Star ran out of lube...

[Swagerman]

Got another lube die in the mail today, a .430 used one but the price was right.

Put a bullet in the Star lube press and ran it through it and no lube. In fact the luber was out of lube...period.

The only lube I had on hand was 10 sticks of Lyman Alox brown stuff that don't require heat.

Went to remove the Star lube plunger and couldn't get the dang thing to come out of the reservor tube. The Star don't operate like the old Lyman or RCBS lube press.

My friend who sold this lube press to me explained that you had to unscrew the knurled cap and remove the little twist handle and reverse the threaded shaft down into the tube, it has a female thread to insert onto the plunger and spring top in the reservore body...then merely screw the knurled cap back down on top of the reservore top of tube until the plunger inside rides back up and out of the tube.

Anyone else have trouble with this first time around?

Jim

[454PB]

Yup....a failure to read instructions. I used a pair of needle nose pliers to remove the spring from the reservoir, then latter read the instructions I downloaded in PDF form from Magma and realized how it's supposed to be done.

My Star came with four sets of dies, one of them being .429". I wanted it .430", so I warmed the die, cleaned all the lube out, and put it in my lathe. Holy smoley those buggers are hard! Opening it up .001" took a lot of honing. The Lyman and RCBS sizing dies I've worked on are not anywhere near that hard!

[Swagerman]

Know what you mean by hard dies.

My .430 used die is sizing the bullets to come out .429.5 instead of .430, guess I'll be trying to hone that ole bugger too.

I want .430 for my gascheck bullets. But the .4295 might just work out after all, will try them some day...if the freaken snow and ice ever leaves.

Jim

[Texasflyboy]

My friend who sold this lube press to me explained that you had to unscrew the knurled cap and remove the little twist handle and reverse the threaded shaft down into the tube, it has a female thread to insert onto the plunger and spring top in the reservore body...then merely screw the knurled cap back down on top of the reservore top of tube until the plunger inside rides back up and out of the tube.

This is correct, you have the instructions right. But hard lubes will lock the inside plunger shaft to the lube cylinder tighter than a tick to a hound...

If you have a mechanics light, place it against the luber with the light on. Wrap the whole shebang in a towel or old blanket. Set the oven timer for 30 minutes and go watch TV or surf the net.

When the timer rings, unwrap your Star, and the plunger will slide right out.

[Swagerman]

Hey Texasflyboy, that is dang good advice about the hard lubes and the pre-heat session. I remember the first time I changed out the lube die, it wouldn't budge...so had to preheat it to get it soften up for removal...then it popped out like a cork in a bottle.

I'm going to avoid using hard lubes in the device. Understand there are medium hard lubes available that don't set up so ding blasted hard in the reservore.

I've got a Midway heater on the gizmo but still will use softer lubes to make the job of lubing easier.

Jim