Hot end won't come out.

I unscrewed the wooden piece, pulled it down, and then removed the screw to the right of the hot-end as directed by the video. I tried to "pop that bad boy out" like in the video, but it wouldn't budge. I ended up having to take out all the screws in the jigsaw mounting just to get it out. Ultimately I've destroyed the hot-end. I got the hot-end out and proceeded to unscrew the nozzle so I could clean it, and the barrel connecting it and the heating unit snapped. So now I need to get my next new hot-end in 3 months. What garbage these things are.

I've completely disassembled and cleaned my hotend over a dozen times without breaking it. It's not hard, you just have to heat it up first to melt the plastic in the threads, and not manhandle it.

The Jigsaw acrlic is very cracked at this point so I am probably going to have it replaced as well. Are J heads entire hot-ends or just nozzles? Will it have a more sturdy barrel? If I'm going to spend another $75 I need it to last me a few months at least. Even for people that make twice as much as me this is getting too expensive.

Why would anyone need it hotter than 205C? 195C has always works for me, and in any event I worried that if I made my standard temp too hot than there would be little room to raise the temp to unearth a clog. Is there any downside to a J head? Same price pretty much? A friend said he'd send me a MK4 mount (designed by Lawsy I'm told). Will that hold a J head? And it is the mount one is refering to when they say, "extruder?" The space the filament gets pushed through?

Here are photos of what has been considered a clog of the nozzle and of the nozzle and heat element after I was ultimately able to get the hot-end out. I'm fairly sure it was a clean break and the parts are in fact useless now (not unlike before).

I just shipped out a Mk4 to Rocketman (my pay-it-forward from elmoret, THANKS TIM!).  Hope he can get good use out of it.

And they don't sell the barrel at SD.  Only place that I know that has them is MakerGear and it's sometimes iffy whether they have the 36mm barrel.  They do, however have the 50mm barrel pretty much all the time.

Thanks again cckens. I will pay you back for it some way. Solidoodle said they processed a "repair order" for the first hot-end that went. I am not sure what that means or how it can be repaired. But maybe I'll order the J-head and possibly get the repaired Solidoodle type as well. I just pray it comes with a working thermistor this time.

Should be fine... and if you have spare hot ends to swap out then you're ahead of the game.  I have a sheared barrel on my spare hot end that I'm trying to replace, but I need the funds first... why is it always about money   I just need to get the barrel and then I'm back up and running.  For the time being, I've swapped out my .3mm nozzle for the .4mm nozzle and I'm good.  Getting the shear out of the nozzle took less time than I thought.  Just a needle nose pliers and heat (in this case, my gas stovetop).  I softened the plastic enough for me to unscrew it from the nozzle.  Then I cleaned the nozzle out with acetone.  Pretty simple.

And if you want to pay me back... learn everything that you can, and pay it forward.  When you get it back up and running, print a spare Mk4 or Mk5 and hold on to it.  Someone may need one in the future and you'll be there for them.  Which reminds me, I need to print out a spare Mk5 to hold on to

So you do have the first one?  If so, then you can use the PEEK, barrel and nozzle as spare parts and use the heater block  and thermistor from the second one.  This is what I've done with my spare when I sheared the barrel off.

Yes, the broken pieces still have some merit.  The barrel of the sheared hot end is the only thing that is not any good anymore.    Once you remove the sheared piece from the nozzle, it's as good as any other nozzle.  You'd just have to clean it out with acetone.  A good heating with some fire (either a torch or gas flame from a stove) will help to clean out the remaining plastic.  You can quench the heat of the nozzle in a small bowl of isopropyl alcohol (ventilate the area when doing so) which will evaporate once you remove the cooled nozzle from it, leaving no water behind. 

The PEEK is still good.  You would need to remove the barrel and replace it.  MakerGear sells barrels for about ~$7.50 + shipping.  There doesn't need to be any heat for this, but you do have to be a bit slow when you remove the barrel.  if you want, you can heat the barrel a little to give yourself a bit of a start, but mine unscrewed pretty easily.

The thermistor and heater block from the second one are still good. The block goes back on the barrel first and the thermistor just needs to be re-attached to the nozzle after it's in place on the barrel.

The only change you have to make is to let your slicer know that you're using a different sized nozzle diameter.  Slic3r has it in the printer settings configuration area under Extruder1 .  So once you change it there the changes will carry though for all your slicing.  You may want to recalibrate flow rate, but it's a simple process.   

We're all the same way when it comes to the "infernal machine."  The important thing is to not panic and remember that you can come here for advice.  You do want to use the search function, though, to see if someone else has experienced the same problem.

I returned the first hot-end several weeks ago, and I think they agreed to send me a brand new one recently. I'll see what arrives.