Star luber&sizer

[utk]

Tom, I too had problems with three small blobs of lube on their noses. I had plugged most of the holes in the die, and was getting lube in the right place (my boolit was a single-groove design), so the problem was not that of alignment with the lube holes. I found that my problems disappeared if i reduced lube pressure. It seems that lube can flow past the high pressure pump when it is not activated.
If you don't get enough lube in the groove you can give the handle an extra push to pump more lube into the groove(s) - happens to me once in a while - I could probably increase pressure slightly.

I also re-circulate every fifth or tenth boolit into the die to keep it lubed above the lube holes.

When done, I back off the lube pressure screw one full turn and leave the last boolit in the die.

Urban

[Farmer]

Tom,
When I'm lubing bullets with my Star, I crank the handle on the reservoir till I feel some resistance.Maybe 1/2 crank past that point. You don't want bullet lube coming out of the holes in the die until the operating handle is push all the way down. If I change lubes, or the setting on my base heater it has an effect on how much pressure it takes on the lube in the reservoir to get things to work out right. Not enough pressure in the reservoir and there won't be lube at the lube pump plunger to be pumped to the die. Too much pressure (or the base heater set too warm) and lube will flow right past the lube pump and thru the die holes. Sometimes after I add lube to the reservoir, there won't be lube in the lube pump. Then I have to give the reservoir screw a bunch of extra turns to force trapped air out of the reservoir.After the air comes out I back off on the screw to put the reservoir pressure back where it needs to be.
I've had it where lube flows past lead shot that was supposed to have extra, unused lube holes in the dies blocked. When I figure out which ones are causing me problems I smack the shot with a small drift punch. That will usually upset the shot enough where it will block the hole like it should and not let lube past.
Most of my pistol bullets have only one lube groove, so most of my dies only have one level of holes open. When I find the proper depth for filling the groove correctly, I write it down. I use the thing that sticks out the end of a dial caliper as a depth gauge to measure how far down my bullets are in the die. I can change bullet styles pretty quick because I know where to set the bullet punch to get things right.
Different bullets require different amounts of lube. When I'm sizing 314" bullets for my 32 mags I only have to give the reservoir screw about 1/4 turn every 10 bullets. When I'm sizing some 45 cal bullets with big 'ol lube grooves I have to give about 1/2 a turn evry 5 or 6 bullets. After you use you Star a bunch, you'll be an expert at how much pressure to use.

I don't know if you've seen a copy of the instruction yet, if not, here they are:

http://www.magmaengr.com/pdf/StarSizerInstructions.pdf

Ed

[LAH]

Is there supposed to be lube pressure to the die when the lube pump plunger is not depressed?

The answer is yes........Creeker

[Springfield]

I have 3 Star sizers, 2 older blue ones with the Star San Diego stickers, and 1 new one. And they ALL have aluminum castings. I haven't found a gnat's whisker's worth of diffreence as far as performance. I just leave to O-ring out of the sizer hole, it just got too tore up. And just like the guy at Star told me, it still works fine. It seeps just a little, so every 3-4000 bullets I just wipe of the excess. I can live with that. As far a little lube on the nose, I have found that a little more heat and a little less pressure usually cures that.