Spent the weekend building my first kit and the guide comments were a lifesaver

Congrats on getting thru the build, and I know exactly what you mean about the notes people leave under the steps. I put my kit togather over a long weekend last spring and those community comments carried me through more than one spot. The one that bailed me out was during the frame squaring, where someone explained how to check the diagonal measurements before tightening everything down for good. I would have had a crooked printer and no idea why my prints kept coming out lopsided on one corner.

My build also took way longer than the estimate, mostly because I got paranoid about the belt tension and kept redoing it. Turns out my instinct was wrong twice and the guide was right once, which is its own lesson. One thing I wish I had done on day one: run the first layer calibration more than once. I ran it the standard single time, printed a few things that looked okay, then had a string of failed first layers a week later. A second pass with the bed warm solved it and I have not touched it since.

Also, hang onto the leftover zip ties and the little bag of spares. Six months in I needed one of those extra printed parts that came in the box and was very glad it was sitting in a drawer instead of in the trash.

I was on the other side of this a while back, sort of. Built my kit in an evening thinking I was clever, skipped reading anything under the steps, and got burned twice. First was the extruder gear tension, where I eyeballed it and got stringy prints for a week before someone at my local makerspace pointed at it and said tighten it a quarter turn and try again. Second was the PINDA probe height, wich I set by feel instead of following the paper method, and my first layer was a mess across the whole bed as a result. Since then I've made a habit of leaving my own notes when I hit something the photos don't show. Small ones, like how the zip tie orientation matters on the heatbed harness, or that it pays to check the X gantry is level before you even think about the first calibration. Your slow-and-double-check approach is honestly the smarter one. I rebuilt most of my Y axis a month later because I'd rushed the alignment and the bed was sitting a hair crooked. Nothing dramatic, just half an evening with an allen key and a bit of humility. Two days sounds about right to me now.

The thing that got me through the greasing step was a nitrile glove and a coffee filter. Squeezing lube onto a rag and trying to wipe the rods evenly just made a mess, but a drop on a gloved finger along each rod took thirty seconds and stayed off the printed parts. Read that tip buried in a comment somewhere and it has stuck with me on every teardown since. Also my build ran double the estimated time, mostly because I put the idler on backwards once and had to redo the whole belt path.Enjoy that first benchy, the grey stuff came out weirdly nice for free plastic.

That grey PETG that ships with these kits can look a little rough compared to a fresh spool, so don't judge the printer by it if the benchy comes out with some stringing. Mine did and I nearly started tweaking settings that same night for no reason. Swapped to a newer spool a week later and the difference was huge with zero changes made. Curious how long your benchy took, mine was pushing three hours and I sat there checking it every ten minutes like staring would make it go faster.

Update: benchy came off the plate, stringing on the underside just like warned about here. Held off touching anything and ordered a fresh spool instead. Also tried the glove trick for the rods when I did the weekly check, way cleaner than a rag. Printer itself seems fine.