Star Sizer Spring and Lube question

[garandsrus]

Hi,

I have my star (purchased used) set up to lube boolits and it does a good job. However, it takes a tremendous amount of pressure to compress the spring at the bottom of the unit and pump the high pressure lube. I am using Lars BAC. I have heated the lube some and still have the same issue. Lars advertises that the BAC doesn't require heat. I think it has to do with the exterior spring on the base of the unit (part of the high pressure lube pump) or the cam set up.

After lubing a bollit, the spring SLOWLY returns to it's uncompressed length. I would expect the spring to rebound much more quickly. I am wondering if there is some grease or something that is gumming up the works and preventing the spring and rod from travelling freely. Any suggestions? I will try using some Gun Scrubber cleaner in this area to see if it removes anything.

I am also going to try adjusting the horizontal bar with the two bolts near the top of the unit to deliver more lube, but don't really think that's going to fix anything. The spring in the lube reservoir is fully compressed. I like that I can lube 20-30 or more boolits without needing to increase pressure in the reservoir.

I did flush the sizer inside and out with very hot water to remove the old lube that was in it when I got it.

Also, do you lube any parts of the sizer? If you do, where do you lube and what do you lube with? The online manual doesn't mention anything about this.

Thanks!
John

[Willbird]

"doesnt need any heat" is a nice concept, however I would make SURE the statement was qualified somewhat. "Does not need any heat in a star lube sizer" would make me feel more warm and fuzzy, they are a bit finicky as to lube viscosity IMHO, mine works nicer with heat even running Javalina. Even a small desk lamp will add enough heat to make things work nicely....with NO heat mine would work one day and I would cuss it the next all for the matter of 50 degrees or 60 degrees overnight.

If the lube gets too stiff it will do exactly what you describe, the piston return will be sluggish

Bill

[garandsrus]

Willbird,

Thanks... When I added heat before it didn't change much.

However, since my post above, I took the linkage apart and cleaned/lubricated it which has helped quite a bit. The double ended bolt at the top of the unit had some old oil/grease in it that was pretty stiff. I cleaned and oiled it. I figured that it took oil since there is a port/hold to add oil in the middle of the assembly.

If heat helped Javelina, then I definitely need some! That stuff is really soft. The BAC is much harder by comparison.

How did you keep from making a complete mess with Javelina? I received 9 or 10 sticks of it with the Star. I was lubing small boolits (105 gr WC) and it made a sticky mess. The lube was in the lube groove and all over my hands! I think it stuck better to my hand than the boolit.

Thanks again,
John

[Springfield]

That spring adds almost no pressure to the handle. If the handle is returning slow then the lube is too stiff. I wouldn't adjust that horizontal bolt unless you are lubing some VERY large lube grooves. I use Big Lube(tm) bullets all the time and I don't have to adjust it. When I do the 45-70 bullets with 2 lube grooves I just pump the handle twice. Stars put out a decent amount of lube on every stroke, that's why I have 3.

[Marshal Kane]

If heat helped Javelina, then I definitely need some!How did you keep from making a complete mess with Javelina? John

As a temporary solution, you might try using a hair blow dryer gun to warm up the lube reservoir to see if this cures your problem. I use a Lyman lube heater (part #2745885) in conjunction with a power bar that has an on/off switch. Just takes a second to switch the power on or off to provide enough heat to keep the lube flowing. Too much heat and the lube turns real waterey and gets all over everything. Heard that you can also drill a large metal plate to mount the Star and place a hot clothes iron on it to transfer the heat. Nice part about this method is that the clothes iron has a thermostat. If you want the best, Star makes a thermostatically controlled heater plate however at $90, it is a bit pricey.

To keep from getting too much lube around your bullets, try reducing the amount of pressure in the lube reservoir. True, you will have to adjust the lube pressure more often but cleaning lube off the bullets and your hands is more time consuming than tweaking lube pressure.

Don't get discouraged, you will learn how to overcome your problems and IMHO, you have the best and fastest lubrisizer on the market.

[garandsrus]

Heat was the answer!

I warmed up the lube and sizer with a hair dryer. The pressure needed to lube the boolits dropped dramatically. The spring operated at a speed that a spring should operate at! The sizer was a joy to use. It did a great job.

I may need to reduce the pressure in the reservoir some. When lubing some semi wad cutters I was getting three little "dots" of lube on the shoulder of the boolit. I noticed that a small amount of lube would flow if no boolit was in the sizer. The small amount flowed while the nose of the second boolit was passing by the lube holes and then the boolit shoulder scraped the lube out of the die. It's not enough lube to worry about, but none would be better.

I was sizing some Lyman 311413 boolits which has a pretty sharp point and the nose from the second boolit was putting a small dent in the gas check of the previous boolit while pushing it out. The nose of the second boolit was also rounded a little at the same time. I will shoot these to see if it makes a difference, but I was thinking that I might make a flat punch about the length of a boolit that I can use to push out the boolit so that nothing deforms. Piano wire from the hardware store should work well.

Thanks again for all the help,
John

[David2011]

This tip was from the guy that makes the lube I use and it works for me. To heat the sizer and lube I mounted it on a piece of of 1/8"aluminum (no reason steel wouldn't work- the aluminum was free) 6" wide by 12" deep, sandwiched between the sizer and the workbench. An inexpensive clothes iron is the heat source, used on its lowest possible setting. I turn it on well in advance of starting to lube/size and find that it takes 30-45 minutes to warm my Star sizer thoroughly. The temp can be fine tuned by varying the distance between the iron and the sizer on the sheet of metal. I haven't tried it on my Lyman sizer yet but suspect that its greater mass will take longer to heat but with all that cast iron it should stay at a pretty steady temperature.

[rmb721]

I use a Lyman 450. I use a piece of 1/4 x4x4 aluminum, then a piece 1/4 x4x12 aluminum, then the sizer mounted on top. That leaves a 1/4 inch space between the bench and the piece that the clothes iron sits on. You don't lose as much heat into the bench by using the 4x4 piece first.

[David R]

I use heat with 50/50 in the star. It just works better.

I have found when things are right, I can turn the lube pressure handle one full turn at a time with no problems.

David