Do you know what would cause the LCD contrast to fade over time once the program has been running for a bit?
Sorry, your soldering needs to be improved 
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Clean solder connections with a Q-TIP and some Isopropyl Alcohol
You may have a bad LCD display, try a new display.
Suggest you use stranded #24AWG wires as solid wires can easily break.
I wont argue with you there! 
I machined all the parts for this machine perfectly and then had figure out how to make it move! Thank you! I really appreciate all of your help and you got me to the point of a working machine. I will continue to learn and hopefully my next project goes a little smoother! Thanks again
Remember to go through the sketch and make comments in your code.
Make sure you try version 1.05 code in post #14.
Time for 