Initial thoughts on build

[jabberwocky]

Received my XXL last week and finally found time to assemble it this weekend. Initial thoughts and issues:

-For the most part the build went smooth. The directions are decent enough, but not great (I understand this is a kit for people with some DIY skills and all, so no demerits, but it certainly could be clearer in parts). This forum and the wiki answered questions I had when I went looking, it just would have saved some time if more info was in the directions.
-The Z carriage was supposed to come assembled, but mine was not completely (the z sled wasn't mounted to the x carriage). No big deal, but I was confused for a bit about how it went together because the Z belt tensioner at the bottom came mounted on the wrong side of the plate. Once I puzzled that out it went together easily enough.
-I didn't receive screws for the belt mounts. The directions indicated they should have been in the bag with the L mounts for the belts but I just got the mounts. No huge deal, I dug through my bins of machine screws and found some that worked, but it annoyed me when lego kits were missing parts and it still annoys me now.
-The Z axis homing switch doesn't seem to be positioned quite low enough. At its highest possible point, the plate stops just short of hitting the switch. I'll double check my assembly but I don't think there any way to mount it lower.
-The cables for some of the limit switches are too short. The Z in particular only has 5 inches or so out of the drag chain, not nearly enough to loop around through the hole on the underside of the electronic enclosure and plug in. (On that note, one thing that would be nice to have in the directions is a wiring diagram for those; they are written on the controller, but its tiny and hard to see; a picture with the plug locations for X/Y/Z similar to the stepper motors would be a nice addition to the directions). I'll check my cable routing but I don't think theres anywhere I could reasonably have shortened the run.

I haven't tested anything yet (spent last night getting the old NUC I'm gonna use to control it all setup) but I should start playing with it this week. The quality of the machine itself seems excellent. Everything went together smoothly, its very rigid and well thought out. Can't wait to see how it performs.

[jabberwocky]

First try at "hello world" came out ok.

[WillAdams]

Excellent!

Hopefully the slight oddities are caused by pen deflection, in which case you're all good to go!

Looking forward to seeing some projects! (I took some time off, and spend Monday and Tuesday evening taking a block plane to the handle of my Elemen'tary No. 1 screwdriver and reshaping it to better fit my and refinishing it in black to match my Starrett 559A and B screwdrivers).

[jabberwocky]

The paper wasn't sitting totally flat and the pen was down slightly too low (the lines were quite thick because of that). I do think the Y belts were a bit loose and I already tightened them up. I gave the machine a once over after to make sure everything was tight and it seems solid. Digging out the calipers and machinists squares and checking that everything is square and such is on my to-do list, but a quick check with the woodworking square I had handy says everything is very close.

I'll probably toss some scrap ply on it in the next few days and try cutting some simple shapes to make sure its dimensionally accurate and go from there. I already have a few projects planned. I do need to figure out my wasteboard/clamping situation, it just has the 2 piece MDF it comes with down but I'd obviously like to put something over that.

[WillAdams]

You pretty much have to put at least 3/4" of MDF down on top to have a reasonable reach w/ the Z-axis --- I did a 3/4" spacer board and screwed T-track into that, and used PVC in-between the tracks as a spoilboard --- now I just need to find an easy source for 1/2" x 1/4" PVC or similar.