Overall you cannot beat the value of the machine. While there is no real useful manual, there are instructions on the accompanying mini-cd. I managed to get it together just looking at the pictures as I found the instructions late in the game. Pride took over and i built it without the instructions. The whole kit was packed very nicely. Everything fits well together. It was trying to run it from a linux machine, and that was not working. I found a windows machine and got it running with the software and alternate drivers provided on the mini-cd. After getting it running in Windows I then tried Linux again and have had more luck. So far I am pleased. I may come back and update when I have used it more.UPDATE 5.11.2022So it is still a good machine for the price. You cannot get the mechanical parts for cheaper. My biggest complaint would be that the cable lengths are borderline comical. They are the minimum length and any re routing is impossible. There are several upgrades I have done that the manufacturer could consider for very low investment:1) I moved the mother board to ride on a bracket on the end of the sliding x-axis rail this allows the wires for the x-axis cables to be out of the way and not possibly cut by the laser (I had to purchase a longer cable for the far motor as the stock one was too short. Making/crimping new wires i snot for the faint of heart and the two ends for the steppers are different size JST connectors. I know the stepper end is JST PH2, but I still dont know what the motherboard side of the cable is. Either way, crimping JST takes a lot of patience and practice. I wish there were more options for cable lenghts out there. The short side only needs to be like 25cm when going from the mother board to the stepper, the other side needs to be a meter.2) I am now trying to add a drag chain track to hold the y and laser cables as they to dip down into the engraving area. Again, with the ridiculously short cables, I will need new ones.3) Modularize the laser. The laser and power supply are all one unit and cannot be unplugged from each other. This means, again, I am stuck with a fairly short laser cable that I cannot extend to work with the drag chain. This may force a change in the laser head to something more modular. The down side is that I done know what that means for driving it from the mother board (not sure what kind of output it is capable of)If the cables were all 1-1.5 meters even 2 meters long, you would have much better cable routing options (possibly false bottom platform to run the x cables under and more options for drag chain setup on y-axis)In the end, I will most likely be in price the range of a better laser engraver by time I upgrade this to be a solid working machine. So again, good price for what you get (the mechanical bits), but small adds by the manufacturer would pay larger dividends in making this a reasonable entry level machine. Still worth the money as long as you are not expecting plug and play.