Messages

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Star Lubricator & Resizers / New owner of Star Lubrisizers, have some questions.

« on: November 01, 2004, 11:46:51 am »

At our local range yesterday I was talking with one of the regulars who, apart from a number of other talents, happens to be a gunsmith/machinist  with a fixation on quality.
He related to me that the best sizing die to use for a particular .308 rifle that he owned was a .311! He said that while he had sizing dies in .309, .310, and .312 as well, the .311 was the one that gave the best accuracy. This is not a situation where the barrel was old and worn out or anything like that, it was a high quality match grade aftermarket barrel in very good condition.

I'm thinking that a guy has to "slug" his barrel and then compare accuracy for bullets sized .001. .002 and even .003 over the bore size to see what works best for that particular barrel.

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Star Lubricator & Resizers / New owner of Star Lubrisizers, have some questions.

« on: October 29, 2004, 12:33:18 am »

I know of two places where you can get new dies...

http://www.magmaengr.com/index.php

http://www.sizingdie.com/index.htm


Another option is to keep an eye on E-bay for used dies but that is hit and miss for sure, might take you quite a while to get what you need.

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Star Lubricator & Resizers / Swapping in a new sizing die

« on: October 24, 2004, 09:39:16 pm »

O.k., solved this one myself. The Luber-Sizer came with a heater, after applying heat for an hour or so, I was able to tap the cold die into the base with ease using the top die housing.

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Star Lubricator & Resizers / Swapping in a new sizing die

« on: October 23, 2004, 09:36:14 pm »

Hmmmm? With only 12 views so far, I guess it is possible that no-one here has had this same problem before.

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Star Lubricator & Resizers / Swapping in a new sizing die

« on: October 19, 2004, 12:14:50 am »

I've run into a bit of a snag swapping in a new sizing die.

There was a .400 die in the machine when I bought it and I'm thinking that I should probably be using the brand new unopened .401 that also came with the Star for the box full of .40 bullets I've already cast.

No problem getting the .400 die out using the proper Star tool that also came with the machine.

When I went to press in the .401, it would only go approx. 3/16 of an inch and that was as far as I could get it to go as I didn't want to do any damage.

This die appears to be an authentic Star die as it has "Star San Diego" on the top of it. I've cleaned it with brake cleaner and wiped it with a light lubricant and still no luck.

What's the best "tried and true" way to get this die installed?

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Star Lubricator & Resizers / New owner of Star Lubrisizers, have some questions.

« on: October 11, 2004, 03:17:43 pm »

Thanks for the good info Ross.
Included with the lubrisizers I purchased were nine top punches, one of which was a flat one for "nose first" sizing.
It makes sense to me to size the bullets in the same direction as they go through the barrel but I suspect that "base first" must have some advantages as well.
Five of my dies are marked "STAR SAN DIEGO" with the diameter engraved, while three others have no markings on them whatsoever and one just has the diameter engraved. The marked ones are .355, .356 (x2), .358, .400, and .451. I will have to press a bullet through the unmarked ones to see what exactly I have there but it looks to me like I will be needing a .357, .401. and a .452.
The one book I do have is "Jacketed Performance With Cast Bullets" by Veral Smith. My next purchase along with the dies will have to be a Meister "slug your own barrel" kit in order to know what my bullets should be sized to.

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Star Lubricator & Resizers / New owner of Star Lubrisizers, have some questions.

« on: October 11, 2004, 02:27:39 am »

I've just gotten started with bullet casting and managed to purchase a batch of gear from a gentleman that included quite a few Hensley and Gibbs molds as well as three Star Lubrisizers.
Two of the Lubrisizers seem to be of a fairly recent vintage while the third looks to be a fairly early example. They came with a decent selection of sizing dies and top punches.
Cast my first bullets a week ago, I've mainly been trying to sort out the different molds to see exactly what bullets they cast. Now it's time to get going with the Lubrisizers.
Is it much better to size the bullets "base first" with the correctly shaped top punch, or is it just as good to size "nose first" with just a flat top punch?
If .38 super is .356, is it best to size your cast bullets to.357?
What size would you suggest for .40 and .45?

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Star History / Looking for content from lurking members...

« on: October 02, 2004, 01:57:34 am »

I would like to suggest having a separate section for discussion of Star Lubrisizers. Surely this would increase the traffic on this site and likely would turn quite a few lurkers into posters.