Star Sizer lube problem with Lyman cast boollits

[Chad G]

I drove over to Magma last monday and bought a complete basic setup to lube my boolits with, I thought this was the best lube sizer, its a pain my butt. Starting to feel like it was wasted money.

I've been screwing with this press for 2 days now and while I'm lubing some boolits I have to constantly monitor them for wax build up on the shoulder of the boolit, its time consuming and frustrating.

My Dad called Magma yesterday and they said it could be any one 3 things, the pressure, punch adjustment, or heat. Well I've dinked around for the last straight 4 hours with calipers adjusting the punch, I've turned the heater so that it just softens the wax, right upto melting it into liquid and everywhere in between, sure wish there was a temp readout on the plate.

The manual screw and spring valve thing is boggling, I didn't have that much of a problem on the old Lyman press but this Star sizer is giving me the hardest time. How many turns is too much?

The other thing is when I crank the lube screw down I don't always get wax in my lube grooves, sometime I do most of the time I don't.


Mold is a 4 cavity, Lyman .452 200gr SWC with 2 lube grooves. Die is .452 with 2 holes both are open.

[ddeaton]

I feel your pain, I am sizing and lubing .452 1 groove 45acp boolits with a brand new set up and am having the same problems. It is not consistent pushing the lube, almost like air trapped from the hollow center in the lube stick. I dont see why we need the hollow for this style sizer. I started out with White 50/50 lube, which is real soft. I want to switch to a harder lube, so it wont be as messy after the boolits cool. I just want to chime in here cause I had another thread getting into the same topic and maybe we can both work it out without spinning everyones wheels. While I was setting this up, I thought about modifying it to add a thermocouple and digital temp control. But from what I am hearing on this forum, it shouldnt be that picky and once we get tweaked and used to it all will be well. I did notice that some of the bollits that had not filled out (rounded base or groove) when run through, caused lube squeeze out and took a few boolits run after to clear it up. I understand that, feed good stuff through it and get good out. Also, I am running the air cylinder and it didnt seem to make much difference on the pressure setting. I did get a lot of good ones though, I am not giving up.

[mtgrs737]

Too much heat, too much pressure on the screw, depth of bullet in the die. Any of these things will cause you problems. First turn up the heat until the lube is warm but not hot or it will leak thru the die when a new bullet is pushing the previous bullet out. Back off the screw plunger until the lube is hot. Measure down the die to find out where the bottom set of holes is. Then do the math so that the top punch pushes the nose first bullet just past the first driving band and centers up on the first lube groove. The second set of holes should be close enough to the second lube groove to inject it. Check the heat on the body of the luber it should be warm, then add a couple of turns to the screw to move lube into the handle activated plunger. If you have air pockets in the lube reseviour then they will have to work themselves out, just keep running them back through till they pick up lube. I pre melt my lube and pour it in to the reseviour using the cut off top of a 2 liter pop bottle as a funnel. Always let the hot lube completely solidifiy before installing the plunger or lube will squirt out the vent hole. You should now be set up to lube bullets, if no lube is coming out increase heat or spring pressure on the reseviour one at a time but not both or you will not learn which you needed. Once you get it figured out you will love your star.

[ddeaton]

Since I already have 1 and a half sticks of hollow lube in the tube can I crank up the heat without the piston to melt it solid?

[Dennis Eugene]

I never add hollow sticks of lube it causes air pockets I always melt my lube and pour it in also I've never used a heater on my star and i run RCBS hard lube if I need a lil heat I just use the blow dryer for my wifes hair turn it on the resivor tell my lube starts flowing good then off then on again when nessacary. More than likely your problem stems from not getting lube grooves in boolits lined up with holes in sizer die this can be a b--ch but once you get it right and write down thee measurments it is easy to repeat and man once tou get it all straightened out you will love it and never look back. It can be and usully is discourging at first but once the initial learning process is over it's a champ. Don't give up I've had to walk away from mine befor and recover my wits but now would not trade mystar for 2 RCBs's and one Lyman. Dennis

[chrisx1]

First, back off the screw until it is obvious you are not compressing the plunger at all.

I usually start the setup proceedure with the punch depth.
I set the boolit and the die side by side on the bench with both oriented the correct way: Boolit nose down.

Then I align the lube groove(s) with the holes in the die.
Then I measure the distance from the base of the boolit to the top edge of the die. (This is the depth that you want your punch to push the boolit down at its lowest point.)

Put the die back in the press and adjust the punch so it pushes the boolit down correctly.

Now use a piece of rod, or some smaller bullets to clear the die.

Start to turn the reservoir screw in to apply pressure to the spring/lube. Watch inside the die until you begin to see strings of lube come out. Adjust the flow by using the screw. Adjust so that there is about 1/2" of lube coming out every 2 or 3 seconds. Depending on the lube you are using you may have to heat the lube some to get this flow rate adjusted correctly. Once you have it flowing correctly, make note of the screw handle and back it off two turns. This should stop the flow completely.

Push the first boolit into the die with a complete stroke of the punch.

Tighten the screw handle two turns (back to where you had it flowing correctly) and start lubing boolits.

Catch the first few and make sure they are getting lubed correctly. Once you get going, catch every 10th or 20th boolit that goes thru and make sure it is getting lube. You will need to tighten the screw about every 20-30 boolits (depending on the depth/width/quantity of lube grooves you have).

I agree with Dennis, that once you get thru the learning curve, you will never go back to using any other lubrisizer.

Take your time, and if you need some pictures, let me know - I am not all that good with words.

chris

[garandsrus]

Chad G,

A major difference with the Star vs. a Lyman/RCBS is that there are really two things that happen when you pull down the handle. The first, and majority of the handle pull, pushes the slug through the die to size and position it. The second, at the bottom of the handle pull, is that the lube pump is activated to push lube through the holes in the die to lube the boolit.

I am guessing that you are not always activating the lube pump. You should see it move. The boolit will not move any more and the lube will be injected.

As far as the pressure and temp settings, I normally run relatively high pressure, which means that the spring is close to being fully compressed, without too much heat. You can start with a high pressure setting and a low heat setting. See what happens and then increase the heat by some increment. Give the unit 10 minutes or so to stablize and then try again. It should be pretty easy to figure out the right combination by changing either the heat or pressure.

If I see that I am getting spots on the nose of the boolit, which means that I got the lube too soft, I just back off the pressure by 2 or 3 turns of the handle. If that isn't enough, then do another turn. Once the pump stroke is harder than it should be, it's time to add more heat.

John

[cajun shooter]

You also might want to check the diameter of your bullets. The Star will put lube all over if the bullit is smaller than the die. I thought that a mould I had was dropping 454-456 and therefore was using 454 die. Lube every where. Miked the bullets and found them to be 449-451. Problem solved. The Star is far better than anything else. But you can not receive good results by putting in a bad component. Wrong stuff in - wrong out. You will be amazed at how nice it is when you have it right. If all else fails I willl be more than happy to help you out by taking it off your hands.

[Down South]

Yes a smaller dia boolit than the die size will allow lube to squeeze around the sides of the boolit creating a mess. Mic the cast boolit diameter and see if it’s at least the same diameter or greater than your size die. If it’s not then you may consider Beagling the mould.

Also, too much heat or pressure will allow lube to creep into the die between boolits causing the same problem. Looking at the pictures of the incompletely filled lube grooves, I’m wondering if you are applying enough pressure on the down stroke to completely fill the lube grooves.

[Chad G]

Mic'd my boolits they are .454 and consistent. Still experimenting though right now, so far so good, the plunger in the rear for the pump injector is sticking but it is due to wax build up on the outside, I'm not sure why wax is coming from there but will keeping turning the temp up until its working 100%.

2.5 days to set up the 1st die.

[FN in MT]

Chad,

Don't feel ALONE. Recently set up my STAR and had similar problems. I was trying to lube some single groove .45 acp slugs. Lube...EVERYWHERE but in the lube groove. I fiddled with the heater temp and dropped the pressure down, then ran out of slugs. Been far too cold to cast in the garage lately hoping to get some done the next day or two to try it again.

NO doubt about it, theres a "learning curve" with the Star. But like they say, once it's up and running properly it's the FASTEST.

FN in MT

[runfiverun]

wanna figure it out?
explain it to your wife all will become clear to you.

[billyb]

a new star should not have a leak around the return spring. as stated too much pressure,too much heat, back off the heat and pressure and play with the ajustment to get it to fly right. I have had mine for about six years and had the same issues. I have cast several thousand boolits and sized them this fall, the star was and is a very good expenditure. Bill

[AzShooter]

As far as how much tension on the screw for the lube I run about 50 bullets and give the screw 1/2 turn then run another 50 watching at the end to make sure they are completely filled with lube. It's very reliable and very consistent.

Order your next sizing die from Lathesmith on this site and order the screws and nuts from him as well. They will be set up so you can put a lock not on them once they are set to the proper depth.

[Chad G]

Its finally operating like it should, my Dad & I fiddled with it off and on and he ended up getting it close, but didn't add enuff heat. We have 1/2 bucket of 45 lead done & another half to do. I don't think we will be changing this setup right away.

[BigCheese]

First step: align lube groove with holes in die
Maybe this old post of mine will help you filling out the grooves.

If the lube groove is not aligned with the holes in the die, you will have problems with lube where you don't want it. When properly aligned, minimum pressure and temperature are needed. I lube base first (have old Star with separate punches for different bullet noses). For a bullet that has one lube groove:

First, use a vernier to measure distance from the base of the bullet to the center of the lube groove Call this #1. Then measure the distance from the base of the die to the lube holes. (The die will have to be removed from the Star and lube removed to access the holes). Call this #2. Subtract #1 from #2. This is the amount the base of the bullet should be recessed up from the bottom of the die when the lube is forced through the holes.

Use the depth gage at the end of the vernier to span the hole at the bottom of the die. Start a bullet high; keep turning down the top punch and operating the handle (no lube pressure) until the base of the bullet is at the calculated distance above the bottom rim of the die. Once you do this, keep the dimension in a notebook so the Star can be reset when you change bullets.

To make resetting easier, after the setup is complete, you can raise the handle all the way up and use the vernier to measure the distance from the top of the die to the bottom of the punch. Next time you use this die & bullet combination, just screw the punch up and down to repeat this distance.

Hope this helps.

[TAWILDCATT]

we have two in my club.I was director for 10 yrs and took care of mantainence.
the old stars were matched to bullets,as the holes were set to the grooves.I took a few 5/16 allen cap screw and nuts to fit.after correct setting for bullet drove it out and made a gage useing the allen screw and two nuts.pushed it up from bottom and set it to punch.next time it was easy to set for that bullet.