Well the new machine finally arrived on Friday.
The back-story: I purchased this machine as new from a seller on eBay who apparently builds them as he sells them. The transaction itself was straightforward and the seller and I corresponded. He estimated three weeks to build and ship. Meanwhile, I bought a used Dell GX280 tower, installed and worked with software, and made space in my garage.
After a minor shipping issue the great day was finally upon us. The machine arrived in two boxes. I assembled the gantry to the base within about 20 minutes and then hooked up the electronics. I didn't have a parallel extension cable so I had to park the computer right next to the machine for the time being. I had pre-configured Mach 2 and had the motors turning within an hour.
I had the machine cut a very rough USMC logo (Semper Fi, Mac!) and then hit the first problem. Actually I hit the hard limit of the machine. The Y-axis came loose. The machine has simple all-thread screws to drive it. They are connected with collars and set-screws to the motor shafts. When I hit the hard limit (i.e. the machine itself) it pulled the all-thread off collar. I went to re-tighten in and the set-screw was actually a bit stripped out. (Or I stripped it out...) In any case I couldn't get it tight enough and it kept pulling free after a couple of minutes. Made things interesting. Caused me to turn the air blue with my language a couple times too. Quitting time. (To be continued)