tightening plunger to fix "air printing" - IMPROVING

I have never been able to print on the "high" resolution setting and I frequently get "air prints" where the extrusion stops and the bot prints nothing.

I tightened the plunger following the somewhat indeterminate instructions here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOJN_8AAC9U&feature=youtu.be

now for a test print...
I'm not sure what happened, but I'm guessing the extruder "air printed" for a few layers, and then started extruding filament again, which then got all wound up because it couldn't stick to the preceding layer.
I did observe that the spool had no slack in it.  This may be related to the feed problem.

I'm starting to lose my patience with this bullshit.

This printer is advertised as ready to go out of the box.
Instead I have to take it apart and tighten hard to reach bolts that may or may not be the cause of my problem.

I put some slack in the spool and things got a bit better until the end...

I think the problem may be related to the yellow filament, when the R2 prints its approach stripe, it is quite uneven.  I'm moving back to the clear filament, which has a better feel to it.  It feels glossier and less chaulky, to use some imprecise terms.

This may be the problem:

HAVING TROUBLE PRINTING

Extrusion stops during a build

This problem has a few possible causes. 

1. Your filament may have gotten tangled. The spool should rotate easily when you pull on the free end of filament. Unload the filament, untangle the spool, and reload. 

2. The plate may be too close to the nozzle, blocking the plastic from extruding. If your extruder put down one or two layers before stopping, this is probably the problem. Reload the filament and level the build plate. 

3. Your PLA filament can overheat and soften, making it difficult for the extruder's drive gear to push it down into the nozzle. Reload the filament and try printing at a slightly lower temperature