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I've been saving up all my pennies for this puppy. I purchased it from MatterHackers since they are a local outfit.

I decided painting wasn't in the cards for me. Step 1, unpeel the tape. It took me about 2 hours while watching National Treasure.
I would have thought the final pile would be bigger, but I finally finished peeling and Nicholas Cage saved the declaration of independence.
Bottoms together. Kids are about to get home, so that's it for today.
My first solder! I'm more proud than I should be I think.
the 18 gauge wire did not have the secret "fish" inside the wire. I ended up using filament
only to find the secret fish hiding in the 22 gauge wire. And it was most helpful too!
Obligatory selfie with a major milestone completed. This thing is WAY bigger than I thought!
I realized later that I installed this extruder backwards. This extruder is pretty danged cool. I think I might need some dampeners for it though. I put cork on the other motors, but the kit only came with 3. Maybe some squishy washers on the bottom screws would keep it from rattling.
Now these things feel niiiiiiice. HOWEVER, they are the absolute hardest thing to install!

You didn't install it backwards.

g.

I know what you are thinking: "that doesn't look very hard" but what you don't realize is it's not just a nylon washer that you have to use a small wrench 1/4 turn at a time on, it's a bunch of nylon washers! This took me HOURS!
Yeah, I put it together just to put it together, but I've got a prometheus lined up. This will be a spare.
It can be helpful having little kids around when you do your wiring. They seem to know where everything goes.
And here is the prometheus installed. This thing is slick. You don't need any ATV, there is a customizable heat zone, the PEEK fan bolts directly to it so you don't need a shroud, and it just looks awesome!
Also, I have here the carbon fiber standoffs. I'm thinking about nixing them though and dropping my hotend as low as it goes like all the cool kids are doing.
This shows the LED top hat hitching a ride with the heating resistor wiring.
So instead of soldering the wiring, I opted for the detachable method. 4 pin molex connectors x2 means I can change my mind later
One connector is for the hotend and thermistor, the other is for the fans.
And behold, the thing is done. It took me a long time to do this, but just deciding how I was going to do it took the longest. I also piggy backed the LED light ring onto the peek fan wiring.

Yay! It took my waaaay over 20 hours. Haha, I'm slow.
Calibrated, and now for my first print! This is a piggy bank for the kids to collect their coins.
I am SUPER impressed by this printer! How did the pig make it this far??
And we made it! That last like 30 minutes of a super long print is torture. I had to leave the room because I couldn't take it. I thought for sure it would get kicked off the plate during the last few layers.

I didn't yet print the layer fan, but I can only imagine it would improve the print. This pig aint too shabby but I do notice a little rippling on some of the steeper angles.

Very nice build! I took well over 20 hours to finish my Rostock MAX v1. When I was building it, instead of the EZ-Struder, there was this enormous bulky thing with all these gears and cogs. That thing alone took 1/2 hour to assemble!

I like the hot end mounted low. Makes it easier to see what it's doing, doesn't it!

Thanks 626!
You were actually one of the inspirations behind dropping mine and I think you are right. I don't think I'll ever hit the height limit but I'm keeping my standoffs just in case.
I'm working with the layer fan now trying to find something that really works well.