to ladel or not?

[Ohio Rusty]

I have a Lee bottom pour pot. The pot would always drip, no matter how much I tried cleaning the spout, polishing and cleaning the closing arm in the pot, etc. I finally just screwed a screw into the bottom of the spout, removed the pour arm assembly and made it a ladle only pot. I'm glad I did that because I can pour round ball by hand and keep the sprue puddle molten longer with a ladle preventing voids and bubbles in my ball and bullets.
Ohio Rusty >

 

[gjkershul]

Ron, I did the same thing as Hunting Dawg with my Lee Production Pot IV.
It worked for me pouring Lyman Parker-Hale 566 gr minies. The weight uniformity was much better.
I THINK I used a 3/32 drill.
However, I would agree with Hunting Dawg to try a bit that goes through the pour hole and then go one size bigger.

 

[wvbuckbuster]

I have only used my Lee bottom pour for .40 & .50 rbs and .50 REAL(not very many) My spout leaked and I too polished it along with using a screw driver to rotate it back and forth while casting to keep any build up from forming under it. Also use a paper clip to clean bottom of spout every now and then when casting. Just a couple of things that hepled me.

 

[Stumpkiller]

Many years ago someone told me to NEVER empty the bottom pour furnace. I always leave it at least half full of lead. I was going knutz with all the crud from the junkyard scrap lead I get. It takes longer to heat up, but I have NEVER had a clog or a leak since. The crud stays above the spout & linkage, and there is no rust or corrosion as the delicate parts stay embedded in lead where the air can't get to them when not in use. I also leave the last ball to harden in the mold (with the flashing on top & the cut=off gate closed) for the same reasons. No air = no moisture & condensation = no corrosion. Seems to work so far.


Before leaving the lead in the pot more than once I'd toss in some ingots and plug it in and set about something else to come back and find thrre pounds of lead or so outside the pot where the spout cleared before the linkage allowed the plug to drop. Oops.

 

[jtmattison]

I was going knutz with all the crud from the junkyard scrap lead I get.

I always melt my scrap lead in a pot over high heat from a Coleman stove. I clean it, flux it, and pour into ingots.

My Lee pot only gets fed clean ingots.

I still get crud that requires a complete emptying and cleaning from time to time but I do leave the pot about 2/3 full all the time to minimize rust and crud.

HD

 

[rebel727]

I'm glad to hear all these stories about having trouble with bottom pour pots. I've been a ladle caster for years but I just ordered a Lee Pro 4-20 a couple of days ago. At least half if not more of my casting is big bullets. Nothing smaller than 44-40 on up to .58 minies. I'd hate to think I was getting something that would work like it's supposed to. :rotf:

 

[mckutzy]

well im glad this generated some good insite as to perspectives on these pots. for now im going to be using a pot on the Coleman stove and ladle pour, i just got a slightly used 2 cavity .490 mold from a contact of the black powder club I belong to, so ill be working on that for now, then move to a caster later on maybe.

 

[Stumpkiller]

I was going knutz with all the crud from the junkyard scrap lead I get.

I always melt my scrap lead in a pot over high heat from a Coleman stove. I clean it, flux it, and pour into ingots.

My Lee pot only gets fed clean ingots.

I still get crud that requires a complete emptying and cleaning from time to time but I do leave the pot about 2/3 full all the time to minimize rust and crud.

HD

Yes - even pre-melting over a Coleman in a cast-iron plumber's pot and using the ingots. I still have to flux & skim loads of dross off the "second stage" melt. I have a stainless steel tablespoon with a dozen 1/8" holes I drilled in the bowl. Molten lead doesn't stick to stainless.

A major reason for the pre-melt & ingot cast is I get free junk-yard lead, but it's from torn-down houses from the cast iron sewer lines and has iron rust, oakum, solder and an odor that is worse than Zonie in a pup tent. THE ADMIRAL would pour the pot over my head if I tried to clean it up & melt it indoors.

 

[rebel727]

an odor that is worse than Zonie in a pup tent.

And how do you know what Zonie smells like in a pup tent? Inquiring minds want to know. :grin:

 

[Stumpkiller]

Well let's just say there were three dead coyotes and two dead sage grouse outside the tent and he'd never fired a shot . . . with his rifle.

 

[flaming canvas]

I prefer to use a ladle. Had a Lee pot and had all the problems everyone else already mentioned. I don't see that doing it this way is any slower. I find it easier to pour a big glob on top of the sprue cutter that will come loose easily.

With the pour spout I always got a little bitty plug in the hole on the plate that was hard to get out fairly often. I use a stick of solder to knock the sprue plate. It stays in my hand all the time and the ladle gets put back in the pot after the pour. This gives the metal time to set up and the weight of the solder stick works well for cutting the sprue and then 1 or 2 taps on the ear of the sprue cutter pops off the big glob of lead on top. It usually goes back into the pot and then my hands are close to the pot to pick up the ladle for the next ball. Usually average about 4 per minute.