Author Topic: Any interest in new star type reloader?  (Read 56852 times)

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NYKenn

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Re: Any interest in new star type reloader?
« Reply #30 on: March 19, 2010, 08:02:14 pm »
John

Any chance you can post the picture for the rest of us?

Kenn
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Joatmon

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Re: Any interest in new star type reloader?
« Reply #31 on: March 20, 2010, 07:09:26 pm »
Sorry NYKenn, I have no digital camera and am a bit challenged in that department.  Perhaps Ken W. can help out here, if he happens to have a copy of the photo or article. 

John

Star73

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Re: Any interest in new star type reloader?
« Reply #32 on: March 20, 2010, 07:40:37 pm »
Ken W. I think, wrote "wasn't that the idea behind the CPM"? That pretty well sums it up. I heard Bill Detloff (CPM owner) say on sev occasions a loader could be built better & cheaper than Stars. He built a good machine w/some of the improvements listed. Price was virtually the same as Star. I have never been able to find out any approximation of the no's he sold. Possibly a CPM employee or accountant could shed light.

3 loader businesses , Star, Phelps, & CPM, folded after the primary person involved became inactive. Viability of this business must ave been in question then (20+ yrs ago?) or one of the 3 would have at least given production a serious attempt.

When I started pistol competition there was one game, Bullseye, and 1 progressive loader, Star. Today there are several games and sev progressives. I did not have the $$ for a Star, 2 of us split one. Today we w/ have ea prob bought a cheaper loader.

This is what the prospective businessman is up against.

Ron

Kenneth L. Walters

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Re: Any interest in new star type reloader?
« Reply #33 on: March 21, 2010, 05:01:04 pm »
CPM did one other remarkable thing for which they never got credit.  They were the ones who design the conversion kit between a single stage reloader and a progressive.  Dillon forced them to drop that.  RCBS now calls it a Piggyback.

CPM's problems were that they built complete machines but buying parts was almost impossible.  Also a CPM worked ALMOST like a star but not quite.  Took me years to realize the subtle difference.  Til then running one was a nightmare.  Afterward it wasn't.

Phelps lingered long after it should have.  I don't remember the name of the last owner but he was a fireman, as I recall, who was occasionally building them in his basement.  Dan Fausto, maybe.

Though I knew him and met him I can not now remember the guy who designed the Star.  As long as he assembled them personally, which he did virtually all his life, the machines were fine.  When he died the quality of assembly suffered.
former progressive press collector

NYKenn

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Re: Any interest in new star type reloader?
« Reply #34 on: March 23, 2010, 06:56:02 pm »
Ken

Elord Mott?
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rbwillnj

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Re: Any interest in new star type reloader?
« Reply #35 on: March 16, 2011, 10:08:01 pm »
This is an old thread, but there was an interesting thread on the Cast Boolets forum with some information and a picture of the mythologic 50 BMG Star.  As stated earlier, the author confirmed that it was built by John Powers and thought that only three were built.  He is the owner of one.  He also has a Star Rifle Machine.   How lucky can you get!!!!   I have suggested that he join the forum.   

The picture which was "lifted" from the Cast Boolets forum shows a standard Star Universal, a Star Rifle machine, and the 50 BMG Machine
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Star, the original blue Press.  Made by machinist, not machines.
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dbltapster

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Re: Any interest in new star type reloader?
« Reply #36 on: March 17, 2011, 01:24:51 pm »
This is an old thread, but there was an interesting thread on the Cast Boolets forum with some information and a picture of the mythologic 50 BMG Star.  As stated earlier, the author confirmed that it was built by John Powers and thought that only three were built.  He is the owner of one.  He also has a Star Rifle Machine.   How lucky can you get!!!!   I have suggested that he join the forum.   

The picture which was "lifted" from the Cast Boolets forum shows a standard Star Universal, a Star Rifle machine, and the 50 BMG Machine
I too was trying to get this Cast Boolits member to join here.  For posterity, and with his permission, I am posting his account / history of that Star-like 50 BMG reloader:

"...Jon Powers is one of the best machinists I have ever met. He is or was at Willis Tool in Michigan. He developed a .44 Magnum and .45 Colt gas-operated semiauto pistol that looked like an enlarged Colt Woodsman and was a thing of beauty. He made several (how many, I don't know, I think it was maybe a dozen) and sold the patent to IMI which came out with the clunky Desert Eagle (with a TERRIBLY wrong grip angle). John tested one of his Magmatics to destruction and could not blow it up with smokeless powder. He finally did it in with a 240 grain bullet loaded into a case charged with 20 or so grains of ditching dynamite.

In the late '70s and early '80s, after seeing the custom .50 BMG rifles I built for myself and Kent Lomont, he got the .50 bug and scratch built his own falling block .50 BMG rifle. Upon seeing Kent's and my Star Progressive reloaders and our Dillon RL1000 (which didn't work as well as it should have due to less-than-Star machining tolerances), he designed and built a .50 BMG progressive press for himself. Kent and I fell in love with it and persuaded him to build one for each of us. I don't know if he ever made more of them--to my knowledge there were only the three made. I heard John's was stolen(!) and Kent's went through a shop fire about 25 years ago, but Jon rebuilt it. Mine is still as good as the day I received it.

The size of the case makes sizing brass fired in an M2 a bit difficult, so I first size the brass (and then trim it) on a single stage press if I'm using cases from a machine gun. But for cases fired in my bolt guns, it runs like a greased clock doing all steps at once.

I lost touch with Jon about 10 years ago, around the time I had my stroke and got divorced. Hope he's doing well..."

Joatmon

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Re: Any interest in new star type reloader?
« Reply #37 on: March 17, 2011, 10:04:43 pm »
Thanks for finding and posting the picture Bruce.  It is great to see one of these next to the standard Star and the Rifle version of the Star.  This certainly looks like the picture that I saw in the ABC's of reloading chapter that is referred to earlier in the thread, but the picture is a bit dark to tell for sure.  I have always wanted to see one of these in person, but given that there may only be a couple that exist that may be a bit difficult.  I dont own anything that will shoot .50 Browning, and dont even know where I would shoot it, but I would be tempted to look into it if one of these ended up on my bench.  I have an old Hollywood turret press (massive) which is probably about as close as I will get.

On a slightly different note, I am finishing up the work on the .223 rifle machine that I found before Christmas.  When it is done I will post a couple more pictures of the final product.  Thanks for your suggestions about rust removal. One of those original Star decals would be nice as a finishing touch.

John

SWANEE

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Re: Any interest in new star type reloader?
« Reply #38 on: March 17, 2011, 10:12:32 pm »
Hey John, I'm in the works of having some star decals made up, at least i'm trying.

Joatmon

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Re: Any interest in new star type reloader?
« Reply #39 on: March 19, 2011, 07:16:34 pm »
Dave, That would be great if you are able to have some made up.  I know there have been a few threads lately about reproducing the decal or potential sources.  I have not been too serious yet about finding them, but I have 2 or 3 Stars where the decal has been accidentally scraped off or loosened with oil and dirt over the years.  I know it does not have anything to do with function, but it would look nice to get them back looking as well as they run.  Let me know if you get some, I am sure others would be interested as well.

John