Tips and Tricks for the Star Lube Sizer?

[toecutter]

Hi all

So I've been casting for a while now, but recently bought a star lube sizer, and rather frustratingly it has never worked to my satisfaction. I am using one of the magma repros with lots of bells and whistles. It has the air pressure lube feed, automatic bullet feeder, and a heated base. As for lube, I'm using paraffin mixed with lanolin and moly grease (it has thus far handled my requirements for a high melt lube). Right now I'm running the heated base at about 100F, and running the pressure at about 20-30PSI. But thus far I keep having problems with filling up the lube groove on my .45ACP bullets if I lower the pressure to about 20PSI, but if I up it to 30-40 I get little specs of lube on the front end of the bullet. I had this problem with Javelina as well. Not sure if you guys have any recommendations.

[454PB]

Sounds like either an adjustment problem, or the sizer die needs some of the lube holes plugged. You can download a pdf file from Magma that describes these procedures here:

http://www.magmaengr.com/item.php?id=24

[MtGun44]

I'm no expert on Stars, but I have two and am starting to
figure them out. If are feeding the bullets in nose first and
getting lube on the nose, adjust the plunger to push the
bullet a bit deeper. If you are putting in the bullets base
first, raise the plunger a tad. You are trying to line up
the lube groove(s) with the row(s) of holes in the lube die
so as to pump lube only into the groove. If you are pushing
the lube groove(s) past the hole(s) or not all the way to
the row of holes you can get leakage as you describe.

Hope this helps.

Bill

[BD]

You can get little dots of lube forward of the front drive band if the pressure is a bit too high for the lube vicosity and the lube is leaking through the pump. As the nose of the bullet goes past the holes it allows the little blobs to ooze out through the holes in the die where they are then scraped off by the leading edge of the forward drive band as it goes past. The way around this to make sure that the holes line up on the groove, then lower the pressure but lengthen the pump stroke. The pump stroke is controlled by the bolt that the handle bears against when you pull it down. The object is to have the constant lube pressure keeping the pump piston filled, but only deliver the lube to the groove by the stroke of the pump handle. When the pressure is just right it won't drive any extra lube through the pump clyinder.

I don't have any of the extra gadgetry, but to me it was like learning to ride a bicycle, at first it's very hard to keep so many different things coordinated, but after awhile you just do it without thinking about it. Then you get older and you have to sit down and really think about it a while before you can accurately describe the different parts of what you're actually doing.
BD

[slughammer]

If the trouble filling the groove is not on every boolit, make sure you are not bouncing at the bottom of the stroke. If you give a slight dwell at the bottom of the stroke, it gives just a little more time for the lube to flow where it needs to go. Other than that it's just finding the right temp and pressure to match your lube.

[Springfield]

I lube thousands of bullets in my Stars a week, using mostly Big Lube bullets, so I need a real flow going to fill them up. In my opinion you have the lube too soft/warm. I like my lube to be about 80 deg. , but I run over 120 lbs of pressure to keep the bottom full. If you don't have large lube grooves then you don't need the pressure/flow, but the point is high pressure in itself won't put the little blobs on the front of the bullet. It is the too soft lube sneaking out while you are putting in another bullet. The bottom plunger will fill most bullets without a lot of help from the heater. Back off on te heat ans see what happens. More pressure usually works better than more heat, at least with soft lubes. And do make sure you pull the handle to the bottom of it's stroke, quite a bit of the lubing is done near the end of the stroke, more than you think.

[toecutter]

Thanks for your advice everyone.

BD explained my problem pretty much spot on. Pretty much I started running it with the lube heater off, the lube I'm using is fairly hard lube mostly paraffin with oil and lanolin. It gets soft in the noon-day sun, but doesn't turn liquid like javelina.

So it's working OK for now, I'm pushing about 60PSI on the air feed. I still get some occasional spots, and I advanced the connector arm way out (probably a bit too much but it still works).

Thanks for all the help!

[targetshootr]

Mine is finicky too. Every batch has boolits with lube on the nose or base. The trick seems to be finding the right temperature and pressure.