I received my used Star Lube/sizer yesterday and messed with it for about 3 hours last night. Trying to learn how it works and tested the adjustments.
Things that "I think" that I've learned so far:
Instead of buying #7 shot lead to plug the extra lube holes, just shave a little lead from a soft WW.
This morning I lubed up a batch. I've just about used all of the lube that was in the press (250 bullets). I'm lube/sizing with the nose up, the punch that came with the press fit my Saeco bevel based, home cast, bullets perfectly. You can see that I'm not 100% in tune with the press yet, but I've learned a lot in the past 16 hours. I learned that if the lube is not oozing out of the plunger and the sizing die, you've not got enough heat or pressure spring tension. I guess this is normal, it is what I found to get the lube groove to fill out most consistently. Also, the lube holes have to line up as the fulcrum lever is making contact with the crank shaft.
I'm thinking that I'll have to use hard wax that has a higher melting temp due to the weather that we have here in NC. It's suppose to get to 98 degrees tomorrow.
Some are coming out not 100% filled.
Yes, I figured that I would have to run those that are not 100% lube filled through a second time. I did that to a bunch of the first ones. That colored lube sure does make the QC portion a lot easier. I set a cigar box with the lid opened and leaning against the bench-top, below the sizer. The bullets would drop onto the sloped lid and roll down and into the box. I would watch them and see most of them that were not completely lubed. I imagine that the ones that I failed to catch were rolling when I was messing with the heat or the spring tension. I'll get better as I learn the amount of tension and heat settings.
Please confirm these thoughts for me.
Yeah, I'm planning on loading up a few of these bullets this evening. It'll probably be Saturday before I get to the range, got company coming in tonight.
A picture of the few bullets that I have (successfully?) lubed.