Dripping Down Spout Lyman 61

[sfcairborne]

ok gents, i have a lyman 61 i bought at a garage sale, she heats up fine, but the problem is that once it starts getting hot, there is a constant drip of hot lead. now this wouldn't bother me but it drains my pot faster than I can cast, and it runs at least the first mold on a two mold cavity.

It would not bother me so much, but I spent quite a long time cleaning the pot, having the base re powder coated orange and every part but the pot re powder coated black. I cleaned the pot, the plunger and the down spout, but now it wont seal. I did not take metal off the plunger or enlarge the down spout hole.

How con I fix this or do I simply buy a new Lee bottom pour pot. Which I really dont want to do. Or is there a machinist/caster, here on the site that could fix this for me.

Any help would be great.

[RP]

I have a lyman 61 and what I did was chuck the stem in my drill and spin it while it was seated it kind of laps the rod and seat. Think of it like lapping a valve on the old lawn mower you may want to add something to the process depending on oh bad the problem is, I did not have to use any kind of compound on mine it just remove any crud or bur that was keeping it open.
The lyman 61 will out perform the lee pot with the larger heating element.

[MT Chambers]

Fix the Lyman, the Lee was made to leak.

[sfcairborne]

Thanks gent's I will re drain the pot and try using the lapping method described. i really want to get this working right, as she heats up fast, hold good temp, jus wont stop leaking. Any other help would be welcome as well.

[sfcairborne]

Well after draining the pot and giving the down spout a good looking at. It spears that the metering rod is well worn, real sloppy fit in the down spout, she's been used that's for sure. But still . Well I'm taking the pot and the metering stem over to my machinist friend and he's going to turn me a new one to fit the well used down spout. Fingers crossed.