Hi, I've had my P12 up and running (mostly) for a week or so now. Steep learning curve but I kind of revel in that sort of thing. I'm a bit late to this thread so some of this is for people who come later.

Anyway, a few things from this thread:

  • cura - no Z offset but you can set it in the "pre" G-code. Not sure the details but I found it in a forum somewhere. That's one of the reasons I decided to stop focusing on Cura. By the way slic3r 1.2.9 stable is really quite good. I'm using it now and while it's not a pretty as Cura, it works quite well.
  • bed leveling - I do it every day. Makes a difference. I will also do if I've been fussing with the machine.
  • lumpy bed - I posit that an average piece of glass will be fine. I've had 2 pieces (don't ask me why that was necessary) from ACE hardware. They both were within .3 mm of flat based on manual bed leveling and I have had zero bed adhesion issues. Garnier Fructis #5 is epic stuff! Note that I spent a lot of time getting the bed heater bolts/springs at a very precise level. Once that is done, everything else is easy.
  • upgrading the printer - I know this won't do augerpro any good but I highly recommend assembling the basic stock printer. Get it working and tuned up. You will learn a lot and be able to print your own parts.