Topic: Filastruder / FilaWinder black segment and stretch marks
I'm filastruding and filawinding nicely and consistently now, but I did notice a couple things that were troubling me. One thing is that about half way through filastruding and filawinding 2 lbs of white ABS, I noticed a segment (several feet) of filament was actually not white, like it was very dark, as if burned (see picture, right in the middle of the spool, although it's hard to see, but it's that area that is a bit darker. It may look like a shadow, and a little bit of it is, but it's mostly just dark). Let me tell you that I have not yet put a shred of any colourant in the filastruder. I have only used white so far. Any idea what could cause that? I'm extruding 3mm ABS filament (actual: 2.85mm) at 192.5 c, vertically.
The other issue I'm having is the apparent stretch marks on the filament after it is wound (right after it comes out of the PTFE tube). This probably doesn't happen with 1.75mm filament, but 3mm is very stiff and as soon as it starts bending a little, you can see stretch marks on the entire thing. How come filament you purchase doesn't look like that? I have a feeling that one way to fix this would be to slightly heat up the filament immediately prior to spooling it to a specific temperature that won't change the filament consistency but will be just enough to soften it for easy spooling. Do you think this would work? I had this crazy idea to try to point a halogen light (see picture) at the spool just far enough to soften the filament. I've actually been using a halogen light just like this one in certain cases to heat up ABS/PLA parts after printing them so I can mold them a little if they don't come out perfect. Like if a part warps, I've actually been able to unwarp it using this method. Any ideas?