Just got the Lee 4-20 pot. Now what?

[Utah Shooter]

Any tips on cleaning it before first use? Any other tips on keeping it somewhat clean?

[docone31]

Melt ingots in a different pot.
Otherwise just use it. It helps to twist the spigot during shut down.
I use Kitty Litter on top of the melt. I toss rejects on the litter. When it gets hot enough, the lead drips into the melt. Mine has been around a long time.
A good pot.

[dragonrider]

It does not need cleaning, put clean lead in it and plug it in. If you want it to stay clean, never use anything but DRY, DRY, VERY DRY sawdust to flux.

[DrCaveman]

Well I am not the best authority, but all I did was place several ingots... Probably about 12 pounds worth... Into the pot, and turned her up to 7-8 as the instructions suggested. 20 minutes later I was pouring waaaay better than my ladle/saucepan combo could ever do.

As for maintenance-style cleaning, I simply never let the pot run fully dry, and flux & skim each time I start a casting session. Maybe once or twice more per session if I add ingots to the pot.

It probably helps that I do all my smelting in the old sauce pan over a fifth burner, so the ingots getting into my furnace are pretty clean. Some **** still always shows up after fluxing, however.

I have managed to get the out-spout clogged about 3 times. High temp and vigorous stirring has solved this so far. Also, you will most likely get the dreaded drip drip drip... Just work on the flow setting (using flathead screw at top of pot) and this should cease to be a real problem. It will depend a lot on how full your pot is and what temp you are running it at.

Good luck, you bought a great tool that should work for many many thousands of rounds! Maybe several hundred thousand, but I am not there yet! If it breaks I'll think of spending 4x the money on a different one, but honestly would probably just get another Lee.

[Ole]

Check the small screw in the lever at the bottom of the pot before every use. Mine gets loose from time to time.

[geargnasher]

Just use it, it's ready to go right out of the box. Tips? Check the screws that guide the rod handle linkage for tightness after you get it hot the first time. Be careful, they strip easily, but will strip worse if you let them get loose, and sooner or later they WILL get loose and that can lead to an uncontrolled lead dump. Keep an aluminum pie plate or cast iron skillet handy in case anything goes wrong with the valve, which can happen to any bottom-pour pot.

When you add lead, try to keep it off the bottom until melted. The kitty litter trick is a good one, it keeps the oxide skin from freshly-cast culls and sprues from being carried to the bottom and getting trapped there where it will migrate to the valve and cause it to drop. Use a wood stick to keep oxide scum scraped off the sides of the pot when it accumulates, but be careful NOT to ever scrape the bottom of the pot with a stick because it will slough off ash underneath the melt and cause drips too. Anything that gets under the "surface tension" of the alloy between the metal and the pot can't float back up. Every few pot-fulls I drain mine and wipe out the crud that seems to develop on the metal surface, and haven't had a drip in mine in over a year. Use clean ingots and don't do anything that will carry crud to the bottom where it gets trapped.

Gear

[462]

"Just got the Lee 4-20 pot. Now what?"

Cast a bunch of bollits.

[GP100man]

The only thing I can add is after kool down (completely) I give my pots a layer of WD or PB blaster ,G-96 or penetrant oil just something to prevent rust , sure it smokes when fired back up bt when the smoke stops I know it`s bout ready to go !!

Empty & clean mine every 5th pot & still find crude under the melt !!& I fluxat leat 3 or more times while smelting !!

1 other thing is as the pot is full it`ll tend to try & float the plunger I added a small set of Visegrips to the asm & no drip when full anymore ,I find if I make an effort to close the plunger instead of letting it drop I rarely have drips .

[bld451]

As for the stripped shoulder screws that guide the pour handle, I recently tightened mine for the last time. After three uncontrolled lead unloads, I decided to see if I could fix it. This is a little bit simplified for brevity, but here's what I came up with.

The original screw holes are big enough to accept 6-32 all thread, so I got a 12 inch piece and 6 nuts at the hardware store. Although I needed to clean it out a little, the hole goes all the way through from top to bottom. I trimmed the all thread to a length that looked like it would work, and pushed it through the hole. Two nuts are used to hold the A.T. in place. I found out that it doesn't work very well with just the all thread. The handle moves too roughly to be effective. I made some steel sleeves to go around the A.T. and simulate the shank of the original shoulder screw. They are .182 in diameter (same as orig. screw), .250 to .300 long, and a clearance hole drilled through the middle (.140 or so). Two jamb nuts on the ends and it worked great. One pot through it so far, and I think it works better than the original setup, and no worries about a pool of lead all over the bench.


http://castboolits.gunloads.com/imagehosting/thum_204334fc8461772e81.jpg (http://castboolits.gunloads.com/vbimghost.php?do=displayimg&imgid=5437)


http://castboolits.gunloads.com/imagehosting/thum_204334fc84636ad84b.jpg (http://castboolits.gunloads.com/vbimghost.php?do=displayimg&imgid=5438)

Sorry, I didn't rotate this pic.http://castboolits.gunloads.com/imagehosting/thum_204334fc8468abc5d9.jpg (http://castboolits.gunloads.com/vbimghost.php?do=displayimg&imgid=5439)

[geargnasher]

BLD451, that's a better fix than I did, and one anybody can do. I ended up taking mine apart, peening the ribs back around the screws, and TiG welding to bridge the ribs all the way around the screw threads. The issue, for those who haven't had the side panels apart, is that the screws don't thread into a hole, they thread into a U-channel on the back side of the aluminum side panels like the self-tappers that hold aluminum window frames together. If you overtorque the screws, the channel spreads and strips out.

Gear

[bld451]

Gear, By the way, I just finished about 2,500 of the Accurate 230L boolits, and am lubing them up to load every last piece of brass I own with them. Thanks for putting me on that design and sending the samples. You done good. I love 'em.

[geargnasher]

Glad you like them, I wouldn't steer a fella wrong!

Gear

[runfiverun]

man. i just wrapped a piece of galvanized fencing around where he put the bolts.
i'm the pretty low tech type though

[tonyjones]

Would there be any advantage to adding a light spring (or springs) to bld451's modification?

Thanks and regards,

Tony