Picked up a used Star sizer earlier this summer with a bunch of dead guy reloading stuff, I had never fooled with Star's before, barely even paid attention to them. I decided I would like to give it a try but the .457 die that came with it is too small for anything I do.
Started looking at ordering a die in a size I could use, was surprised by the price, it was more than I paid for the sizer. Before I start ordering sizers I thought I would try coming up with an alternative. Did a fair amount of research here and on the web. Didn't see anything promising.
Last night it struck me that Mec bushings are same shape, could they fit? Well, almost. They are shorter and smaller diameter. But they do have a shoulder. Did some digging in the Kennedy's and pulled out my plastic shim stock. A single wrap of .030 plastic shim stock is a perfect fit. The #26 bushing I tried measured .400, I had some pure lead .410 slugs left over from slugging a barrel several years back. Gave them a try and they worked, dead soft and way to big and they worked for an initial trial.
Mec makes bushings starting @ #10 and finishing @ #46. I measured my #12 I have in my .410 Grabber @.2835, #10 and #11 will be smaller yet. I had a #36(probably leftover from boomer 12 loads)on the shelf that measures @ .476 looks like a candidate for 470 Nitro Express boolits.
Next step is to figure out the height location for the lube holes and see if this brain fart will actually work.
Yes, I understand the Mec bushings are aluminum, but for low volume sizes I suspect it will take me years to wear one out.
The lube hole appears to hit the side of the Mec bushing ~ 3/16" above the bottom of the bushing. May be too close to the bottom of the bushing to work.
The #36 bushing is one I will probably never use again, sacrificial lamb on the altar of research. Or a brutal death on the horns of another dumb idea.
With the list of "get it done before the snow flies" stuff I've got to do, it may take until Christmas until this cycles back around to continue.
Any suggestions, comments, heckles?