My first casting run was last week and went really well. I cast up several hundred maxis and they came out great with a low reject rate. The Lee pot ran well most of the time with the usual (from my reading here) drips and occasional minor clog. I'm using 99.9% pure lead and I get the nice color sheen on the top. I flux with wax and skim when needed.
I left about an inch of lead in the pot last time. This week things did not go well. I kept getting drips and clogs constantly. Eventually I dumped the pot to clean the rod tip and check out the pot. I gave the rod a light sanding at the tip and could see a hole at the spout. I even turned the heat up to get 800+ degrees. It didn't last long until the spout just dripped slowly and then closed over for good. My guess is that I added some old Great Plains bullets that were laying around to the pot. While i tried to brush off most of the old dried lube but there was always some left. I only added about 5-7 per pot of lead 99% but maybe there was enough crud to clog it up. I thought it would flux out and get skimmed off. My other thought is that I wasn't initially running hot enough although I used the same setting as last week.
Anyway my thoughts are 1. Turn the pot upside down and heat the out side of the spout with a propane torch and try to melt and burn out the clog.
2. drill out the spout with 1/16' drill bit. 3. open to suggestions.
I really like the speed that I can cast when it runs good and prefer not to ladle cast if I can avoid it.