You've got a cute little tree there at your homing point. I might have to start using masking tape instead of just polyimide, at least until I get my heated platform built, because my shields always break loose and turn into HUGE trees growing out of the side of my object. My last minimug had one that grew out from the corner of the shield at only about a 10-15 degree angle from the bed (is that a record-breaking overhang?) to the homing point, where it split into a branch going straight up and one protruding at 45 degrees along the y-axis.

I see what you meant about the Wade's mounting now, I thought you were talking about turning it 180 degrees. Still, this won't work for me because the Mini's x-carriage is only about as wide as the wade's so I would lose more x travel from the extruder body running into the leadscrews.

My best minimugs only hold water if the outside is dry. If it gets wet, the surface tension is broken and they leak. Did you have to change settings to get a solid base? What nozzle are you using? I can usually see light through the bottom of mine.

is that a coke can you used for your opto endstop.?

Looks like diet coke, to me.

@whosawhatsis Yeah, I was amazed how that tree held together. I thought it looked like coral. Until I got proper extrusion, I thought the shield and homing was such a bad idea because it always fell appart and grew into the object too. Once it extrudes fast enough as you can see it forms well and stays separate. I really think a bowden feed is the only way to go for a mini mendel. I didn't change any settings other than temp. Although the bottom was really smashed into the base which contributed to the water tightness on the bottom. I'm just using a standard makerbot nozzle and barrel.

@mikemgrieve Yeah, I used a diet coke can. I drink so much diet coke, it's the most plentiful source of aluminum I have! A little flimsy, but it works.

Woohoo!! Congrats! This morning I got a particularly ugly one filled up 50% without leaking, but the walls weren't great so after that it leaked. Just like whosawhatsis said, once the outside is dry, the magic is gone.. (I assume that once it dries it works again).

Can you post a diff of your preferences file vs the standard settings that you get if you remove your preferences file and it generates a new one for you? (or just post your preferences file)? (That's assuming you're using RepRap Host, which looks like a safe bet based on that shield, at least until someone creates a shield module for skeinforge).

I made my recent progress by changing the infill width gap to 0.3mm. Tonight I'll try 0.25 and an overlap of 0.81.

I might try the Bowden cable again when I can print a decent set of couplings for it, but I don't think it's necessary. My nema 14 motors have more torque than the recommended nema 17s for the full size Mendel, and the cartesian bot runs beautifully and feels really solid, even with the carriage-mounted extruder, and it has space for it because of my modifications. My only problems are with the extrude itself. Hopefully, the parts from you will fix that.

@jeff Thanks! Yes I am using RepRap host. I literally didn't change anything other than the extruder temp - increased to 210. Everything else is the standard auto generated config from the reprap-mendel-20100806 release. The key for me was to get copious and constant extrusion with my wade extruder.

@whosawhatsis Your parts are ready to go! Just approve the quote on Etsy and send me payment. I can send it with a few others I have to put in the mail tomorrow if you pay before then.