and so it begins...

Oh for it was a happy day when that glorious package from thingfarm.org did arrive.  Nestled within its corrugated womb was a Prusa hardware kit and 5 high-torque NEMA 17 stepper motors.  Being an impatient kind of fellow, I impressed myself by not starting to actually build my first reprap until 22:45!  From there, the addiction set in and held out through to 00:30, at which point I really needed the use of a circular saw... and that would definitely be frowned upon by my wife and kids.

Nonetheless, the last couple of hours have been very productive and have seen the basic frame assembled.  I've been round and carefully adjusted all critical measurements and it's looking pretty good (if I do say so myself).  Next up is fabricating the bottom plate for the Y carriage -  that'll be tomorrow evening if I can get away with it :)

All told, it's been great to get started at last and I'm very impressed with the quality/speed of my thingfarm order - will definitely use them again (although just noticed they've put the Prusa hardware kit on sale and it's now £10 cheaper :( ).  Rock on tomorrow...