Problem with Star Lubrizier

[McLintock]

I cast up about 6-700 pills from the new 314-120 Lee mould I just got through the group buy deal, and went to load some up in both 32 H&R Mag and 32-20, with black powder and soft lube, the past couple of days. Lubed them with my Star machine and couldn't get it to stop lube streaking on the nose of the bullet. Called Magma and they said either reduce pressure or locate the bullet higher or lower in the die. I tried both and nothing seems to stop the streaking. I've went one way on location adjustment till it stops lubing and the other way till it pushes a big gob out between bullets, but the streaking never entirely stops; it reduces but never stops and it's variable, you get heavy streaks one time and lighter streaks the next, without any change in adjustment. Any suggestions would be appreciated. I'm using a .313 die with all but the middle holes plugged and the bullets, before sizing, seem to measure .3135 to .314 with my 1" mic. When lubing .44's, it streaks but does stop with less pressure.
Thanks for any suggestions,
McLintock

[PatMarlin]

I'm not familiar with those stars, but could this be another yet "out of round" LEE mold dilema?

[omgb]

Star machines work best when the bullet is a full +.001 over the size of the die. You are pretty close to that so lets try another track. Unplug the top lube hole and plug the middle lube holes. Sizing nose first, set it up so that the bullet must be well into the die before the lube goes out. That should work. Also, as a last resort, use a stiffer lube. IIRC, you were using this for BP? Hmm, if that's the case a stiffer lube isn't an option really. Any way, try changing lube holes and lets see if that works.

[Lee W]

I am guessing you are not using heat. The only thing left after bullet placement in the die is pressure.
Perhaps running the bullet through faster might help. I have done it with some reduction in excess lube.
If you use heat, then that is another story...

[McLintock]

Thanks for the ideas and I may have to play with the hole placement as suggested. I have an automatic bullet feeder on it and ran 8 or 10 through as fast as I could crank it and still not mess anything up and it still streaked. I'll call Magma again tomorrow and see if they can give me any other suggestions. Maybe it's just made to streak.
Thanks again for the comebacks.
McLintock

[slughammer]

When I use hard lube in my Star I need to adjust pressure and temperature to work together. You're allready adjusting pressure and not getting what you need. Perhaps try adjusting temperature? You're going to need to find a colder place to have your sizer/luber or you're going to have to throw an ice pack on it to stiffen the lube.

Only other advise is to try the lowest set of holes. If you are getting incomplete fill of the grooves, remember to not bounce at the end of the stroke; hold it for 1/2 second to allow the stiffer lube to move.

[McLintock]

OK, I think that changing lube holes is the next thing to try, but I've got one suggestion for trying the very top holes and one for the very bottom holes, any tie breakers as I don't really know which one to try first, except do one and if that doesn't work do the other. This winter I can really get it cold in the reloading room so will see if that makes a difference also. Also, there's really no problem filling the grooves except when I let the pressure get down real low. The lube is pretty soft and sticky, it's a receipe that I got out of a Paul Mathews book and has beeswax, Neatsfoot Oil, Murphy's Oil Soap and Olive Oil in it; works pretty good but is soft and sticky.
McLintock

[pcb]

Make sure that the holes you have plugged are indeed plugged. Sometimes the little shot comes out and smears lube as you have descibed. PCB

[Iron River Red]

I am curious if you got your sizer working by now.

If not, examine your bullet carefully. If the mold does not fill out completely, the sizer will always push lube past the imperfections. Nothing will stop that.

If you have tried changing to a different set of holes with no luck and are sure the mold is good, try adding some tin solder to your alloy to aid in fill out.

I have a few die/bullet combinations that are always trouble setting up. In general I have found with mine that the lowest possible set of holes works best. However, my heated setup and hard lube advice may not work for you.

I want to know more about your bullet feeder. Do you have a bullet collator in combination with your feeder? If so, where did it come from?

Thanks and good luck.

red

[McLintock]

Thanks for the replies but I haven't been able to work with it lately, I'm shooting a four day cowboy shoot this week had to get ready for it with some other reloading I hadn't anticipated. Next week I go elk hunting so won't be able to work with it much for the rest of this month.
pcb, I filled all holes in the die except for the three middle ones and the streaks line up with them so I don't think any have come out, but will check them all when I change locations.
Iron River Red, once the mould is heated up the bullets appear to be fully filled out with no voids or any imperfections that I can see, even with a pair of magnifiers on. I'm using a 20-1 lead-tin alloy which is considered a fairly hard one for black powder, and weighing the pure tin myself before adding to the lead, so am pretty sure the alloy is good; it makes good bullets for both my 45-70 and 38-55 and fills out 540 and 330 gr moulds real well and consistently. I'll go with trying the low hole location first (you broke the tie) and see if that helps.
On the bullet feeder, it's the one sold by Magma for the Star machine and doesn't have a collator (don't know what that does even), but when everythings going right, it sure puts out bullets in a hurry. It takes plastic tubes, kind of like primer tubes, that you fill with bullets, insert a tube and go for it.
McLintock

[HickoryCreek]

Thanks for the replies but I haven't been able to work with it lately, I'm shooting a four day cowboy shoot this week had to get ready for it with some other reloading I hadn't anticipated. Next week I go elk hunting so won't be able to work with it much for the rest of this month.
McLintock

Life is rough :mrgreen:

[McLintock]

Was talking with a pair of cowboy shooters who use Stars (one of them sells commercial bullets) over the weekend and brought up my problem with the Star and streaking on the .32's. One of them said to plug one hole and only use two and move to the lowest holes in the die if needed. Will be trying this procedure when I get back to it.
McLintock