Resurrecting a Star Universial Reloading Tool

[Colorado_Outback]

My dad got this from a family friend a number of years ago and after watching my buddy run his Dillion I decided its time to bring this ole girl back from the dead.

On with the pics!





This press was setup to throw 3.7 grains of Bullseye.


However my fav .45 load is 6 grains of Unique, so we did some fancy math and my buddy at work tossed the measure slide in his mill and opened up the charge hole for me. Now the throw is between 6 and 6.2 grains of Unique.


This Star has an aftermarket case feeder that works awesome, however its missing the case feed tube. It could also use a new powder hopper as the one that it came with is badly discolored and a little warped.
I ordered a couple pieces of PC to replace the powder hopper and missing case feed tube.

More pics and info to come as I replace missing components, return this ole girl to her former glory and crank out some .45ACP!

[spqrzilla]

Wonderful to see old reloading equipment being used.

[Great-Kazoo]

Very Impressive, I am truly jealous. Want to sell it

[paddywagon]

Very cool! And it probably works great too!

[Jherexx]

Can't wait to see your next post on this, good job on putting an old press back to use.

[Colorado_Outback]

Very Impressive, I am truly jealous. Want to sell it

Thats a true compliment coming from you Jim
And no, this one isnt for sale. Hope to pass it down to my son one day.

Headed out to the shop to try and run a couple rounds through it.

[Tim K]

That's pretty cool. Take some video.

[Great-Kazoo]

Thats a true compliment coming from you Jim
And no, this one isnt for sale. Hope to pass it down to my son one day.

Headed out to the shop to try and run a couple rounds through it.

Thanks man, I like the groovy old shit. Most of the stuff was hand made and or built to tight tolerances. Built to Last i believe the slogan was/is.
I donated an old Homelite XL12 chain saw to the res a few years back. The unit was in show room condition, literally. All correct sheet metal, bar, emblems etc. To date that unit is the only chainsaw the locals on the res have that has not been destroyed. Sthil, Husky, Jonsred, etc none of them have held up to the blatant abuse the XL-12 has and still standing. Here is something close to the condition my XL was in.


May your children & grand children enjoy the many years this reloader will hold up. Oh yeah you enjoy it too

[Colorado_Outback]

That is bad ass Jim. Undoubtedly built in the USA and made to last.


Well I ran into a slight issue I went out to run some 230's, filled the powder hopper with Unique and checked the first charge. 6.8... The next 3 I check, all 6.8..

Only thing I can figure is when I checked the powder throw initially I only put a little powder in the hopper so I wouldn't have to drain a bunch back out. Now with the hopper full I think the weight of the powder above is compressing more powder into the chamber.

All is not lost though, 6.8 grains will still make a decent 185grn load.

Ultimately an adjustable slide is in order. I can get most of the dims off my slide and reverse engineer the rest from this picture.

[Great-Kazoo]

Powder baffle. You can find the info to do one yourself. OR I can snap a pic of one i have and fab one up.
http://palmettostatearmory.com/index...fle-90225.html

Reverse engineering the slide should not be to hard to fab up, with the right tools.