I've always wanted a Star since I was a young lad, just was never comfortable with how they operated and the cost. Ended up with an RCBS (2 of them) that I've used for many years, overall happy with them but they did have a few quirks that bugged me, the main one being lube under the base of the bullets.
With forums like this and youtube I finally educated myself enough on the operation of a Star to really want one, cost be dammed (not getting any younger, today is my 30th wedding anniversary). In my readings here I stumbled across Bruce who sells them refurbished. Contacted Bruce to chat about the Star and what he had to offer. I can say he is a great guy to talk to and to deal with. You can find them cheaper on fleabay once in awhile but you will not get one looking nicer, they look NEW when you get one. Picked up a Star, 4 dies, punches and a used heater. Squealed a bit when I wrote the check and had my fingers crossed.
As stated looked new out of the box and well packed. Sat on my bench for a couple weeks and then decided last night I needed to get my rear in gear. Pulled out all my different 45 cal pistol bullets and started taking measurements with the die and wrote them all down. Loaded in a stick of LBT soft blue lube and started cranking it down. Lubed the outside and inside of the die and slid it into the body. Realized at that point I had forgot to pay attention to the orientation of the lube holes in the die so pushed it back out and made sure one hole was oriented straight back at me to insure the lube would not have a straight shot from the pump to the first hole (good tip from someone on here). Cranked and pumped until lube started coming out with no bullets in there. Took some careful measurements on the punch, locked it down with the nut and dropped the first bullet in and then another. Out popped a PERFECTLY sized and lubed bullet, on the first try no less!
Obviously it's better to be lucky than good some days. Was so happy I sized the 300 ish bullets I had, finished about 12:30 am. The only issue I ran into is once in awhile I short stroked it and did not fully fill the lube groove on a bullet. Ran it back through and was good to go.
Remembered the tip to through a lubed bullet back through the sizer every 10 bullets or so to "lube" the die, really made a big difference in how easy they went through.
So so far really enjoying the Star!
Wade