Problems Help me Pse-Prusa Explorer not printing

Hi and thanks for looking.
I have just put together the 3d printer, fired up and can operate all axises, had the extruder ozing PLA from the extruder ( in a straight flow-as suggested by the documentation).
Loaded a simple CAD project into the laptop.
Now the nozzle is clogged and I had to clear it using a stainless steel wire 0.3mm diameter.
Cleared the extruder and reloaded the cad project but it will not extruder the PLA and (BTW I disconnected the plastic feeder tube and held my thumb againist the tube to make sure the feeding device is pushing the PLA through the tube. It was each time I pulsed the mouse button.)
So, looking for suggestions to get things going.

Any suggestions as to what I should do now?

Looking forward to your helpjavascript:editor_tools_handle_smiley()
Colin

What slicer are you using? Have you made sure the correct temperature and filament diameter is configured in your slicer software?

Have you checked your Esteps, i.e. put a mark on the filament say 100mm from the extruder entry, choose to manually extrude 50mm at the correct temperature and measure if the line has moved down 50mm?

When you say it doesnt extrude while printing, does everything else still move as expected? and does any plastic come out at all or just nothing at all?

Thank you for your advice.

I have the extruder working after doing a mod to the extruder device. Slicer 3 is the default software which came with the kit.

I found that it was not feeding correctly and I had not inserted the filament far enough into the extruding head.

I have done my first print and found that I did not have my printbed level in both planes as one half section of the test print did not stick as the printbed was too low and hence did not print sucessfully for that half.
The default speed for the nozzle is set at 5mm. What speed do you use?
I was running the temperature at 210c for PLA. Wonder what temperature i should run at?

Two questions;

1. I wonder should I slow this down to give more time for plastic to adhere?
2.Do I need to install a small fan next to the extruder nozzle to help rapidly cool the deposited plastic. I have seen this in some diagrams on the internet.

Thanks again for your interest and help

cheers
Colin

I wouldnt worry about a cooling fan just yet, usually you dont use it on the first few layers anyway.

Assuming its leveled and the z endstop is correctly set, one thing to check is to make sure the print surface is clean, a wipe over with acetone works well. If you have a heated printbed, a temp of about 50-70C is usually good for PLA.