Star Sizer lube blobs driving me crazy!

[slughammer]

Everyone else is saying pressure and temperature, and I'll agree but add one more thing.

When the pressure and temp is at the right point where it doesn't flow out the little holes onto the noses as the boolits pass by, sometimes when going fast you have a hard time filling the grooves. Make sure you don't bounce at the end of the stroke. Hold the handle down until you have the next boolit oriented and ready to go in. Might seem like a slower pace operating the handle with a slight pause at the bottom of the stroke, but it allows the lube an extra 1/2 second at high pressure to flow and fill the grooves completely. In reality since you're only holding it down until the next boolit is fully ready to go in, you haven't added any time to the cycle. Smooth is fast. Quality up, rework down.

[Springfield]

Definately don't short stroke it. Sometimes when you get going fast you tend to not go all the way down. The last little bit of the downstroke does quite a bit of the lubing.

[Sundogg1911]

Well... the Wifes away at camp and I had to work this weekend which gave me some experiment time. The press seemed to work best if the base is about 93 degrees and I crank the snot out of the pressure. (I used a 3M infrared thermometer to check it) Higer temp....blobs, lower pressure, voids in the lube groove. I've also started cranking the handle twice on the .45 H&G 200 gr. mold from my master caster. It seems to have a large groove that doesn't always fill in one stroke. I sized about 2000 9mms in the other star at about the same temp. It went just fine. I could have sized them without looking at them. They were almost all perfect. The problem hasnt gone away, but it's getting a little better.

[GSM]

Sundogg:

The groove on the H&G 200 gr are rather large - I usually end up having to double down stroke on them in order to get them filled unless the sizer is right at the bitter edge of too much pressure.

Also, look at the two hex head screws on the horizontal shaft near the top that manipulate how far the injection spring is compressed on the down stroke - mine seems to like to "walk" a little as the sizer is used.

[BigCheese]

I have found the problem to be pressure even when using Alox lube that requires no heat. When the bullet lube groove is aligned with the open holes in the die, backing off on pressure solved the problem.

With a lube that needs heat, keep backing off on pressure and run bullets through the sizer. If the dots don't disappear before the grooves become only partially filled, increase the temperature a little. If the grooves don't completely fill, increase pressure and see which comes back first, dots or complete filling. If it's still the dots, back off on pressure and raise the temperature again and repeat the trial. When the temperature is raised enough, you should be able to get the lube to flow with lower pressure.

There are three variables here, temperature, pressure, and groove alignment. In reply to my previous post you said you were 99% sure the grooves were aligned. Have you actually measured or is it a guess? If Murphy is the other 1%, it may be the problem, since you still can't get rid of the globs adjusting the other two. Try an actual measurement.

As I found in my business (consulting laboratory), one test is worth a hundred expert opinions!

Hope this saves your sanity.

[Sundogg1911]

Yes I did measure and alignment is correct. I have almost eliminated the problem with heat and pressure adjustments. I think it will take a little more tweaking, but i'm no longer feeling like smashing it with a sledgehammer
I switched to some 9mm's and .380's that sized and lubed easily, so i'll be coming back to the 5 gallon bucket of 45's or i'll have to get a crane ion to move them out of the way!

[Springfield]

On some bullets with larger than normal lube grooves, which is mostly what I do, you can sometimes use 6 holes for lube. The bullet travels some while being lubed, so if you time it right you can have 3 holes lubing when the groove first lines up and 3 more when it is at the bottom of the stroke. I do about 20,000 bullets a month so I gotta have things working right and quickly. But you have to know where the bullet lines up with the lube holes, no guessing. That's one reason I made 2 piece top punches, easier to adjust to individual bullets. Keep the temp down and the pressure up, works for me. I use a soft Blackpowder lube, hard lubes may work differently, but I doubt it.