Star luber/sizer

by John K., Monday, January 28, 2019, 07:58 (2063 days ago) @ Slow Hand

Having used and rebuilt several over the years, I will throw out a few rambling comments.

The Star is a great sizer, elegantly designed - no larger or stronger than it needs to be for its job. That is also its weakness, more later.

Get a heater - some lubes are impossible without one, other lubes are at least helped.

Since it is a push through, it doesn't work like a Saeco, for instance. The primary lube pressure is only to feed the piston that actually pumps the lube to the die and bullet at the very end of the stroke. Had one where the piston/casting interface was worn so bad the lube pumped out the back. Reamed the casting and made an oversize piston to solve.

Plug unwanted die lube holes with birdshot. Since the holes are counterbored, press the shot into the hole with a pair of pliers. The soft shot is easily removed with a proper sized drill spun by your fingers.

Like the others, size nose first. That means flat based punches which simplifies things.

Back to the weakness. If you are sizing, say, relatively soft 230gr RN 45acp bullets, the Star will be perfectly happy. However, if you are sizing 20+bhn hardcast 350gr 45 slugs.... you will likely at least bend the handle. It wasn't designed or intended for that amount of force. All three of mine had bent/missing handles and sheared fasteners. Have seen many pictures of Star sizers with screwdrivers for replacement handles - keep in mind that just transfers the force to the next weakest link. After rebuilding, I proceeded to stick a few hardcast slugs. (Remove the die and drill out the center of the bullet to give it room to collapse, then you can reinstall the die and push it out) As has been mentioned, if sizing is requiring a lot of force, at least run a pre-sized and lubed bullet through every few cycles to keep the die lubed. It helps a lot.

Ended up buying a Ballisticast. It is essentially a Star, uses the same dies, but everything is at least twice the size and mass. Had them side by side on the bench for a long time; if a bullet stuck in the Star, it was a simple matter to transfer the die to the Ballisticast and easily push it out. The Ballisticast is a *lot* bigger, which might be an issue for some. It really for heavy or hard sizing.

Neither the Star or the Ballisticast are suited for installing gaschecks, but it can be done manually before sizing. I usually use my Saeco to set the GCs and then size in the Ballisticast.

Now that the super hardcast craze has subsided, the Star will likely not see as much abuse and can go back to cranking out sized and lubed bullets like popcorn.

John K.