Problem with Pot

[Rich22]

Ao this is the second time I have used my Lee 4 20 Lb pot and I am having an issue. I go and fire it up, get a good melt and go to pour and Nada, I turn the flow adjust screw, Nada, turn it all the way up and down, Nothing, I turn the screw to help clean out the spout, yet more nothing. Am I making a error here or do I just need to return this thing if it is going to be this big a pain. Probably had it half full spout looks clean no obvious problems, was working fine two days ago. Not sure what I need to do here.

Thanks

[Spawn-Inc]

get a drip pan (muffin tin, ingot mold, etc) under the nozzle, and find a pin. use pliers to stick the pin into the spout/nozzle and see what that does. obviously once the lead is fully melted.

otherwise, heat the lead up and remove the stem from the pot, and try the pin trick or dump the pot out (carefully, blah blah) and see what it looks like once all the lead is out.

[Frozone]

There are 2 screws on the top of the handle to lift the spout rod (is that called a 'pintel'? BTW).
The rod itself rotates to clean out trash, the other sets flow rate.
The flow rate screw can come loose from it's groove in the rod.
If that happens you get problems - some of them as you are having. The other type of problem is, you can't Stop the flow!

If it's just out of adjustment you can have the same problems.

[btroj]

Move to Washington or Colorado, they have no problems with pot in those states.

Try a bit more heat. The nozzle is the coldest part of the pot and can freeze up at a lower temp that the melt will. The needle or wire up the spout helps too.

[trixter]

I keep a paper clip (large one) un-bent with a loop on one end hanging on my pot and it comes in real handy. But be sure the pot is really up to operating temp, other wise the spout won't be hot enough to release the lead. You can cheat a little bit by using a Bar B Q lighter to heat it up.

[pt4u2nv]

I keep a small propane bottle nearby all the time for this reason. If the pot is not hot enough, long enough , the spout will freeze up and not allow the lead to pour. Just fire up the torch and heat the spout from underneath for a few seconds and wolla .... you have a lead stream. ( unless it is dirt in the spout then the wire works ) Just be careful with the wire.....I have had the wire break off in the nozzle already from the heat making it brittle.Then u got a problem...

[Maven]

"Just be careful with the wire.....I have had the wire break off in the nozzle already from the heat making it brittle.Then u got a problem...."

Actually, I call that a solution, as that's how I eliminated the constant dripping and flow problems. Did I say how much I like ladle casting?

[Lloyd Smale]

sure you have it hot enough. run a propane torch on the nozzle tip for a few seconds and see if that gets it to run.

[357shooter]

Besides the heat, I wrap a small piece of wire around the top of the rod and the adjustment screw. The keeps the screw in the indentation in that plunger rod, otherwise the rod may not raise. Just a thought...