Im in a similar position. I blew the hot end driver on the control board.
I also have a prusa clone so I was thinking of just adding a laser instead of the hot end so i have another toy to play with.
There's only one motor for the z axis on the makibox so you either need another one or go with a belt drive system or find a one motor design.
The makibox has motors with the shaft sticking out the opposite side to the drive (used for a knob). Watch out for designs that wont have the space for it.
With the price of kits falling you have to way up the effort in building something unique with the price of just buying something already designed.
Do you need a heated bed? The Makibox is a Bowden extruder but given the issues with the extruder you could go direct and reuse the motor.
Im interested to see what people suggest.