Star Air Tank

[Viper225]

I have been cleaning the reloading room up a little.
I decided it was about time to get the Star Lube/Sizer up and running.
I picked up a 1/2" thick aluminum plate a while back to set the Iron on for a heater for the Star. Today I rounded up all the screws to get the Star and Heater Plate mounted to the bench.

I again started my search for a small Air Tank. I again checked out the 20# Oxygen bottle at Sharp Shooters for $55. By the time I got done making it useable, I was going to get close to $100 in it. Next thought was using a Green Coleman propane cylinder. It looked like a Torch Head would adapt it from the bottle to 1/8" pipe thread. Well that did not work out, as the new torch heads available at my local hardware store have a toy sized pipe between the valve housing, and the nozzle, and not the 1/8" pipe on the older models. I was about to round up a Helium tank for blowing up balloons, when the guy who works with my brother at the hardware store mentioned that he had a small portable air compressor that the compressor had quit on. I made a run to his house and retrieved it from the back of his pickup truck. In about 30 minutes I had it disassembled down to just the air tank. I am not sure about the size, but a good guess would be 2-3 gallon. It looks to be about the same size as an air-nailer pancake air compressor tank,only with a cylinder shaped tank. At this point I went to rounding up the parts needed. A hose barb to attach the section of 1/4" air hose to the tank, another hose barb to connect the other end of the hose to the quick connect hose end. A new air pressure gage, one 1/8" Pipe Plug, and a 1/8" close nipple, 1/8" to 1/4" pipe adapter and a 1/4" pipe thread valve stem to air the tank up.
I should be able to get it all put together tomorrow during the snow.
I still need an iron, but a trip to Wal Mart will take care of that.

I now have Star Dies for the 44 Magnum, and 480 Ruger made by Lathsmith. I will need to do some shopping, or put Lathsmith back to work, and get .357, .401, and .452 sizers rounded up in the near future.

I will see about a picture when I get the tank up and running.

Bob R

[winelover]

Expect to be filling up that 2-3 gallon tank, quite frequently. I use a 5 gal portable tank, from NAPA, for less than $50 and it doesn't last very long between fillings. And, yes, there are no leaks. PITA, to be lugging it up nineteen steps, from the basement, to the garage air compressor. If I had known, I would have purchased a "pancake" style unit.

Winelover

[cheese1566]

I have a three gallon compressor under my bench for blowing off presses and stuff. Once it fills, I can run my air cylinder on my star luber for quite a while without the motor kicking or drops on pressure. I don't keep,it plugged in between uses so it does slowly leak air and empties over a weeks time. (No, I dont keep it attached to the star.)

[rodsvet]

I have a small tank (3-4 gallon) from Harbor freight. I think it was $25 or so. I fill it about every 10,000 bullets or so. My Star uses basically no cu. ft., just pressure. Your set-up may be different. I have the air cylinder not the kit that pressures the lube tank.