Hi Andy and Dean,

Thanks for the kind words and great suggestions.

As for the closed-loop steppers - I realize they are the way to go but I am trying to keep the costs down, They seem to be a decent price for 36v-48v but any higher and they shot up in price. I will have another look and do the maths.

The lack of Y support brace - Yes this is a suck it and see, I deliberately made the frame from 90*5 to compensate for this. I think it would take all the fun out of building my own machine if I just copied yours and other members machines lol, If it doesn't work out I can always add Y bracing later.

As for leveling the Y-axis surfaces - I think I will just use shims because of the uncertainty above ( could also level with epoxy at a later date)

Gantry side plate adjustment - That makes so much sense, I will re-design that.

Check your holes - Yes I think I was guilty of that in my first design a couple of years ago ha-ha.

Thanks for all the input - cheers mike.