Top sizing, large WFNGC with the Star ?

[BigSlick]

Hi guys,

I'm home for a couple of days and running into a real PITA.

I recently picked up a Star lube sizer. Great machine, finally got it dialed in, love it, very satisfied with it.

It eats small and medium bullets like a fat girl on a bucket of popcorn.

I got a .501 size die in and pulled out some Lee 440 WFNGC's I cast a while back to size and lube. This bullet takes a gas check. The mould drops the bullets right on .503. I've sized and lubed a bunch of these on the LAM II without issue.

In the attempt (weak attempt mind you) to recover some bench space, I am giving some serious thought to using the Star for all my lubing needs and put the almost new LAM II, size dies and top punches up for sale.

So, I drop a few .501 bullets in the size die without the gas check attached to set the depth of the bottom punch. They sized right thru with some resistance (as expected) but not too much, since I'm using straight ww's and tin and sizing down just a couple a thou.

Got the punch set, lube hitting the grooves just right, ready to roll and get a couple hundred of these lubed up so I can go shooting my next day off.

I added the gas check, dropped the bullet in the die, eased the handle down to make certain I was getting a good alignment in the die (I was). So, I pull the handle to push it on thru. Everything is going great until the gas check hits the sizing portion of the die. Lot's of force required to get the bullet on thru, upsetting the rythym of the whole gig.

After looking at the whole thing, I am contemplating sizing base first. My suspicion is the gas check, being slightly beveled outward is causing the extra force required for bottom sizing. Since it's a WFN, the flat punch will work OK as far as I can see, and the gas check won't be 'upside down' in the die when being sized, thus making the sizing stroke much smoother.

Anyone see a problem with this ?

If this isn't the way to go, I'm looking for suggestions

Thanks

'Slick
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[Lloyd Smale]

what it is is your new die is a tad rough. Alot of new star dies i get need to have about a 100 gas checked bullets run through them before they really smothen up. Take a couple bllets and run them through the die without the gas check and lube them then run the lubed bullets through the die with the gas checks to get some lube in the die walls. Then till the die is broke in about every fifth bullet take the bullet you just sized and run it back through again to lube the walls again. Ive had dies so rough that i had to run ten or twenty bullets with gas checks on the through the die with an arbor press.

[Marshal Kane]

Have accumulated a small ball of excess lube collected from lube which flowed past some of my sizer dies. When I size, I rub some of this lube onto my left thumb and first two fingers. I feed bullets into my Star with my left hand so I give the bullet a slight roll between my fingers depositing a little lube on each one before it enters the die. Might help you seat GCs a bit easier if you give this a try. Seating GCs base first sounds logical to me. Hope this helps.

[454PB]

Lloyd has sized many more boolits than I have, but here are my thoughts:

While Star lubrisizers are great machines, they don't have the mechanical advantage of the Lyman or RCBS. I've resorted to hand lubricating every third boolit or so to facilitate sizing on anything that is being sized .003" and/or wears a gas check. I do this by smearing a little case sizing lube on the outside of the boolit, but you could using your normal boolit lube if desired. Others have reported using spray case sizing lube (like Hornady One Shot) to speed things up. Lloyd's method does the same thing, but I'd rather push them through once.

When I first got my Star, I built a longer handle to gain some leverage. That worked OK, but I feared I might break the linkage. If you look at it closely, it looks kind of wimpy.

[Jon K]

It will put the GC on nose first or base first, just need the right punch. I agree with the break in & just a little lube to make it go smoother.
Also if you're sizing it down a whole bunch, it will feel "tough" to size.

I like my Star, but need a second one for different lube. PITA to change lube.

Jon

[Lloyd Smale]

They do look a little flimsier then a lyman but ive broken the linkage arms on a lyman and in 20 years of use havent broke a star yet. Ive wore parts out buy nothing has broke yet. Ive put enough push on the handle to bend a couple of them (new dies) but i long ago replaced the handle with a hardened steal rod and havent had the problem since and have never bent one sizing bullets and i do use big bullets ! . Lube piston seals and springs and main piston seals are about the only thing ive had to replace on my stars and the old one has probably at least a couple million bullets through it and id guess that would be a very conserative guess. Jon i think there much easier to change out the lube on then a lyman or rcbs. All you have to do is open the drain screw and crank it empty. I dont do it much though as I use the same lube for everything. I even had a buddy make me up a longer main screw and lube resivour and it holds about 3.5 sticks of lube. Thats the thing that bugged me about the star the most. It sizes so fast that as soon as i get going on a bunch of bullets i was running out of lube. Now with 3 sticks loaded at least I can get through a sizing session.

[Cherokee]

I have stuck too many big fat bullets in my Star, replaced the handle too many times, I will not try to size down big fat bullets. My Lyman 4500 takes real good care of them for me and I have never bent handle or broken parts on my Lyman's:45, 450, 4500.

[Springfield]

I have sized .455 bullets down to .429, so I think my Star is strong enough. With a new die and sometimes with an old one if it sticks put a little lube the bullet, like Lloyd says. Or run the bullet through again to lube it, works fine with regular bullets.I have only gas checked about 50 45-70 bulets so I am no expert on checks. But I size thousands of regular BP bullets a month and haven't ever broke anything on my Stars. But there isno reason you can't size bottom first if you want to.