Well I am late to the party in the sense I have had my filawinder boxed up for a couple of years because I was busy with work travelling. I just finished my filawinder and have yet to put together my filastruder. I wanted to tackle the easy one first.
I am in the same boat as you.
I followed the video by Ian Johnson that goes step by step this is what happened:
Power button turned on as soon as I plugged in becuase the button was backwords.
The laser came on with no problem.
I just wanted to align the arm with the size of the spool and so I turned the knob.
the spool would not turn loosened the holding nut which was only tightened by hand.
After I was able to get the spool turning I then tried to calibrate the buttons as you tried by following the video.
Now I get power but the motor does not work.
I have not plugged in my arduino board as that was my next option, but I thought my motor went kaput on the first time.
I checked the voltage with a multimeter and there was nothing.
I am thinking if it was working the first time maybe the arduino is fine, but I am having my doubts.
I hate to echo your complaints but I think we may have some duds.