Anyone broken a Star

[rollmyown]

Had a go at sizeing some boolits cast from a Mihec .45-270 mould today. The boolits were cast from ww/Pb about 60/40 ratio with about 2% tin added.
The bullets were water dropped.
The handle arm on the Star was flexing alot to the point where I thought something was gona give (and it wasn't gonna be Lathesmiths .452 die)
I know that if I put a lubricated boolt through the die, it will reduce effort, but I dont think it will reduce it enough.
I think I'm gona have to get a lee sizeing die and size first on the Rockchucker.

Any comments / suggestions welcome

[bpratl]

I use to water drop everything until I experienced the same thing with my star and I thought that it would break. After annealing the rest of the un sized bullets they resized without any effort. Using a lee push through setup first, also made the sizing easier with water quenched bullets.

[btroj]

I do the same thing on a gB Keith mould for 44 . It casts around .435 and the Star doesn't like taking it to .432. The Lee sizer on the press doesn't really seem to mind at all. I still lube a few bullets with a touch of lanolin to keep things going smooth thru the Lee die.

[Bob J]

I water drop everything I cast so I know what you are going through..... Have found that sizing within 24 hours of casting helps and running a lubed bullet through every once in a while helps as well.... My biggest PIA was when I forgot to lube the first bullet through a new die.... Not fun!

[dragonrider]

Try putting your boolits in a baggie and spray some One Shot spray case lube in there then shake the bag around a bit. Sizing will be consderably easier.

[ReloaderFred]

Anytime your Star gets hard to push a bullet through the sizing die, just take a sized and lubed bullet and run it through. The next 10 or so bullets will go through easily in most cases, and when it gets difficult again, run another lubed bullet through. It leaves enough lube on the surface of the sizing die to make it easy, the same as the lube does in the barrel of the firearm.

As for breaking a Star, yes I have broken one of mine. The cast aluminum sleeve that provides the fulcrum for the action bar cracked. The sleeve then turned on the lube reservoir and the machine stopped working. It was my best machine, too......

Hope this helps.

Fred

[GLL]

When "removing" a lot from a hard bullet I "pre-size" with a LEE die in an RCBS A-2 before it is run through the STAR ! Two steps but saves wear and stress on the STAR !

Jerry

[cbrick]

I don't water drop but I do for a few bullets oven heat treat so the bullets need to be sized & checked without lube before they go into the oven. To run them through the Star without lube I keep a small amount of "Hornady Unique" case lube on my fingers, just handling the bullets to drop them into the sizer die is enough lube to keep things running smooth, doesn't take much.

Rick

[cajun shooter]

I only had a problem like yours one time and I dumped my bullets onto some newspaper and sprayed them very lighty with the Hornaday One Shot. You may make your own by mixing 99% alcohol with some lanolin. It does not require a lot of this to work so go in misting type of strokes. This is used as a case lube also.

[rollmyown]

I'll give the one shot a try before I buy the lee die. I bought some a few days back for sizeing pistol brass. I'll have to punch the bullet in the sizer die back out as I don't think the star will survive getting it through. Thanks all for the advice, I'll let you know how I go with it.

[6bg6ga]

I water drop my bullets and once in a while I get one that gives me a problem. I end up running a sized lubed bullet thru again and it works fine.

[bobthenailer]

I have never broken my star L/S ! and i also water drop and size within a hour or 2 after casting . With some bullets moulds that cast a bit oversize i have also experinced hard sizing ! i also use the spray case sizing lube on the bullets and have to step up the frequency of running a already sized /lube bullet through the sizer

[casterofboolits]

I haven't broken one, but I have bent the handle in a "U" shape. This was trying to size double ended wadcutters from a Saeco mould. They also gave me fits in Magma Lube master. Magma custer service was less than helpful, but acknowleged I was not the only one having the same problem.

I'm thinking about spraying the next batch with with case lube and see if that will ease the problem.

[deltaenterprizes]

I bought back a Phelps I sold a member that had twisted the pump lever support by trying to size boolits with hard lube in the sizer without enough heat. I reknurled the lube tube ti make it bite better and just put it back together.The alignment rods are a little off but a little tweak should fix it.

[jcw1970]

Just did today!

[jcw1970]

As for breaking a Star, yes I have broken one of mine. The cast aluminum sleeve that provides the fulcrum for the action bar cracked. The sleeve then turned on the lube reservoir and the machine stopped working. It was my best machine, too......

Hope this helps.

Fred

That's what happened to me.