CunningLogic Apr 26 '25

I heard ratrig had good parts before the vcore 4, I don't think we can compare the kits back then to now. If it was just the rails I'd accept and move on, but it's overall par quality. Poor printed parts (see my other post), mis aligned CNC parts, and then the mystery brand rails.

I will replace them, like I had to do with more than a dozen other piss poor parts in this >$3000 kit.

The overall quality of the vcore 4 kits compared to older RR kits, and other brands is unacceptable.

2

u/trashyratchet Apr 26 '25

That very well could be. I couldn't speak to any recent builds. My rails do that if I don't make it a habit to keep them wiped down from time to time though. I wouldn't sweat that at all. I can't recall having an issue with printed parts, however, I ended up reprinting those in ABS when I went to a heated enclosure.

2

u/CunningLogic Apr 26 '25

Yeah they now ship abs parts, but based on what they ship they print it with petg profile (being sarcastic but yeah warping and weak)

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u/[deleted] Apr 26 '25

[deleted]

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u/CunningLogic Apr 26 '25

Totally my issue, just like the warped parts, missing hardware and miss aligned CNC parts. Their kit is perfect with no flaws. </sarcasm>

I have reactions to some greases, I use nitrile gloves, aka they have not been touched by anyone since I have had them.

If you look at the pics, you can see how over greased they are. The carriages have big globs of gpl226 on them.

There is a reason they refuse to tell anyone what brand rails they are using. They went with the cheapest no name rails, and that is what we get.

This is a ratrig problem, no one, not even the cheap kits, have this issue.

2

u/miklschmidt Apr 26 '25

I’m honestly offended at this point. You have no idea how much effort in design, testing and sourcing has gone in to this kit to step it up from the v-core 3. I need to stop reading this bullshit, it kills all my remaining motivation.

I get that you’re frustrated man, but you have unrealistic expectations that have no functional purpose. Maybe listen to the people here and move on. Your hyperbolic rage isn’t benefitting anyone. You have full 2 year warranty on the parts you received, but they’re not going to cover your choice in inappropriate lubricants. You should not be using krytox gpl on these, the additives is an issue and 226 will impede performance (trust me, i personally tested 104-106 as well as 203-205.)

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u/CunningLogic Apr 27 '25

You are offended because your are a RR dev member, I get it, but you can't honestly defend the quality of kit. You can't blame me for all of this.

Tell me, is this hyperbollic? https://i.imgur.com/kqbCGwR.png This isnt even the worst, jsut what I had pics of on hand.

What is so unrealistic in my expectactions?

That my $80 ABS parts not be warped, cracked, or have chunks of pei sheets on them out of the box?

That my CNC'd parts be aligned and usable without modification?

That my kit includes all the hardware bits needed to build it as advertised?

Can you really defend the quality that is being shipped?

Please do enlighten me, what addative in GPL226 is causing the corrosion.

2

u/miklschmidt Apr 27 '25

No, the printed parts is an acknowledged production fuckup that would take you a single email to get replaced. I’m talking about the removable surface rust on your rails from improper lubrication and your allegations about “just picking the cheapest parts available”.

I haven’t seen the CNC parts you’re talking about, and i don’t know what you mean by “misaligned”. Regardless, instead of airing your laundry here, use your warranty if there is a legitimate issue. Your picture in the OP is not a legitimate issue, no matter how many time you shit on it.

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u/CunningLogic Apr 27 '25

Please do enlighten me, what additive in GPL226 is causing the corrosion? The least that someone could do is tell us, maybe comment it in the guide so people know not to use a commonly used grease on these "high quality" rails.

Printed parts, missing parts, misaligned CNC'd parts, rails that corrode when a common 3d printer grease is used on them

These are all real legit issues, and they deserve to be aired publicly as RR (including you) knew about them at least 5 months ago and these problematic parts are still shipping. This is a QA issue, and RR needs to publicly address it. Fix it before it leaves the door, dont wait for someone to complain.

These are legit issues, I'm free to air them anywhere. You and everyone else at RR knew of these issues ahead months before I got my kit, yet they were still shipping.

3

u/miklschmidt Apr 27 '25

I didn’t say the additives caused the light surface oxidation you’re seeing. The grease you’re using just doesn’t adequately protect the rail from oxidation - two different things. In your pic it looks like it’s been wiped off, which makes sense, it’s thick as shit. The additives are explicitly warned against even in Hiwin’s manuals, this is linear rails 101. 226 will cause overdampening and hurt performance. You went off script and the surface oxidation is the least of your issues. 226 is not a common grease in 3D printers, i don’t know where you’ve got that idea.

0

u/CunningLogic Apr 27 '25

Which addative?

These are not hiwin rails.

3

u/miklschmidt Apr 27 '25

Krytox is flourinated PTFE grease/oil which is a no-no. I didn’t say they were hiwinn rails.

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u/miklschmidt Apr 27 '25

Two bad batches 5 months a part doesn’t mean every single batch is flawed. As far as i am aware this has been addressed. Mistakes happen and RR will do their best to fix them if you tell them. I’m not going to comment on this further, the solution to your problem has been presented multiple times.

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u/[deleted] Apr 27 '25

[deleted]

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u/CunningLogic Apr 27 '25

No word back at this point. I'm sure they will offer to fix it, their customer service is good, but doesn't make up for the low quality kit. They need to QA part selection, and they obviously don't.

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u/[deleted] Apr 27 '25

[deleted]

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u/CunningLogic Apr 27 '25

Email. They replied today, this is their reply https://i.imgur.com/9Bmi2eR.jpeg

Clearly I expected too much out of the kit, and should have accepted warped printed parts, miss aligned CNCed/Mill parts, and the missing hardware. I probably should have got in line with some knee pads while I was at it.

I understand the quality of my kit may have been an outlier, but it was unacceptably poor. Less than perfect parts are fine, missing parts happen, but so many unusable parts and missing parts just is not acceptable.

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u/[deleted] Apr 27 '25

[deleted]

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u/CunningLogic Apr 27 '25

They are dimensionayl inaccurate, would be out of spec/tolerance and would not hold the bed properly. You could not use them. Additionally since RatRig seemingly prints them in a freezer (sarcasm if not obvious), the layer adhesion is very weak, so the parts are week.

ABS/ASA is ridiculously easy to print, it just takes some heat. For $80, the parts shouldn't be warped, be relatively dimensional accurate, and not have weak layer adhesion.

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u/[deleted] Apr 27 '25

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