Waiting on parts

I ended up sourcing all the parts and ive gotten everything in the mail but the hot end, hobbed bolt, heat bed thermistor,

Ive already gotten the frame put together with some snags. I thought I was purchasing the prusa v2 that came with snap in parts for linear bearings and insted i got the one that had to be zip tied and one of my cut threaded rods was too short because it was the model that didn't have the z stabilizers and uses longer rod no biggie as i had extra already. some of the m3 bolts ive had to order was too short to clamp down on the rod.

I did save a good little bit on sourching the parts and waiting for some from china. The only positive thing i can say about the headache of 2 weeks of part search / comparison is the machine "should" give me a good foundation to start from. I pretty much spent what i would have if i went the kit route however I chose to get better quality parts such as using metal couplers opposed to printed couplers.

I probably went over kill. but at least if my prints fail I will know its because of something i did and not a particular part.

I know this thread is kind of pointless but just taking a break to share some of my progress will post pics soon excited since its my first machine.

Kits are a nice, easy way to build things, especially for those who are new to fabrication and design, since they have an intrinsic educational component to them that helps the noviat become familiar with basic principles. I spent my childhood mowing lawns, raking leaves, shoveling walks and doing other odd jobs to pay for the ~80 plastic model airplanes I built, ~a dozen ships, a few cars, a few dozen balsa planes and somewhere in the range of 100 model rockets. With the exception of the rockets, every single one was a complete kit (I designed and built about two dozen of the rockets from scratch). But as you noted, 'specking a "kit" for oneself from constituent elements allows a builder to choose elements that a kit provider might not, like real motor couplers, selecting the strength of the steppers, the belt, screw, bearing rod, wiring, uC, machined drive gears vs printed, power supplies, etc. A bit more work up front, but the benefit is that what you get is what you want (and the effort is itself also quite educational if one allows it to be so)

Good luck with your build.

Like you said sourcing your own parts over buying a kit offers a lot of positive things that you might not get with a kit. I kind of did both with my current build. I bought printed parts kit but sourced the rest of my parts. I decided to upgrade and fix all the downfalls of the kit version with my custom build. Keep me updated on your build and good luck. To see my current build log check out my link.

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I personally like buying full kits, in addition to sourcing the customizations I want. Believe it or not, kits can be as cheap as sourcing the parts yourself. And I like extra parts. For example I just ordered a Rostock Max a few days ago, I got the complete kit even though I probably wont even be using the supplied electronics or PSU, I even have my own motors I could use. :-)
Sourcing my own parts for my Prusav2 (with some small kits of various things), ended up costing as much as buying a complete kit would have.

It all depends on your needs. If you like extra parts to accumulate and have some money to blow, Get a complete kit and add your extras to it. If you just want to get a working unit, you can source it yourself or buy a kit or several component kits, just check your pricing for the best options, and of course weigh quality too. And beware kits will often contain some cheap parts that you can get for better quality yourself, but you'll pay also. Linear bearings for example, many kits are sold with those 1.99 Chinese linear bearings that just stink. But high quality bearings will be 5-10x as much$.

Lots of options out there, weigh out your needs and budget and work within that. Best of luck!

And the waiting is the hardest part!