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Ironduke
03-14-2014, 10:38 AM
Moving forward, I will not turn on my lead pot and walk away while it warms up. I did this yesterday only to come back and find the pot empty and Pb all over the base, down the front of my bench, and in a big pile on the floor. The valve stuck open on my bottom pour Lee furnace. What a headache.

Happily 99% of the Pb was recovered and remelted, but that was a dangerous situation. Had molten Pb dripped on the extension cord that powers the box fan, a serious fire hazzard could have resulted.

But after that, i got to use my new Lee 6 cav 200 gr SWC 45 ACP mold. I like this mold; it turns out good looking bullets. But I was annoyed when the sprue plate handle broke off at the hinge!! I'll be calling Lee today for a replacement.

Scharfschuetze
03-14-2014, 11:18 AM
Thanks for that Ironduke. I guess I've been lucky so far, but I'll keep your tip in mind as I really don't want to repeat that in my garage!

dragonrider
03-14-2014, 11:56 AM
BTDT still got the volcano looking lump. H ad to melt it from around the pot support rod, PITA.

dondiego
03-14-2014, 12:05 PM
I have done that too and now keep my pot on a large metal tray with a lip to catch any overflows. It was real interesting the time I accidentally knocked the valve rod off of the threads! I didn't lose the whole pot but the metal tray was useful!

Tatume
03-14-2014, 04:34 PM
This is another reason I like casting with a dipper. I rarely use my bottom pour pot.

dverna
03-14-2014, 05:11 PM
Any idea why the valve stock open?? Can it be corrected?

Don Verna

Walter Laich
03-14-2014, 06:43 PM
half the fun for me was using up a couple of bottles melting the lead down to where it would fit back in the pot

blikseme300
03-14-2014, 09:47 PM
Sprue plate handles breaking is a sign that the mold is either not hot enough or you are waiting too long to cut the sprue. In a similar vein folks pound on the sprue plate to cut the sprue on 2-cavity molds when a gloved hand is enough to cut the sprue when it is already too cold. Take it easy on molds and they will out last you.

stephenj
03-14-2014, 10:23 PM
you are not the first to find an empty pot upon return ... lesson learned cheaply .

6 cavity molds need preheated for sure ... even with a preheated mold i start by only filling 2 cavities
one or two quick pours and i move up to three cavities and so on till all 6 are being used .
it saves on easily broken sintered metal sprue plates

Catshooter
03-14-2014, 10:30 PM
There was a member here who doesn't know for sure but suspects that his un-attended pots burned his loading shed to the ground.

Since that time I have bolted my Lee to a cookie sheet and when I turn it on I always have an RCBS ten pound cast iron pot under the spout.

I cast in my basement and don't want to loose the house, so I'm kinda careful. :)

Welcome to the forum IronDuke.


Cat

DrCaveman
03-14-2014, 10:35 PM
Only happened to me once, at least a completely empty pot. Other times i come back to the warming pot and find a stalagtite between my ingot mold "drip catcher" and the spout. Even when she isnt dripping, i occasionally overflow the sprue and its good to have something to catch it.

As for the pot completely emptying, my solution has been to adjust the flow rate screw down to a trickle while warming. So, when the alloy at the bottom turns liquid...which for me seems to happen real suddenly...the worst that happens is a slow drip. Better than the flood gates opening.

Others here manage to get rid of all dripping with their lee furnaces. I am not so skilled, but at least i tweaked it down to a manageable drip

freebullet
03-14-2014, 10:49 PM
Never go further than eye sight allows if my pots on. You learned why. Glad nothing crazy happened.

Bzcraig
03-15-2014, 12:40 AM
I just posted this yesterday. The best response was to put a cookie sheet under the pot. Notice the scorched wood that was under the lead.

I use a Lee 20# furnace for casting, which hasn't given me a lick of problem in two years. I do occasionally empty the pot and give it a good cleaning, the last such time I tweaked the valve handle. Thought I got it straightened out pretty good but it just was not working like it had. I ordered a new one so last night emptied the pot, gave it a cleaning, replaced the valve assembly, loaded in some lead, heated it up and everything checked out good. I unplugged it and left it on my work bench to cool off. When I went into the garage this morning this is what I found. What a pita to get this off and remelt. Don't know what went wrong, but all seems well now.