Hey fellers, I'm having trouble with the Star.
Since I got it, I have completely switched over to it, and I use it for all of my lube sizing needs, and for the most part, it is awesome!
Unfortunately, there is this strange thing that happens, and for the life of me, I can't put my finger on exactly why. Every now and then, I have a problem running the boolits through the die. Doesn't happen every time, but occasionally it seems that the planets align just right, and I can't shove a boolit through that sucker to save my life!
Tonight was the latest (and worst) example of this. I was sizing 30 caliber boolits from .3110 down to .3102 (not doing anything wild and crazy here) and seating aluminum GC's on the bases at the same time.
I first started to get worried when I was setting up the punch depth to correctly lube the grooves and I noticed that things were pretty stiff. I kept running lubed boolits through the die, hoping that things would get easier, but nooooooo, things did not get easier.
Oh well, maybe I can still get the boolits through there with a GC, so I start sizing.
I felt like I was on a roll as the handle was bending a little more with each stroke, but at least the boolits were going through there, then one got stuck big as Christmas (mind you, I was still rerunning a boolit every 4th or 5th stroke to keep the die lubed). I darn near right angled my press handle and the boolit didn't move at all.
So I pushed the die up out of the press and used a brass punch and hammer to drive the boolit on through.
I got it set up again, changed to my spare handle, and started over agian. I didn't get three boolits through the die when I stuck another one.
So I dug out my old push through die that works on the Rock Chucker and pushed a few through that with a trace of lube wiped on with my fingers. Easy money. The boolit went through the push through smoothly.
WTHeck is going on here?
Again, the alloy is 50/50 WW heat treated
The lube is FWFL
The checks are aluminum
I'm only sizing down .001 or less.
Anybody here dealt with this?