"Lee 10lb. bottom pour pot..."

[exile]

At the present time, all I have is a Lee 4 lb. ladle pot. Despite all the trouble I have heard with the Lee bottom pour pots, I am thinking about giving one a try. Anybody have one, or have bad experiences that would make me change my mind? Thanks.

exile :happy dance:

[Doby45]

http://www.castboolits.gunloads.com/search.php?searchid=3007012

[Firebricker]

I like my RCBS better than the 4-20 I had but wouldn't think twice about buying a 4-20 if I needed an extra. Ya they do some dripping but there are cure for that. Bottom line is they work and don't cost an arm and leg. FB

[exile]

I am hoping this will help me keep the Lee 2 cavity molds I use up to temperature as opposed to using a ladle pot. Am I dreaming or is this a fix for the problem? If not, I would probably get the Lyman Big Dipper Furnace pot. It is only $ 38.50 from Midway USA.



exile

[Doby45]

If you can't do the tweaks to the furnace you prolly should not be reloading. But then again you are wanting to ladle so get whatever ladle pot works best fer ya. The Lyman Big Dipper sounds good.

[pdawg_shooter]

I have 2 Lee 20#s, and they both have been plugged. Both dripped but dont matter because I do ALL my casting with a ladle.

[462]

I use Lee 10 and 20-pound pots. With the tweaks that I learned here, drips are very minimal to non-existant.

[Cowboy T]

I have Lee's 20lb downpour pot, the Pro 4-20. Sure, sometimes it leaks a little. But so what? It works pretty darn well, and with my 6-cavity moulds, I empty that pot fast enough to where it simply doesn't matter. For $65, I'd say I made a very wise purchase.

BTW, the Pro 4-20 is superior to the 10lb version. The reasons are greater capacity and a more powerful heating element.

[Catshooter]

Due to limited space requirements, I do most of my casting with a Lee 10 pounder and am quite satisfied. I even have a spare set aside. I also like that I can get spare parts from Lee or MidwayUSA, and they're pretty cheap too.


Cat

[exile]

Thanks guys, this was helpful.

exile

:happy dance:

[Dark Helmet]

Full size muffin pan ingots won't fit into the 10# bottom pour

[6pt-sika]

I have a Lee bottom pour 10 pound with the 4" height underneath !

I've been using that one for 11 years now and while it drips some I've not had any problems !

Matter of fact I smelted probably 700 pounds of lead in this thing before I bought a Lee 20 pounder with the 4" height underneath !

Now I use the 10 pounder mostly for casting as I prefer a bottom pour and use the Lee 20 for smelting !

Always wanted a Lyman or RCBS big bottom pour furnace , but the $100 I have in the two Lee's versus the $250-350 for the Lyman or RCBS . I never have made the investment for the more expensive ones !

[exile]

Ordered a Lyman 10 lb. ladle pot and an RCBS ladle today. We will see how they work out.

exile

[Shooter6br]

Lee 4-20 works great for me. Only Lee bottum pure I would get

[plainsman456]

I have a 10 lb pot and a Lyman 20 lb pot both bottom pour and the tiny dribble matters not.
You can adjust the rate of pour with them on larger molds.

[docone31]

Before you put the pot to bed, spin the spout rod, then let it cool full.
I have had yet to have an issue with the pot, and I have done a bunch of castings over these years.
Go with the Lee 20# pot. Works great.

[nes4ever69]

i have the lee 4-20 and love it. yes i rarely get the drip, but it doesnt last buy a few drips. that only poped up after my dad used it and drained it completly empty. only on warm up does it do that. if you put something under it to catch the drips, no big deal.

also it does have an adjustment so if the lead runs out, play with the screw.

[ItZaLLgooD]

I've got the 10lb bottom pour Lee furnace. It will drip a little here and there. I keep one of the muffin tins that came out of the pan under the spout to catch little drips.

[Omnivore]

I have a Lee 10 pound Production Pot. Two minor complaints; it would be nice to have a bigger pot. Once you get going and you're making nice boolits, you want to keep going, and 10 pounds isn't a lot considering that 10 pounds fills it to the brim. Practically, about 9 pounds is "full" if you want to be able to stir the pot. Also when a bottom pour is full, you get a lot more flow pressure than when it's low. When full, it really spits out the lead and that can be a problem especially with a round ball mould - the lead goes in and want's to jump right out again.

The occasional drip is nothing compared to all the sprue you're handling. I keep an ingot mold under the spout and two or three times per pot I just dump the dripped lead back in. Learned that one here from other members. Another tip from here is, since the Lee 10# isn't thermostat controlled, you turn down the heat control as the pot gets lower. Seems to work well that way so far.

The 5 pound ingots I get from The Captain here will go right in. Two of them fills to the brim. I'll pour off 1# or so into a Lee ingot mold and there's now a bit of space for alloying metal. Larger ingots that won't fit in, I cut up with a large pruning shear. Some extra work there.

If I had it to do over I'd go for a larger pot, but otherwise the 10# Lee is a really inexpensive and still quite useful tool for getting into casting.

[brimic2]

The Lee 10lb pot has served me very well. Drips very little if at all after lapping the valve rod, never run it dry.
I recently got a 400 gr 480 mould and the bottom pour simply doesn't fill the mould well. I tried ladle casting for the the first time which worked very well, but I can only take about the top 3 lbs or so of lead off the top before the valve rod gets in the way of the ladle (using lyman ladle). Probably will get a 20lb lee pot soon.

[Philngruvy]

I suggest that with any bottom pour pot , to put a steel pan under it that can hold the entire contents of a full pot.

[45-70 Ranger]

Bought a 10# production pot ages ago. It worked like a charm until six months ago. The spout (mounted firmly in the pot) began to fail to pour. I guess I simply wore it out after countless rounds cast! So I just seated a screw into the spout opening from the inside, and use a ladle like I did when I started casting in 1963. I still like this pot and the element is the original! I know I will get many more years of service from this little guy! Got no complaints.

Wade