who knows these things real well. Cannot get it to print

[printbus]

...thanks to a little investigation was that the filament I had was 3mm filament and I ordered a 1.75 hot end so I thought that must be it.... I am stupid and the last time I ordered filament I ordered the wrong size. I ordered a roll of 1.75 from Colin (and let me tell you I ordered it on Christmas Eve and it was at my house the day after Christmas. Outstanding service). I tried to just load it and no luck. it felt weird like it was too small and I am still not sure if it is not too small for my hot end although I looked at what I originally ordered and the original order for a hot end was for 1.75 hot end....

For the record, proper 3mm filament simply will not feed into a 1.75mm hex hot end. No way, no how. Use a calipers to measure the diameter of the feed hole at the top of the hot end. IIRC the feed hole diameter is about 1.85mm on a 1.75mm hexagon hot end. I don't know what the diameter should be for a 3mm hot end, but it has to be larger than 3mm... If it is, you have a 3mm hot end.

For all we know, your problems may be simply due to not configuring the slicer for the actual size of your filament. Measure the diameters with a calipers and report back. Tell us the filament diameter setting you're using in Slicer. If you have been using 3mm filament because that is what you really have but have been configuring slic3r for 1.75mm because that is what you think you have, the slicer is going to try to push 3x the proper amount of filament volume through the hot end. The narrow gap between tip and bed on especially the first layer would lead to an incredible amount of pressure on the filament being pushed into the hot end, and it'd be just a matter of time before you carve into the filament.

EDIT: Colin (and company) makes mistakes. I have a roll of 3mm filament from them that is useless to me as a first-hand example. If the filament you had been using was ordered from MakerFarm at the same time as your printer, maybe they confused orders and kitted your box with a 3mm hot end and 3mm filament instead. Knowing what you actually have is more important than knowing what you ordered.

...Aparently PLA sticks quite well to metal surfaces....

Part of the problem is that PLA expands slightly when it cools. If fluid filament gets pulled up into the heat break and it cools, you run the risk of that swelling forming a pretty good plug in the tube.

Chadd, before you run off and buy an e3dv6 hot end because of the positive reports here, be aware that it can be argued as more susceptible to plugging in the heat break than the hex. This isn't meant as a ding against the e3dv6 - I have one myself. The issue is simply due to the fact that the e3dv6 has a much sharper transition between hot and cold elements of the hot end. Multiple users here have had to back off the retraction distance when they transitioned to an e3dv6.