As of today, my printer has started making a faint ticking noise originating from the rear right drive area. Slowly travelling the entire range (like when homing or manual positioning), it is audible 16 times at regular intervals during the full 350mm of travel. Could be an emerging problem with one of the bearings there. I can’t locate where exactly it originates from. Printing is not affected yet. Any ideas what this could be?
Hi,
Have you checked the belts?
It might just be dust.
You can Isolate the belts/motors
g1 z20 x30 y30
g1 x330 y330
g1 x30 y30
g1 x30 y330
g1 x330 y30
g1 x30 y330
Paste 1line at a time into the “console”
The belts are clean. It ticks once every approx. 22mm or approx. (not exactly) twice per revolution of the idler pulleys. The printer is fairly new, got it early December 2025 and has printed less than 5kg of mostly PLA, a little PETG and even less TPU. It is equipped with a case, too.
edit: total printing time reported as 121h 27m 36s and 1078.6m of filament.
Using the commands from @cardoc the ticking occurs only with the right hand motor (g1 x30 y330 and x330 y30). Both directions, approx but not exactly twice per revolution of the idle pulleys and motor drive pulley.
A lot can happen in six months.
If your printer is clean, check the pulleys or the endless screw to see if they’re turning properly.
The printer has been sitting at it’s current location for the last couple months at least. The only movement was when printing, nothing external, no transport. This noise is new, wasn’t there last week when I was using it the last time.
There are no problems visible, otherwise I wouldn’t ask. Printing works as usual, used 160g of PLA today for two parts. It’s just that faint ticking that might indicate evolving damage somewhere in the right drive area.
I don’t own this type of printer, so it’s difficult for me to offer you a specific solution.
If your printer is new and still under warranty, I recommend sending an email to Sovol at info@sovol3d.com, including your order number and a description of the problem.
They will respond within a week.
If it has been idle for months I’d ignore the noise and print 4 or 5 hours then listen again.
No, it hasn’t been idle for months. I’ve been printing something every other week at least. It just hasn’t seen any external influence that could explain the sound.
Listen to me and send an email to Sovol
Had the same issue; a drop of Superlube on the x-y rails fixed it. Clean the rails and put a drop in the middle in the grooves on both sides, and move the runners from one end to the other a couple of times.
I can try, but I doubt it’s the linear guides. The noise originates from the right drive unit. The printer is quiet if I move the left drive only, and in both cases both axis move. If it were a lack of lubrication, it shouldn’t matter which motor is runniing. But it does.