My first week with the Solidoodle 3

Newb here.  Loving the great information on this forum.

I have had my S3 for about two days less than a week and thought I'd share my impressions.  Out of the box the bed was way off level (a common issue I hear) and the z-stop put the print head about 5mm off the bed.  I switched to a mirror glass print bed as soon as I was comfortable with the basics.  The mirrors I purchased are only 2mm thick and tended to warp when clamped onto the aluminum bed.  Luckily I have some decorative glass squares that just happen to be 8" square and a quarter of an inch thick with a little texture on each side.  These, paired with hairspray, make a pretty nice surface to print on...very level and sticky.  Mostly I have been printing some of the standard improvements to the machine, extruder fan assembly, filament guide, enclosure hinges, cable chain and belt guard.   My first go with the belt guard failed about halfway through when it popped off the print surface (luckily I can still use the portion that survived). I am printing it again as I type this post, this time with a raft and it has yet to peel up.  Printing at 110 bed and 195 extruder with enclosure and no fan (ABS) and it is looking pretty darn good. 

I tried the ABS/acetone slurry-glue on the print bed for a couple of days, it seemed to work ok but it is a pain to clean and is not 100% reliable. I hate printing on the Kapton only because I know I am going to ruin it eventually and don't want to shell out for the expensive maintenance.  Hairspray on thick glass for the win!

A few notes about the cable chain...

thingiverse thing:104817

if you try to tackle this one, be prepared to splice an extension on some of your wires as the cable chain removes a lot of slack.  I also noticed the cable chain had a distinct bowing when assembled, which I am guessing is due to a slight curvature in each link that is more pronounced when all of them are connected.  I think it is due to uneven cooling as I did these with the extruder fan turned on.  The S3 required 29 links of chain, you might get away with fewer, but that seemed to be the least I need to print to get the full extension. Regardless this one is well worth it due to the interference of the cable with the y belt and carriage, this did a ton to improve my performance   

I am noticing that even with a 8x8x8 print area, you may not really be able to print all the way out to the edges, giving you an effective x/y of slightly less than 8x8. 

So now for some newb questions:

my .4mm prints seem to come out the most smooth, but I have yet to do a large .1mm print, but even .3mm seems to not look as nice as .4mm...this is obviously counter intuitive.  Any ideas?

My Y bar (horizontal at back of unit) has a little side to side play in it.  I tried to calibrate per solidoodle vimeo instructions and the bar seems to just do what it wants.  The slop is negligible but visible.  Is this something I should work to eliminate?  Any suggestions if so?

Some posts seem to recommend a top cover for the case, others do not.  I have the whole unit with plexiglass walls right now top, sides, and door.  Is there a definitive rule of thumb here?  ( I may have just answered my own question, the tall belt guard just finished printing and I had to remove the top cover so that the print did not ram into it when the bed goes to home at the end of the print, perhaps that can be solved with G Code?)

I have included the M0 command in my end G Code to turn off the motors and heated bed.  This does not seem to do either.  Am I missing something?

I am sure I will have more to ask, but that is probably enough for now.  Hopefully I'll be the one answering newb questions in a few months!

Thanks in advance!