Sizer Base Heater

[Viper225]

I have my Star Lube/Sizer bolted down to a 1/2" Aluminum Plate. Just wondering, Do I need to use washers or Bakelite, etc to either space off, or insulate the Base Heater Plate from the plywood bench?

Bob R

[VHoward]

No. 100 degrees is not going to harm your bench. You would have to get over 600 degrees before you started charring.

[hermans]

I have mine just bolted down on my pine bench, and you can hardly see any dis-coloration of the wood.

[db2009]

I have a star lube sizer attached with a lyman lube heater How can I install a light dimmer to keep the heater in a constant temperature. I saw a man on YouTube that add one on his star size. I believe his name was Troy Mesa.

[DukeInFlorida]

I made up a light dimmer controller for my heater:

Use a metal "two gang" electrical box. The same box you would use if installing two outlets in a wall.

Install a outlet/plug in one side of the box, and a lighting type dimmer switch in the other side of the box.

Use a cord, with ground, and run that into the side of the box, using a metal box romex clamp made for that purpose.

Wire the black wire of the cord into the black side of the outlet.

Wire the white wire into the white wire of the dimmer. Run the black wire from the dimmer to the WHITE side of the outlet.

Connect the ground wire of the cord to both the grounds on the outlet and switch.

Install a two gang plastic cover (one side dimmer switch with a round hole, and the other side the two oblong cutouts for the outlet) to keep all the wiring safe.

You plug the controller into live power/wall.

Then, plug the heater into the controller box outlet, and turn the dimmer knob on to heat the heater. If you have a infrared heat detector gun, you can get a rough calibration for the dimmer controller.

The dimmer switches come in two basic wattages. Get the one with the higher wattage rating. Costs less than $10 to make this version. I made mine with free spare pack rat parts I had saved for such an occasion.

[Ugluk]

Better than a dimmer switch is a digital temp controller. I use one of these: http://www.ebay.com/itm/10A-Temperat...-/141173227724
Has worked like a charm for many years and several tens of thousands of boolits. My heater element is an aluminum block with a 30w element donated by an old soldering iron.

[357Wheelgunner]

Better than a dimmer switch is a digital temp controller. I use one of these: http://www.ebay.com/itm/10A-Temperat...-/141173227724
Has worked like a charm for many years and several tens of thousands of boolits. My heater element is an aluminum block with a 30w element donated by an old soldering iron.

+1 on using the digital controller. They are cheep and let you repeat settings accurately or change temperatures by a few degrees at a time accurately, no guessing. I used to use dimmer switches but when i bought a new Star a couple of years ago put a digital controller on it. I now have them on both my Star sizers and my two Lyman 450's and would not go back to the uncontrollable, inaccurate dimmer switches.

[OeldeWolf]

The timer description says 10W, and you are using a 30W heater. Do you use an SSR, or other type of relay?

[Dale53]

Oeldewolf;
The specs say "10 amps", not 10 watts.

FWIW,
Dale53

[bruce381]

thats what i have in F temps works well with a 300 watt cartridge heater.

[trixter]

I bought one of these


and got it to read temp, and go to heat, but nothing to the wires to the Lyman plate, is there something I am missing?

[HATCH]

It's pretty straight forward

I am assuming your running 115vac

Term #

1 - power hot
2- power neutral

3 + 4 is the sensor

5 + 6 is the relay connections for heating

7+8 is the relay connections for cooling

Your heater has two wires.
You want to take one of those wires and run it thru the

heating relay terminals

I haven't used that device and hell might not even be the right diagram I picked out but you should get the idea

If it was me. Get a ten foot 3 wire extension cord
Cut it in 1/2.
Go ahead and cut a section out so you basically have a plug with 3 feet and then another end with 3 feet
Use that


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[trixter]

I did not know that I needed a relay, oh boy more stuff to buy. More study, or call an electrician friend.