cant tweak star sizer

[jskellington]

My Star sizer keeps putting lubricant above the shoulder. I have plugged all the holes except the second row up from bottom and even plugged one those holes. Use the heater and Magma lube tubes. Have adjusted and readjusted the top punch for travel (yes, feed nose first) and still cant keep the lube off the top of bullet shoulder.

Called magma and they said not to use the bottom row, didnt ask why. It seems that if I use the bottom row I may have more room for adjustment.

All ideas/opionions welcome.

jim

[utk]

Too high lube pressure. Too high temp.
Use forum search function, this has been discussed before...

[Lloyd Smale]

ive seen when using a heater with my lube that the shot used to plug the holes leaked by. try putting two pieces of shot in each hole instead of one and make sure your seating the shot with a small punch so its sealing well.

[Sig shooter]

I get the same , the best luck I have is reducing the spring pressure on crank to 1 or 1/2 turn . Once you have your bullet located where its filling the groove . I run a long grind of 200 -800 rds as when you stop the lube continues to run slowly . I check every 5 - 10 to see the level of filling .

[Swagerman]

I had same trouble with nose ooze, tried shortening the seating punch on my mini-lathe, relocated the sizing die to lower position holes and shot plugging the higher level holes...finally to using two opposite level holes. However, the lube comes out on the bullet as soft puckering effect...doesn't stay flat to the sizing in die.

Still getting some slight oozing of lube, but will try backing off on the pressure.


I like the speed that the Star produces, but it is one cranky machine to adjust.

Having a lot less trouble using my RCBS and Lyman lubers.

Jim

[pjh421]

Is the boolit casting fat enough to use with that particular size die?

Paul

[miestro_jerry]

reduce the lube temp. I had the same problem with my Star Sizer and just turning the heat down or off after the lube has come to temp or barely starts flowing made the problem go away.

Jerry

[mtgrs737]

I had that problem and it was too much heat on the lube that made it flow too easily and with any amount of residule pressure around the lube die a small amount of lube would ooze out between sizing boolits and collect on the front of the shoulder of the incoming boolit. Try backing off the heat a bunch until you just get it to flow with some plunger pressure. If you don't have an adjustable heater like the Lyman make yourself a control out of a 600 watt dimmer switch to reduce the heat. Then try less pressure on the bottom of the stroke (lube plunger stroke) of the Star and see if the problem isn't cured. Another area that can be over pressurized is the resevior screw and spring, too much spring/screw pressure can force free flowing lube in to die holes. Good luck!

[jskellington]

Thank you for the tips. Have adjusted the punch, tried different holes, adjusted the heat, and varied the hand pressure. Have minimized the nose lube but not all. What i will try next is to "punch" the lead #7 shot further into the hole. I have ordered a new Saeco 4 cavity mould as maybe the Lyman moulds are out of round. Patience and understanding, will I grow old and die before I achieve both???

[mtgrs737]

Keep backing off the heat and pressure and it will stop, mine did. Have faith!

[runfiverun]

start with your air around 40 lbs and work up till you fill the grooves.
you want the lube to act like it is just barely feeding just before your heat comes on
then it gets a bit thin for just a sec then hardens up again, when you get these oscillations you got it right you can run up your pressure a bit as needed.
once you get it, its like, you know what is gonna happen from the feeling of the handle.

[Lloyd Smale]

some heaters including mine are to hot even on the lowest settings. I bought a aftermarket reostat to contol mine. before that i needed to actually unplug the heater when it got to hot and plug it back in when it got to cold. Like i said in my other post 2 pieces of shot per hole and tapping them in with a pin punch helps and like was said by someone else if your bullets are small to start with and your barely sizing them lube has a tendency to leak by.

[Marshal Kane]

. . . Like i said in my other post 2 pieces of shot per hole and tapping them in with a pin punch helps . . .

Just don't get too aggressive with the pin punch. Too much muscle and you can actually force the shot into the die cavity. Don't ask me how I know.

[runfiverun]

that'll scuff up a boolit !!! or twenty.

[pjh421]

If after you have loaded the sticky boolits into cartridge cases you want to clean them up, try this. Dampen an old towel with lacquer thinner. Pour some loose ammo onto the towel and fold it in thirds lengthwise. Shake the ammo back and forth a few times and the excess lube will be gone. Lacquer thinner evaporates completely but paint thinner will leave your ammo kind of wet.

Paul

[jskellington]

thanks for the lacquer thinner tip--will gave that a try-if works ok--forget the time spent trying to get the perfect lubed bullet--getting a gallon of lacquer thinner.

[Echo]

Good recommendation, Paul - I do the same. Sprinkle some thinner on the towel, dump the loaded rounds in the middle of the towel, fold the sides over, grab the ends, and alternate up & down with the hands - 30 seconds and all the gunk is in the towel and the ammo is pristine.

[willwork4ww]

What bullet are you attempting to size? I've never had any trouble with anything but the 358156. After way to many attempts, I traded the damn thing for a 358477 and have never looked back. It sizes without issue and shoots just as well. As everything I shoot has a full diameter front driving band, my theory is it's the undersize front driving band on that particular bullet that causes the problem.

[BigCheese]

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.