at a total loss on setting up my star

[trickyasafox]

Sorry guys. I've searched threads and just can't figure out what I'm doing wrong.

I set up my star today (tried anyway) and am using the provided one stick of javalina lube. I have the sizer on a lyman heater.

I cannot for the life of me, get the lube to flow to the lower resevoir. If I add pressure, I can get lube to come out of the bleeder hole on the main lube tube body, but NONE comes out where the die is. I have the die out of the machine and am trying to pump some lube down through- NONE comes out.

what am I doing wrong?

The provided star directions didn't really cover this kind of trouble shooting.

The Javalina lube is pretty soft, and I've had the heater on for 40 minutes. the press is warm to the touch but nothing seems to be flowing in the lower half of the press.

there is one screw on the lower left side of the press that seems to be either teflon taped in or secured in some way. that is the only thing I haven't tried messing around with.

I hope its not a lemon. I was really excited when this thing came in!

I know its probably something simple I am doing wrong- but I cant put my finger on it.

thoughts anyone?

[Down South]

Sounds like it’s air locked. I think Star warns against removing the screw you are talking about but I did once to bleed the air out of my unit. Another thing, is the plunger going all the way in and back out when you stroke the press? The plunger was sticky on mine when I first got it and would stick all the way in sometimes. One more thing, if the plunger is working in and out and you have lube to that screw when you remove it then try a little more pressure till you get lube to start flowing. You can leave the die out till you get lube flowing if you want to.

[billyb]

The lower left hand screw needs to be loosened while you have preassure on the lube. This lets the trapped air bleed out. Loosen it enough to let the air escape and watch for the lube to bleed out. Do not remove the screw, just loosen it enough to get rid of the air. Bill

[jsizemore]

I assume that when the punch is at the bottom of it's stroke that you continue to lower the handle and cause the fulcrum lever on the back to compress the pump.

You could have air trapped under the stick of lube. I'd take the inspection plug out of the lower left side and see if there is air trapped. I'd also take the pressure off the lube before I did that and have lube all over the place.

I started with Glenn's BAC lube. I cut the stick back so it was below the hole on the back of the lube tube.When I ran the pressure screw down the lube had no place to go but down.

I've only had mine 2 months, so I'm no expert.The instructions that come with it skimpy(I would have used a couple of different words here but we are supposed to be nice).Once it gets working right, it's great.

GOOD LUCK

[trickyasafox]

Took the lower left screw completely out- At first i just tried loosening it with no effect. no lube in there what so ever- even with the pressure all the way down. I have no idea what to try next. Plunger seems to be taking a full stroke. I am very frustrated.

[trickyasafox]

finally! got it- completely my fault from the beginning. I skipped a step in the directions. Makes me feel pretty dumb. thanks everyone

[TylerR]

finally! got it- completely my fault from the beginning. I skipped a step in the directions. Makes me feel pretty dumb. thanks everyone

Please tell us exactly what went wrong. I will be setting up a star soon and would like to avoid the same mistakes.

[Bill*]

Yeah... when ya "fess-up" like that ya gotta tell us what the fix was. Or are you the guy who rips the last page out of a book and returns it to the library:mrgreen::mrgreen: hehehe

[trickyasafox]

sorry for the brief response!

so it was entirely MY fault. not following the instructions, I placed the lube stick in after pulling the top assembly, but without pulling the spring assembly. Thus the lube could get pressure to come out of the back of the press, but was not even near the reservoir to go into the rest of the press.

my own fault for not reading closely!

[jsizemore]

When I first got mine the part about removing the resivour cap and screw and reversing made absoutely no sense to me. Then I noticed the threaded portion of the pressure screw by the handle. I looked at the parts list in the instructions and it says "threaded to extract spring assy". Duh. It got me too.

[montana_charlie]

I couldn't have helped with the troubleshooting, but I found this video of a Star in action...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8NdY15RstE&NR=1

CM

[trickyasafox]

thanks for the video!

I know why people love these things. I still get a bit of lube on the nose of some of the bullets- but I think I'm running it with a little too much spring tension. these things are FAST