crabo
08-05-2008, 12:44 AM
I finally figured out a couple of things on my star. If you watch the video that someone made of the star, he is blowing and going and lubing as fast as he can feed them. I could never get mine to go that fast until I had a boolit that took very little sizing. I have figured several things out about making my star lube better.
1. You can go that fast if you are hardly sizing the boolit and sizing it just a little and applying lube. It also helps if you are using a small boolit. If you are sizing it down, it takes more time for the lube to fill the grooves. (could be because it has to push the air out of the groove and the boolit is tight on the sides of the die)
2. Sizing and lubing big boolits takes a little more time. I was doing a bucket of H&G 68s and I realized I was unhappy with the process because I was having to run too many of them through twice and I was getting lube lines on the nose of some of the boolits. The lube lines happened after I cranked the pressure screw too much.
The first thing I did to make sure the big lube grooves were filled, was to hold the handle in the depressed postion for about 2 seconds at the bottom of each stroke. This allows the lube to flow around the groove. I found out later, this is related to the temature of the lube. If it is warm enough, you don't have to hold it down. Too warm and it will oze out of the die on you.
To eliminate the lines of lube on the nose of the boolit, I would screw the pressure lever down only when I was holding the handle down. You can feel it stop when it comes around. This is now giving me the cleanest lube jobs.
One more thing, is that once I have my punch adjusted just right, I measure from the end of the punch to the locking nut, and write that numer on a sticker in my Star die box. That makes it really easy to change calibers and dies.
You older guys may have this figured out a long time ago, but it has sure made life easier for me.
After sizing about another 300 tonight, I realized that the tempature of the lube makes such a huge difference. I have been using BAC with a clamp on light, and I turned on the light and started lubing. I had to run a number of them through twice. After letting the light finally get the lube where it was soft, then I started really getting the speed that was shown in the video. I lubed the last 100 in a third of the time it took to do the first hundred. I need to let the light warm the lube up for about 1/2 hour before I start sizing.
1. You can go that fast if you are hardly sizing the boolit and sizing it just a little and applying lube. It also helps if you are using a small boolit. If you are sizing it down, it takes more time for the lube to fill the grooves. (could be because it has to push the air out of the groove and the boolit is tight on the sides of the die)
2. Sizing and lubing big boolits takes a little more time. I was doing a bucket of H&G 68s and I realized I was unhappy with the process because I was having to run too many of them through twice and I was getting lube lines on the nose of some of the boolits. The lube lines happened after I cranked the pressure screw too much.
The first thing I did to make sure the big lube grooves were filled, was to hold the handle in the depressed postion for about 2 seconds at the bottom of each stroke. This allows the lube to flow around the groove. I found out later, this is related to the temature of the lube. If it is warm enough, you don't have to hold it down. Too warm and it will oze out of the die on you.
To eliminate the lines of lube on the nose of the boolit, I would screw the pressure lever down only when I was holding the handle down. You can feel it stop when it comes around. This is now giving me the cleanest lube jobs.
One more thing, is that once I have my punch adjusted just right, I measure from the end of the punch to the locking nut, and write that numer on a sticker in my Star die box. That makes it really easy to change calibers and dies.
You older guys may have this figured out a long time ago, but it has sure made life easier for me.
After sizing about another 300 tonight, I realized that the tempature of the lube makes such a huge difference. I have been using BAC with a clamp on light, and I turned on the light and started lubing. I had to run a number of them through twice. After letting the light finally get the lube where it was soft, then I started really getting the speed that was shown in the video. I lubed the last 100 in a third of the time it took to do the first hundred. I need to let the light warm the lube up for about 1/2 hour before I start sizing.