A few issues for a newbie

Hi!  I think your first three issues are related very closely so I'll address them together.  Firstly, saying your filastruder is working too fast is like saying that you have too much money.  Fast is a good thing as long as the quality is good.  I think from reading your issues that the core issue is your filament is not the desired diameter.  This is because the filament is a certain diameter out of the nozzle and then it stretches to be thinner.  The two major factors that contribute to the stretching is the viscosity and the tension.  My understanding is that the viscosity of PLA is higher than ABS even at the lower normal extrusion temps so you're going to experience more stretching naturally - there is some advice elsewhere in the forums here that people who are extruding PLA tend to drill out the nozzle to make the dia larger - this means that when it stretches then it will get thinner to your desired diameter.  I have drilled my nozzle to be 2mm to allow for some stretching.  The second factor that affects your stretching is the weight of filament that is causing tension on the output.  So you can lift the filastruder sensor.  This will reduce the mass of filament that is between the filastruder and the sensor - thus reducing the weight - thus reducing the tension - thus reducing the stretch.  Also, you can put more cooling at the output nozzle of the filastruder to cool it faster (a fan with a duct can be good) - but you might find by adjusting other things you don't need a fan - I don't use one.

145° is pretty low.  I suggest using the normal higher temp and adjusting other things first.  The height of the sensor is particularly easy and effective.

I did have it wrong at first and couldn't get it calibrated, but after flipping it I was able to get it calibrated. Even after calibrating it never moves in auto. Maybe my magnet isn't in the correct orientation?   I thought I made sure it was north like the instructions said.

Not sure about inches/minute.  I couldn't it get extruded without turning into a big mess.  Before I moved the fan mount so the guide is basically bypassed, it would drop immediately out of the nozzle and curl up into a big blob before it even made it to the guide.  Decreasing temp allowed it to make it a little further but once it hit the guide it would stick and do the same thing.  I never tried keeping high temperature (and thus speed) after bypassing the guide, but wouldn't the higher temps increase the stretching effect and decrease diameter further?  I could try drilling it to 2mm, but my drop is about 3 feet before the Filawinder takes it.  At 145 it is still very stretchy when it makes it to the Filawinder.

BTW, did I miss the instructions on how to calibrate the PID?  I set mine to 145 and it maintains that temp when not extruding, but it jumps from 130 to 155 when extruding.

PID autotuning instructions are on page 9. They should be done while extruding. If you move or change the fan position or speed, autotuning needs to be done again.

145C sounds really low to be getting much output at all. I'd expect only a few inches per minute at that speed. If you're seeing more, it sounds like a setting in your PID controller is incorrect, like it might be set to the wrong type of thermocouple and therefore reading the temperature incorrectly. Please compare your controller's settings against the factory defaults, as described on page 9 of the instruction PDF.

Did you do the purge with the included ABS? If so, how did you handle the changeover to PLA?

The Filawinder should work as designed, if you're still having trouble try sending an email to filawinder at gmail, that'll get you in touch with Ian - the creator.

OMG this is so awesome once it is correctly set up and working.  I almost gave up a few times but I'm glad I didn't.  My Filastruder/Filawinder are running correctly and spooling up nicely.  It looks like it will take about 8 hours per kilo - so a little slower than I would prefer, but at least I'm producing some valuable filament now.  BTW if anyone is interested here are my settings:

Filastruder vertical mounted, barrel turned to one side with vertical hopper
PLA extruding at 175C
Nozzle drilled to 2mm
Fan cooling filament about 4 inches below the nozzle
Producing 1.75mm +-5mm filament