Got Me The Cadillac lube sizer

[Harrylee]

I’ve been wanting a luber sizer for some time now, I have been tumble lubing for years. It works but always wiped the bullet tip off thinking that all that goo would jam up the ramp of the semi that’s a lot of extra work plus it always built up in the seating die of the press and changed the OAL so I constantly would be cleaning the seating die. I looked at the RCBS and the Lyman models and knew I wouldn’t be happy with either as when I cast I usually cast anywhere from 2000 to 4000 bullets a time and both of those units were to slow. So I decide to bite the bullet and get the Cadillac of sizers so I got the Magma Star lube-sizer. Yeah it was more money but well worth it. The people at Magma were very nice and shipped the same day, I had it 2 days later, super good on there end. Got the unit and started to get it ready, so here are the steps I did


1. 3/4 plywood base first
2. a piece of thin rubber for a insulator
3. then 3/8 aluminum same size as the plywood
4. another 3/8 aluminum but larger for more work area and cut a slot on the bottom for the probe of my PID control unit for temperature (same unit I use for my lead pot)
5. Now the low tech heating element a old clothes iron (works pretty good)
6. Wanted a air assist for pushing the lube with constant pressure (they sell them but too much money) did some research on it and found a lot of good info on it and I had every thing I need except a few fittings
So now I’m up and running this sizer the PID control hold the lube at a constant temp and the air holds the lube at a constant pressure . This unit is a bullet nose down set-up so you don’t need a bunch of top punches. This unit is fast just keep feeding it with a small bucket under it and you can turn out a good volume in a short time and the results of the bullet are excellent. And some day I may have to make a bullet feeder for it


http://www.kahrtalk.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=13988&stc=1http://www.kahrtalk.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=13989&stc=1http://www.kahrtalk.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=13990&stc=1http://www.kahrtalk.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=13991&stc=1http://www.kahrtalk.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=13992&stc=1

[Bills1873]

Cool rig you have there Harrylee. I reload many calipers. Never got into casting. Looks like good therapy!

[AJBert]

I could kinda pretend I know what you are talking about but this is WAY over my head!

[marshal kane]

You've got IMO the best and fastest lubrisizer on the market and set it up for mass production! Congrats! I especially like the electric iron setup for keeping the lube moving. Simple and effective. I also have the Magma/Star lubrisizer but I use the Lyman heater plate through a switch so I can turn off the heater plate if it gets too hot. Thanks for posting all the pics!

[downtownv]

Oh Harry, you missed your calling! Why aren't you rich?

[Bobshouse]

You know if you clamped it down you could get rid of that iron. Irons are heavy, least my wife tells me that, but still...

[Harrylee]

Marshal do you have the air pressure hooked up for the lube? I really am liking the PID control that I made, it holds the temp where you set it and works with my lead pot also so a win, win here and the probe works with both. Think that cost under $50 to build and well worth it. Did put a low pressure regulator on it that I had kicking around, much easier to adjust the air pressure. Running 27 PSI and 117 degrees on the lube and working great. Now working on a bullet feeder for it, still in progress but looking good. Right now using the Star hard lube and is hard to beat for the price, got 1200 rounds out of one stick of their lube and at $2.60 that’s a good deal and I got 9 of them so good to go for awhile:)

[marshal kane]

Harrylee, No, I am not running air pressure with my setup but thanks for asking. About every 8-10 pulls of the handle, I give the lube pressure handle about a 90 degree turn. I generally cast about 4-500 bullets of any caliber so for me, manual control of lube pressure suffices. Your setup is definitely for production and I really like the way you've done it. If you haven't learned about this yet, run as much of your lube out of the reservoir as possible before pulling the cover to replace the lube. Makes it much easier to replace the cover that way. The first time I made the mistake of dropping a lube stick into the reservoir before it was necessary, I had a dickens of a time replacing the cover with a stick and a quarter of lube in there. Never did that again. I'm using Jake's ceresin lube sold on eBay. It's a purple hard lube and works pretty well with everything I cast and shoot. Best wishes with your new lubricater setup.

[jg rider]

I'm a little late coming to the party. I have one of these since 1977, and it still works great. Back then it was made by Star reloading out of San Dimas CA. Back then the in thing was to insert bullet base first into the die. Theory was it prevented any feathering of lead on the base of the bullet which effected accuracy. When you ordered a press you would send them a few of your cast bullets and they would make a top punch to the dimensions of the bullet nose. I believe they also were the first to offer a self indexing progressive reloading press, way before Dillon, RCBS etc.

[Harrylee]

Interesting I always thought the star was nose down, makes a lot easier not to mess with different top punches. When I ordered this got talking to the gal on the other end and I think she said they took it over in 1980. It’s a great machine what else can you say, and fast. BUT not fast enough, so almost at the finishing stage of making a nose down bullet feeder. Been a lot of trial and error and sometimes didn’t think it could be done. But being hard headed that I am it came together, few more details then I’ll show it to you guys. And the theory of feathering of lead on the base of the bullet which effected accuracy not sold on that. Been getting great accuracy with 200 SWC, but then again everyone has a theory. I’ll be proud to show the bullet feeder when done.

[jg rider]

Back in the San Dimas days I believe Star was catered to the bulls eye shooters and they looked for anything that could effect accuracy. I gave up on the bullet nose up strategy real early. I plugged up all my top punch cavities with bedding compound. I was an IPSC shooter back in the late 70s w/ .45 200 gr. swc or 180 swc. Now I only compete in steel plate matches. Never needed to test the feathering theory for accuracy.
I think the take over may have been a little later then 1980