A couple of quick notes on Star history

[eaglemike]

Several people have said they were factory salespeople for Star. They never had a factory sales staff. I was told this directly by Bill Brenizer, one of the 2 owners. My observation from when I worked there bears this out. Some people - Gil Hebard for example - bought tools in lots and stocked them.

Several times I've also seen where people said the powder magazine tube was "converted" to a clear plastic tube. When I first worked there, in the 70's, they were only installing plastic powder magazine tubes. I don't remember what plastic it is/was, but was a special order material at the time.

All the best,

Mike

[steven d. ogden]

eagle mike--i have several old star aluminum powder magazines--that's why the old powder magazine caps had a "follower" with a wire attached that indicated the powder level.  The plastic in the new powder magazines was called "excelon" and was a special order from a firm in san diego--there was a minimum order of many feet which acconted for the delay in getting powder magazines as Ellard would only order when he was nearly out.  Incidentally, the O powder slide was actually the second type of powder slide--the original powder slide was slightly narrower--i have three of them that i bought lwith a very old progressive.  The machine also had a powder housing with a powder cutoff builtin--an idea abandoned very early, thank goodness, as i can imagine the empty cartridges which were loaded.

[eaglemike]

Steven,

I remember several times Elard would grumble about people wanting a powder cut-off. He indicated that he thought it was a bad idea. He wanted to be sure the machine would always throw a charge. He also wanted to be sure the safety cam was installed and working on every machine not using a taper crimp die. A friend of mine - Frank Appel - designed a safety cam that would work with the taper crimp die (at Elard's request), and sold some to Star. I still have a few. This was in the 70's, and CNC was still quite expensive, so only a low quantity was made. I'm not positive the design was ever really fine tuned.

Bill Brenizer is still around, but not in very good shape. If you ever knew him, please send him some good thoughts. He is/was a really fine man. He ran the  manufacturing end of Star Machine Works, and was Elard's partner in the business. He also ran part of the machine shop at North Island Naval Air Station during WWII. He was working there, when he met Elard, IIRC. He was walking around downtown, and found Star. They bought the business from Elard's uncle about 1945.

edit: I too have a few of the Al bodied powder magazines.....

all the best,

Mike

[rbwillnj]

eaglemike,

I guess I missed your post back in October, but was interested to read about the safety cam that works with a taper crimp die.  I have an unusually shaped safety cam that came with one of my reloaders.  It took me a little while to figure out how to use it because it has an extra spring.  It works as an autoeject when used in conjunction with a Hulme Case Feeder. 

Is this the Safety Cam that you are refering to?  I had sent a picture of this to Ken Walters last year, and he indicated that he thougt it was manufactured by Star

[Kenneth L. Walters]

I don't remember seeing this picture before.  Age probably.

This part, however, I KNOW.  This is an auto ejector/safety cam.  Star never advertised this part but you could use them on shells that would not fall out the bottom of the machine.  I must have purchased a half dozen from Star.  Worked beautifully.

Don't know, or maybe remember, anything about this working with a taper crimp die.

It was just for automatic ejection.

[eaglemike]

Yes,

That is the safety cam/auto eject for use with a taper crimp die and/or rimless cases. It works well with a case feeder, as noted. It was designed in the late 1070's or very early 1980's. They sometimes require a little fine tuning when switching from .45acp to 9mm, for example.

all the best,

Mike

[Lifetyme]

Does anyone make these or have some for sale?

Regards,

Bob

P.S. Looking for 9mm shellplate.