? of those who do not like magma star lubesizer?

[engineer401]

I am very happy with mine. I use BAC lube from Lar45 who is a vendor sponsor. It takes a little heat.

[hermans]

Been using my Star for 2 years now. Before I started to use it, I spent may hours reading up about the do's and the dont's....right here on Cast Boolits. So, mine worked just fine, right from the start.

[HATCH]

Like everything in life if you don't learn the way it operates then your gonna just get frustrated with it.
I have a lyman 45. Yes its a excellant machine and does what it was designed to do. Problem is that its slow.
You have to remove the boolit after it is sized. you have to have the correct top punch. It doesn't like BB boolits.

I switched to the Star. yeah some times when I am setting it up, I swear I could throw it in the trash. But once its setup its does a great job.
What I have done is I purchase a top punch and lock nut from Lathesmith for each design of boolit I size.

Also I do everything in batches now. i don't just cast up 100 boolits of one type and size them. I cast up 500 to 1K min and then size them.
For time saving the Star beats any other hand operated sizer hands down.

[AR Man]

i been reading the stuff on this sight for about two yrs. everything from lube making to the star press. just started using the star press this month. everything i read about it on here has happened. i still have the partly lubed bullet half the time. so i ground out a larger area around ea hole on the 45cal die. seems to fill the two lube rings most of the time now. lowered the air down from 115 to 60psi but still that lube on the nose stays. i think its time for a lathesmith die that i been reading about. i read about getting a couple extra holes added to the lube ring. at this my wife can do more on the lyman than i can on the star because i take ex time going over the half lubed bullets and wiping the nose of lube.

[Old Caster]

I have used the new and old Stars and see no difference. I have an old adjustable heater on my old Star and can install hard lube with no problem but think that soft lubes, even though they are a pain getting on everything while in the container including the bottom needing to occasionally be wiped off, are better and are what I generally use. Sometimes when starting up, even the soft lubes like NRA 50 - 50 might stick in the tube where the spring will not push hard enough making you crank on the pressure a lot, and after it breaks loose, depending on what bullet you are lubing and how many grooves, it might go 100 bullets or so before it is necessary to apply more pressure and will work fine until you are out of lube. When it is time to apply more pressure it is easy to feel this on the last pull of the handle at the bottom of the stroke because it will suddenly feel soft. The worst thing about the sizers like the 4500 is having to take the bullet back out each time and it being necessary to crank the pressure virtually every stroke. They are easier, cheaper, and quicker to adjust but much slower.

[Ozarklongshot]

OK Now ya'll are makin me a bit nervous. Star called friday to tell me that my sizer was being shipped (a month early at that) After some fast PM's with lathe smith my dies will be on the way soon. I'm worse than a kid at christmas and probably wont sleep much. After years of using a couple lyman 45's and my wife helping keep up with the lube/sizing to feed a pair of dillon 550's. I figure this magma star will be the ticket for higher volume/ no muss / no fuss lube sizing. Buckets full O' cast ready to lube and now I hear that they can be problematic ? Tell me I haven't made a very expensive mistake...

[HATCH]

You will not have a problem. I sized up 800 45 230 rn in less when a hr.its all about setup.


1/2 lubed boolits is setup.
Need more heat or more pressure or both

[engineer401]

Tell me I haven't made a very expensive mistake...

You made the right choice. It took me awhile to get things set up properly. It now works perfectly. I also have the roller from Lathesmith. I also have an aftermarket air pressure kit I purchased through a Cast Boolits member. Both are nice additions.

[357maximum]

I would fight ya viking style to keep the STAR bolted to my bench....never had a single issue setting mine up with alot of die changes under my belt, pretty simple once ya done it a few times. JUST DON'T EVERFILL THE RESEVOIR.....bad...all bad...like code brown hershey squirt bad.

With appropriate dies from Lathesmith I cannot see someone having an issue, but there are those out there that should not be allowed to operate a hammer or a marlin 336 for that matter.

[engineer401]

I would fight ya viking style to keep the STAR bolted to my bench....never had a single issue setting mine up with alot of die changes under my belt, pretty simple once ya done it a few times. JUST DON'T EVERFILL THE RESEVOIR.....bad...all bad...like code brown hershey squirt bad.

With appropriate dies from Lathesmith I cannot see someone having an issue, but there are those out there that should not be allowed to operate a hammer or a marlin 336 for that matter.

Well said. I can hardly type because I am laughing so hard.

[RoGrrr]

What I've found is that changing from one type boolit to another, use not only the appropriate sizer die but its own dedicated matching punch nut WITH SETSCREW.
Once you have it set for the lube groove, lock the setscrew and change them both together. Yes, it's extravagant to have so many extra punches but they are always adjusted for your next use.

The real extravagance is that I still need one more gun. NOT !

[gmsharps]

I typically use 3 different lubes for different occasions therefore I have 3 star sizers. I would not get rid of any of them. I also have a Lyman 45 and it workss great also. They all have a purpose and place and work for my purposes. All of them can be a pain in the butt at times but I have learned to deal with it. it's just part of the game.

gmsharps

[FishingFool]

Sized and lubed 1k 45-70 rounds with 50/50 mix. No problems. Haven't tried harder lubes but I can see how getting the pressure and heat right could be frustrating.

[Ozarklongshot]

My new star arrived earlier this week. It's beautiful ! Dug around in the shop and pretty sure I have all the stuff to fit air pressure lube. While I was at it, I took a look at a gear reduction motor I have. After I get the hang of manual operation I think I can fit it with an electric motor drive. I don't care for the way the air cylinders slam on the operation cycle. Then maybe a bullet carousel and ... Haa haa Lots of grand plans.
Anyway Its a very nice sizer and I can see acquiring more. It would appear that older ones would be relatively simple to refurb.

[gunoil]

To much noise, pedal power:
http://i1113.photobucket.com/albums/...psbd6c9d1b.mp4