Fellow casters, I have a have chance to get a Star Lubesizer that is in pretty good shape. Around my parts they are not real common like the RCBS or the Lyman. Whats the rough value for some thing like that without dies? I want to offer a fair price. I see the new ones are over $300 which is out of my price range. I have been happy with my RCBS or the lee push thru though but thought the Star would be kind of neat.
thanks
$175-$200 is fair with no dies or punches.
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Wish list. Things my daughter and I are looking for.
Ideal and Lyman HP pins
Kimber micro 9 mags
Star die removal tool, 430 die & TP.
Cocking stud and ejector Stevens 15a
I have two, I bought one used and one new.
With a heater I paid $300 for the used one in great shape.
I would be shocked if you find one for $200
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They cost more in time than money. I paid about $400 for mine 4 months ago with a couple dies, and the air feed. I have yet to get mine to work. They are not a good design.
Not a good design??
The unit churns out sized, or lube/sized bullet faster by a large margin than anything in its class.
To me that saves time.
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Yup complete garbage. Sorry you got conned, I’ll give ya $250 for it all, just shoot me a PM.Originally Posted by megasupermagnum
Mega, You bought yours used and without the stock parts. Once you get it together with the correct parts, you will find it to be a useful machine. I will echo the above, if you want to sell it, I will take seconds.
I have 2 450's and a Star. The Star only has .359 and .410 dies, but that is what I size the most of when I get around to it. The machines are wonderful! I was given mine by a very good friend some 25 years ago. That price will never be seen again, but a fair price without dies in my mind would be in the range of 165 to 200 depending upon condition.
It had the stock air cylinder, and I now have the stock manual lube system, the complete assembly. It doesn't work. So far Magma has been zero help. If I remember, I'll give them a call tomorrow and give them one more chance.
If it is for sale, it will be $400 for everything.
@JimB, it's a fair warming for the OP. These machines do not work out of the box.
@oterman, mine hasn't turned out more than maybe 50 shootable bullets in 4 months. It's not from a lack of effort, I've been trying it about twice a week, plus back and forth on this forum, plus calling Magma. I have a heaping coffee can of junk bullets to show for it.
If you guys truly believe these are good machines, PLEASE go to my thread in the star sizer section.
Dude, sorry you have had a case of bad luck. But many of us have done 10's of thousands of bullets on these and they really work well. When I do my 38's and 357's, I do not start with less than 1000 cast of the same type, then a quick adjustment for the next 1000+ and so on.
@megasupermagnum, it is not uncommon to have issue with any piece of used reloading gear, no matter how good. All this stuff is a little fiddly to be sure. My star sizer was almost nib, although decades old. I know we’re getting off track, but I’d either send it in for an overhaul or strip it down and use it to size coated bullets.
All that said, I haven’t done more than pump a little lube through mine. Shortly after I got it a guy died and left me about 30k bullets so I’ve been dealing with them, and by dealing with I mean shooting.
I had to import my Star some years ago - I live in Darkest Africa, and although it was very expensive given our bad exchange rate to the dollar , it is still one of the best "investments" I have made to date.
I unpacked it, mounted it, and after some reading here on this very forum, I manged to get mine cranking out perfectly lubed/sized boolits in no time.
That was about 10 years ago, and it is still working perfectly!
After seeing several used ones in not so great shape go for the cost of a new one , I decided to just order a new one the only difference is the magma is gray . I love it !!!!!!
There is no real set price on a used Star or Magma. The Star is the older of the two units and commands more more money simply because its older and carries the Star name. No difference between the two other than the Magma seems to be a sand cast unit that is machined and it isn't painted. I have one of each. They are NOT hard to setup for anyone with the slightest amount of mechanical ability. I purchased my Star for around $150 because it had a full load of hardened lube which ended up to be some sort of home grown grease and something that turned into almost cement. I wasted two tubes of lube and simply pushed the old out using the new. I ran two tubes of new lube thru it until the lube coming out was clean.
I would pass on the factory aluminum plate heater and the factory air cylinder. You can make a better heater yourself and purchase the air cylinder and parts to do your own air cylinder at a fraction of the cost. I would also pass on any Star or magma sizing dies because some have been modified by owners to different diameters or simply worn. I opt for custom made sizing dies with ONE set of lube holes and no holes to plug or cause problems. Yes, its more money but there is no leakage no holes to open up or close. I have sizing die that does all my 45 caliber bullets with only a simple height adjustment in the ram needed to accomplish it.
Gauge the cost on the fact a new Magma is roughly $350 so anything in good shape should command anywhere from about $250 - $300 or better. Don't buy something that has been welded or otherwise molested because its probably not a good buy. There is no "Blue Book" on Star or Magma value just use your head and good purchasing skills to acquire it.
Please remember no sales outside swap and sell.
Dude, these aren't hard to setup once you look at how they work. My simple way of setting on up with a new sizing die the first time is to remove the sizing die from the Star/Magma unit. Place it on the bench. Take a bullet and measure from the base of the bullet to the first lube grooves center and record that measurement. I then measure from the top of the sizing die to the center of the first lube groove and record that measurement. Take the second measurement minus the first and record this measurement. What you end up here is going to be the measurement needed from the base of the bullet to the top of the sizing die. This should if done right give you what you need to have your bullets lube groove centered in the first lube hole. This is easy to check by inserting a pin or small drill bit into the lube hole of the sizing die and seeing that your at the center of the lube groove. If your not you simply move the bullet one direction or the other until you have the center of the bullets lube groove aligned with the lube hole in the sizing die. Once you have the measurement you will carefully insert the sizing die into the star/Magma ans slowly lower your punch down with the Star/Magma at its lowest and contacting the lube pump. Simply adjust the punch until it contacts the bullet base carefully. This method has been fool proof for me. Once you have it setup correctly you can take a punch height measurement with the sizing ram at its top and record this measurement. The next time you setup you will simply adjust the punch height at the rams top dead center and you will be right on. Other problems would be pressure of the air cylinder and temp of the bullet lube.
James23 - keep in mind that there is a learning curve on a Star. After I got everything set correctly I can size and lube about 1K of bullets in an hour, that is with no bullet feeder
but with a homemade air cylinder and a makeshift heater. I would recommend getting the lock nuts that Laithsmith sells and then you can set the top punch and forget it.
I will admit that I got discouraged with the thing at first but thing after some tinkering and getting it setup correctly I haven't looked back.
I purchase custom sizing dies and two piece punches from Lathesmith. If your using a bullet feeder then you seed the special punch nut from Magma.
I bought my Star used at a gun show for $65 with a die and punch. I have been grinning ear to ear ever since. It takes a bit of fiddeling to get it set right but wow can it lube and size a lot of boolits in a hurry without putting lube where it doesn't belong.
I make my own dies and punches which work fine but I'm interested in how you make a die with one set of holes work on a loverin boolit or for that matter on any boolit with more than one lube groove?
Back to the OP's question.
Price for a "I have chance to get a Star Lubesizer that is in pretty good shape"
If you are familiar with them, and know how they work, so as to judge that it is in working order and is complete, then $200 to $250 would be the price I'd pay, if I needed a second one.
I "accidently" got a screaming good deal on a Star w/dies, about 8 years ago. I probably never would have bought a Star, thinking the Lyman 45 did everything I needed done. But once I got this Star (that I didn't even expect was part of a estate deal), I fell in love with it, The Star is a wonderful machine, worth more money than you'd expect it's worth.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“If someone has a gun and is trying to kill you, it would be reasonable to shoot back with your own gun.”
― The Dalai Lama, Seattle Times, May 2001
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