Casting pot empty when done???

[abunaitoo]

Is it better to empty the bottom pour pot when finished casting, or leave it 1/4 filled?????
I leave it 1/4 filled just so the bottom won't get rusty.
I've heard of people who empty the pot, clean the rubbish out, and spray with WD40.

[madcaster]

Good thinking,and a good question.If you leave the pot full then you will not have to worry about water nor air bubbles.....

[VTDW]

I usually leave about an inch of lead in the bottom of my Lee pot just so I won't start getting trash in my boolits. I sometimes completely empty the pot when I am going to fill with another mix but the pot never stays empty long enough to rust.

Dave

[Lloyd Smale]

I allways keep mine full when turned off.

[imashooter2]

Mine stays full.

[Calamity Jake]

I have 4 casting pots, there all full.

[jonk]

I never worry about it enough to take note. Sometimes it is full, sometimes nearly empty.

[versifier]

I leave all of mine full, the melt is quicker than with ingots.

[Hunter]

I leave just enough lead in my Lyman pot to cover the burner.

[dromia]

I leave mine full, top up with ingots at the end of the casting session.

:castmine:

[trk]

Lead melts faster when added to molten lead - that is if the pot is really empty there is little contact area to get the ingots melted fast.

SO, I bring the pot back up to full when ending a session. Once a year or two I'll empty it and wire brush it if needed.

[GP100man]

A

i pour to about an inch in the pot ,unplug then pour the rest into ingot mold then clean the pot out & spray G96 when cool enuff, if itll be a while before cranking up again!!

GP100man


:cbpour:

[grumpy one]

Each time I use the pot it accumulates dross and burned-up wood shavings on top of the melt. When I'm through using it I make ingots of whatever is left, then let the pot cool and scrape out the crud so I can start with a clean pot next time. So far I've never ended up with any pot corrosion by putting it away right after scraping - if I ever do, I'll spray it with something.

[USARO4]

Mine stays half full to full depending upon when I quit casting. It does'nt seem to make much differance.

[Cherokee]

My pots are left full. I have several pots for different alloys.

[rmb721]

I keep mine full.

[Springfield]

I keep mine full, melts faster for the next session. Never had one rust to speak of except when empty. But then I cast every week. If I start to get problems with the spout I wil empty it, but it takes quite a few sessions to do that. On my Magma pot the bottom of the spout comes off without emtying the pot, unlike my RCBS and LEE pots.

[klw]

All the heating elements in a modern casting furnace are at the bottom. If the furnace is mostly empty then what alloy there is is in direct contact with the heating elements and everything works fine.

If the furnace is full then the alloy at the bottom melts but there is a LARGE metal plug above it. The expanding alloy will push on that plug. On a bottom draining furnace this can actually cause the drain to open and much of the liquid to drain out. Now there is no way to heat that plug above the heating elements as there is no longer liquid metal in contact with it.

Also if this plug is solid it will be pushed up as indicated below. But if the plug is not solid, maybe because you threw alloy into the furnace at the end of your casting session, they there may be fissers leading from the liquid to the top surface. In essence then this is a volcano. I've personally seen such volcano's spit a LARGE stread of liquid metal out throwing it about three feet. You could be very seriously burned or blinded by this. This volcano effect was written up in the American Rifleman decades ago in, I think, the loading bench column.

So I think that it is unsafe to have the furnace full after you have used it. Much better to have it mostly empty.

[largecaliberman]

Is it better to empty the bottom pour pot when finished casting, or leave it 1/4 filled?????
I leave it 1/4 filled just so the bottom won't get rusty.
I've heard of people who empty the pot, clean the rubbish out, and spray with WD40.


I leave mine full then run the rim over with bees wax to keep the rust away.:castmine:

[hivoltfl]

Full, add lead and flux it in before I shut it off.

Rick

[lurch]

I guess I'm in the minority. I empty mine completely, let it cool, scrub the crud out and oil it. To start it back up, I use a few reject boolits that melt quickly and then add ingots. The little bit of molten lead in the bottom really helps the initial melt time.

[Charlie Horse]

I get better boolits when I empty mine then clean it. If not, I get crud inclusions which get worse the longer I go without cleaning.
But most of the time I leave it partially full. I only clean it when I want to make real good rifle boolits to be shot for accuracy. If I'm making blasting ammo for pistols I don't empty/clean it.

[BulletGeek]

I find that I get a more consistent pour when I maintain a more-or-less steady level of alloy in the pot. Therefore, when I'm casting I fill the pot, cast until it's down one ingot's worth, then add an ingot and continue. Repeat as necessary.

I only empty the pot to clean it, or to change alloys when I need something specific.

[Beau Gee]

I generally try to keep my pots about half empty, or full, when I'm done casting. I find it easier to reheat then a full pot, and gives me enough metal to melt fresh ingots when a new casting session begins. I add new ingots and flux when up to heat. This has worked well for me, with a ladle pot system.

Beau Gee
grotto22@verizon.net

[OeldeWolf]

KLW: I have experienced the plug problem with the LEE pot I have been using. Your explanation matches what I saw happening. It took a lot of effort to cut the plug, and get metal back down to the bottom of the pot.

The information in this thread will likely change the way I am storing the melter.

OeldeWolf

[klw]

KLW: I have experienced the plug problem with the LEE pot I have been using. Your explanation matches what I saw happening. It took a lot of effort to cut the plug, and get metal back down to the bottom of the pot.

The information in this thread will likely change the way I am storing the melter.

OeldeWolf

I had a very early Lee large capacity pot. When the plug pushed up the bottom draining spout it actually pushed it up so far that it can out of the hole in the bottom of the furnace. It could not be put back in so all the liquid metal below the plug drained out. I called Lee and explained what happened and that I thought that this was a serious hazard. The understood what I was saying. Studied it, I think, and changed the design.

On the current RCBS furnace you can, if memory serves, actually control how far up the botton draining plug can move. You want to be sure that it is set low enough that this problem does not happen.

Also you don't want to add allow as you turn the furnace off as that can lead to the volcano problem. That can cause VERY VERY serious injury.