Problem with my Lyman melter

[patsher]

Dang it! What in the world causes the nozzle on this thing to freeze up on my pot all the time? I mean OFTEN! As in, between pours. If I fumble a little cutting off sprues and dumping boolits, the nozzle freezes up. And wil NOT dispense any more of the silver stream until I use the propane torch on the nozzle for 6-10 seconds. I had better luck with my Lee pots!

Help please! Anyone? Got a fix for this? Or any suggestions what to start looking at?

Info: I'm running this 20# pot about 90% full, using a PID controller set at 675 degrees f, with the pot thermostat full on. Controller works, beautifully.

Anyone?

[williamwaco]

Your temperature is set too cold.

The spout has no heating element and if the "Head" of metal must be hot enough to transfer heat into the spout via conduction.

[KyBill]

Do not have that problem with my Drip-O-Matic lol

[Walter Laich]

Pots are probably built a bit differently.

When mine gets down to 680 it freezes up, up around 700 it doesn't plug up

walt

[patsher]

Okay, I'll try for 700 plus and see if that fixes it. Thanks guys.

and, KyBill: I'm about to retrieve my drip-o-matic myself! Kept it for a backup.

pat

[GP100man]

The alloy plays a little on the temp at which it flows , but I don`t even start fluxing until it hits 700f & work between 700f & 810f

My lino mix for 6mm rifle boolits will flow from the spout at 640f

The hottest temp is for the big NOE molds !

Seems I have problems in my technique or timing keeping heat in em .

[prs]

Great! As in RATS! I was thinking about getting the expensive Lyman because my Lee pots "spout freeze" in between bouts of Lee-arrhea. I can tell ya one thing, my Lee pots have been in use for 15 or more years and I use them frequently. They never froze or became overly drip prone until I started using pine saw dust and a wooden spatula as a flux and mixer. It seems that some sort of particulate matter gets trapped in or more likely under the alloy and onto the seat of the spout valve. Keeping the temp up and casting fast 'n frosty helps with the freeze, but then Lee-arrhea is more persistent. I've cleaned the pots and lapped in the valve stem and seats with valve compound, but it seems like I will have to replace the stems and seats. Or get the Lyman pot$.

prs

[prs]

My last response was a couple or more hours back. I had a coffee with a slice of pecan pie and got to think'n. My pots didn't leak more than an occasional tiny splash for all that time. Then, with some foreign matter added (wood ash) they began to leak. Recent previous attempts to clean the rods and lap in the seats did not help much if any. I've heard of folks dismantling the pots and using a drill bit to clear the spout's orifice. But lead flows, how could the orifice be blocked?

I decided to empty the pots, clean them thoroughly, and make sure the valve seats were clean and rod ends fitting in properly. The pots were about 3/4 full of cold alloy so I had to wait for the temps to rise to 750F, at which point I fluxed with bee's wax and scraped the sides and bottoms thoroughly. I ran the lead contents into those little Lee ingots. The last few drips that would not flow to the valves, I used my putty knife blade to push to the rear of the pots and then let the pots cool. I removed the valve rod from each pot. The valves were blocked with lead, but a propane torch got almost all of it to drip out, but still no daylight. I put a #3 finish nail in a pair of vise grips and with the propane flame held to a valve I tried to work the nail through. No amount of heat and no reasonable amount of force would allow the nail to enter. I made a tool out of light gauge safety wire, just an 8" straight run of wire with a loop at the end to be my handle. I repeated the attempt to push through the valve while propane flame was held to the bottom. Success! Now, what I pushed through was NOT lead, but oxide. The Oxide looked like sulfur powder with specks of black pepper in it. I kept working the wire tool in the spout until the hole was about full sized. I could see it was still coated in places. Back to the little finish nail and vise grip handles to complete the job. Repeated same on the other pot. Put them back together and added the lead, fluxing at casting temp. The result was like that old Krylon paint commercial; no runs, no drips, no errors.

So, maybe the moral of the story for us bottom pouring types is to not use sawdust or wooden scrapers; at least not on the bottom of the melt. As always, render scrap lead and adjuncts in a separate pot and not in your casting pot. Will the job I did last? I dunno, time shall tell.

prs