Lyman heater/Star luber sizer

[papalote]

How well does the Lyman luber heater for the 450 work with the new Star luber sizer. It is supposed to be drilled and taped to fit it. Thanks in advance, Papalote

[44woody]

papalote if you use a soft lube like alox/bees wax you will not need a heater for your star sizer to answer your quiston if the heater is drilled and tapted for a star it will work ok if you would like to try a stick of alox/bees wax lube pm me and I will get you one just for the postage 44Woody

[Marshal Kane]

How well does the Lyman luber heater for the 450 work with the new Star luber sizer. It is supposed to be drilled and taped to fit it. Thanks in advance, Papalote

Not sure what you mean by the NEW Star luber sizer. Only one Star luber sizer that I know of. Anyway, have both the Lyman heater drilled and tapped for Lyman, Saeco, Star, etc. and the Star luber sizer. Works fine if you keep an eye on the temperature. Since the heater does not come with a thermostat, leaving it on for long periods can overheat the bullet lube turning it watery. I ran mine through a powerbar with a switch and turn the heater off and on periodically as needed. If anyone has hooked the Lyman luber heater to a thermostat, would appreciate a word on how they did it.

The hard lube that I use is supposed to be heated, yet, the reservoir spring in my Star is so strong that I can lube without using a heater. My heater now sits on a back burner until needed again.

[targetshootr]

My old Star came with a heater without a name on it that has a large red thermostat knob that doesn't seem to work so I pull the plug before it gets too warm.

[RANGER RICK]

How well does the Lyman luber heater for the 450 work with the new Star luber sizer. It is supposed to be drilled and taped to fit it. Thanks in advance, Papalote

As you have read the heater is ready for most of the sizers on the market .
If you do not constantly run bullets through you will need to unplug it every now and then during use or the lube will get way to soft and become a mess.

Just the other day I made a huge mess with my sizer .
I pluged it in got the bullets ready and went upstairs to get a cup of coffee and got side tracked.
The next day , yes the next day ,24 hours of being plugged in and what a mess below my sizer and on the floor .
I have my sizers mounted on thick aluminum plate and they hang off my reloading bench and the lube soaked into the carpet .My lube sizer was full the last time I used it and it was almost empty .

Not good .

RR

[ANeat]

I picked up a tip here and it works real well. I have my Star sizer mounted on a piece of aluminum and use a clothing iron to heat it up. I just sit the iron on the aluminum plate behind the sizer. The thermostat is calibrated in types of clothing so you will need to experiment to find the setting for your lube. Once you get it set you can leave it on and it regulates the temp real well. I got my iron at a yard sale for $2.00.

Adam

[grumpy one]

You can control the heat intput to the heating element with either a simmerstat or a light dimmer. I use both for various heating jobs, though as it happens I use Adam's method (an old clothes iron) for controlling the lube sizer temperature. Neither the simmerstat nor the light dimmer works on temperature feedback as the clothes iron does. They work like a Lee pot temperature controller - all you are doing is controlling the percentage of on time versus off time. Once you buy or make an in-line light dimmer there are some other things you can use it for of course, such as rather crudely controlling the speed of a hand-held electric drill. It's a bit crude because it has no feedback, so the speed will vary a lot with load (which it doesn't do with a "real" drill speed control).

Think about what you are doing with either the simmerstat or the light dimmer when applying them to other jobs than lube heating. Do not use a load that exceeds the power rating of the controller. The simmerstat uses mechanical switching contacts so it does not like either inductive or capacitive loads; they'll cause contact arcing and ruin the simmerstat after a while. The lube heater is a pure resistance, and shouldn't cause this problem.

Geoff

[Bucks Owin]

How well does the Lyman luber heater for the 450 work with the new Star luber sizer. It is supposed to be drilled and taped to fit it. Thanks in advance, Papalote

It works bitchin' on my Lyman, (thanks 357Max!) in fact I forgot and left mine on overnight one time and had lube "running" out of my 450 by the next morning! I find that once the sizer is warmed up it's best to "cycle" the heater or else even the hard lubes like Lar45's Carnuba Red or Lyman's Orange Magic get TOO soft....

Can't see why it wouldn't work just as well with a Star once it's "up to temp"....

FWIW,

Dennis

Wonder if a 110 volt timer could be made to cycle automatically? You know, like come on for 5 minutes every 20 minutes etc?

[grumpy one]

Dennis, a simmerstat or light dimmer will do that same job a whole lot better in my opinion - but the timer will work, so long as you make sure the total cycle time is a lot smaller than the thermal inertia of the lube sizer. I think 20 minutes would be stretching it.

Geoff

[Bucks Owin]

Dennis, a simmerstat or light dimmer will do that same job a whole lot better in my opinion - but the timer will work, so long as you make sure the total cycle time is a lot smaller than the thermal inertia of the lube sizer. I think 20 minutes would be stretching it.

Geoff

Simmerstat? Never heard of one, but I could wire up a dimmer if it wouldn't hurt the heater in any way....

Thanks for the suggestion!

Dennis

[grumpy one]

Simmerstat? Never heard of one, but I could wire up a dimmer if it wouldn't hurt the heater in any way....

Thanks for the suggestion!

Dennis

A simmerstat is a device that uses a bimetallic strip to switch power on and off. You can adjust how hard the contacts are being pushed toward closing, and that changes the percentage of on-time versus off-time. Unless things have changed, they are used for controlling the heat input to the cooking top heating elements for your stove, for example, and Lee lead pots use them instead of thermostats because they are cheaper. You used to be able to buy one with a dial, a mains power cord, and a standard power socket - I use one of those for lots of jobs including controlling a soldering iron.

Neither a simmerstat nor a light dimmer can hurt your lube heater, which is just a bit of nichrome wire in a matrix of aluminium oxide powder inside a mild steel tube. As with any mains voltage equipment, think carefully before you do mains wiring yourself, though, for safety reasons.

Geoff