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Looking for a little advice fo my new Star sizer with air feed and a Lyman lubrisizer heater. I will be sizinf 40 S&W and 9mm on this setup.
1. When using Carnuba Red, do you leave the heater on continously or plug it and unplugged it.
2. About how much air pressure should I set the air feed on?
I made a temp controller from a dimmer switch. I use it continuously but with very low heat. Might not even be 90 degrees.
As for pressure, I use all I can with the "stock" turn screw.
This allows me to get pretty good lube fill without too much on the nose when the punch is adjusted.
It took me a long time to find what works for me. Just keep on varying one or the other till you find what works for you.
I use White Labels "Commercial Red" which is slightly harder then the Carnuba Red, and I run at 110-112 degrees- depending on the temp in the room. Run 55-65 lbs pressure. This is in the Magma Lube Master which is the commercial sized machine.
I just leave the heater on.
it cycles on it's own.
don't take much I'd rather use higher pressure than high heat.
Just by chance I have a prewired dimmer switch ready to go that I can use. I used to use it on my electric smoker to control the hot plate.
You will need to use your dimmer. The $40+ Lyman is not a thermostatic heater. It is either plugged in and on, or unplugged and off.
I don't have the air assist, but my Star is on a Star heating base, it has a thermostat that cycles it on & off. I use a dig therm clamped to the base to see what the temp is for certain lubes. CR seems to run fine around 90-95deg.
I use a Lyman heater with my Star. I have a rheostat so that I can adjust the temperature (heat is necessary but I run it rather low). It doesn't take long to see what works.
You can easily build a rheostat by using a light dimmer switch. The wattage is low, so the common light dimmer has plenty of capacity to handle the wattage in the Lyman heater.
Dale53
This morning I realized that I had aa electronic digital temp controller that I use for fermenting beer that controls heaters and coolers. I taped the probe to the top of the heater and set the temp at 100 and the PSI on the air feed to 60. Everything worked out great and I had 500 bullets sized and lubed before I knew it.
Thanks for all the information andideas from this board.
I made a dimmer controlled outlet for my Lyman 4500 with their standard heater. As has been suggested, that heater is either plugged in and ON , or unplugged and OFF.
By using a 500 watt rotary dimmer switch, to feed juice to an outlet, I can control the temperature of the heater very accurately. I wrote in some marks on the plastic dimmer plate cover, indicating the temperatures (use an infrared temperature sensor from Radio Shack to check temperatures).
Made all the problems associated with plugging/unplugging/guessing go away. And, now the lubes are always the exact right temperature. never too hard, never too soft.