Seems that my old Lee 4-20 is getting enlarged prostate

[Camba]

Today was a great day to do some casting but my Lee 4-20 pot was not pouring the molten lead right. The pour was a small string of lead that took a long time to fill the mold and the boolits were more hit and miss to get a good cast.
Sometime back ago, someone here was posting a solution for problems like this. Would you care to share it again?
Camba

[Sticky]

If you have a propane torch handy, use it on the nozzle of the bottom pour pot. If your alloy is pretty clean, it may clear up your problem.. Just heat it for a couple seconds with a torch and try again. ;)

[tazman]

What I do for that.
With the pot hot, I take a large diameter paper clip or a nail that will fit in the hole and, holding it with a pair of pliers, push it into the hole while lifting the valve handle, then wiggle it around a little.
This usually dislodges the crud/buildup that is clogging the hole, returning the system to full flow. As you pull the nail/clip out of the spout, a stream of lead will follow, usually carrying the loosened bits of crud with it. These can be placed in your smelting pile to be remelted and fluxed.
For extreme cases, I heat the spout with a torch first.

[Camba]

Thank you guys!
I will do that next weekend. I need to buy me a torch. It should be handy for that and other things.

[Cherokee]

+1 on tazman's paper clip - I use a short length of copper wire to clear the crud from the tip.

[frkelly74]

Yes , a wire or nail or a small drill bit. Be careful when you pull it out as the hot lead follows and will burn you given a chance.

[pworley1]

I use a small finishing nail through a piece of 1/2 inch dowel about a foot long. Works great to clean the tip.

[44man]

I am a dedicated ladle caster so i plugged the evil hole with a tapered brass plug and removed the rest of the junk from the pot.
There are no heating elements in the bottom so the spout will plug and there is crud in the pot bottom that will not float.
Don't tell me about sticks or sawdust either, empty the pot once to change alloy and see what is in the bottom. That stuff feeds to the spout.

[Handloader109]

I have found that when I end a session, I close off pretty tightly the valve. Doing this has helped eliminate this problem. The other thing is your temp might be fluctuating more than you realize and it is freezing off. Last try is paperclip. No torch.

[NavyVet1959]

A 1/16" drill bit works.

Or just close it off and ladle case with a bottom pour ladle.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZQQ159QJCo

[country gent]

I use a wire for cleanong tourch tips a set of these arnt real expensive and they are desighned to clean oriffices of fouling and crud. Again hold wire with pliers and keep hand away as when the spout opens and clears a full stream will flow. For better results warm the wire in the pot before to help keep it from freezing nozzle. I havent worked with the 4-20 but the older 10 lbers. Dosnt the 4-20 have a flow control on the spout? could this have gotten out of adjustment?

[docone31]

Scale grows on the bottom of the pot also. Some of it migrates to the orifice.
I take a long slender screwdriver from time to time, and scrape the sides and bottom of the pot. I get flakes of residue that float up.
I refine seperately so my input is clean. I am suspecting, the scale is from oxides and settles and whatever is left in the ingots.
I use clean alloy and I get scale. It does plug up the orifice.
When the pot is hot, get some wire and go from the outside to the inside. The flow will return. One of the things I do, is to turn the "needle" a full turn when shutting down. That has worked well for me.

[MT Gianni]

Cigar lighter for 10-15 seconds on the tip while pouring will open things up.

[Mal Paso]

A butane BBQ lighter is usually enough, easy and keeps fingers out of the way.

In addition to crud the 4-20 spout isn't close to the heating element. If you are casting at lower temperatures a cold draft can shut off flow.

Some of the guys pour a puddle on the sprue plate before the first boolit so the lead that has been sitting in the spout doesn't go into the mold.

[Garyshome]

A piece of mechanics wire [what my dad called it] bent , works really well.

[gwpercle]

A good cleaning wont hurt. I was amazed at all the crud that had built up in the bottom of mine.
After it was de-crusted and the holes cleaned out it went back to BAU (business as usual).

[Camba]

Additional information:
The pot was between 700 to 800 deg F (approx.)
The lead was melted and extremely hot. The lead was pouring very slow that was bridging on the top of the mold by the time it reached. I ended up finishing the job with a small ladle.
I will follow the advise above by cleaning the bottom junk accumulated that may have obstructed the valve. Thank you for the support.
Camba

[dondiego]

Back off the flow adjustment screw/rod. It will affect the flow of the metal.

[JeffinNZ]

Buy a ladle and fill the hole.

[WALLNUTT]

Give the pot an occasinal stir to keep the crud from funneling it's way to the spout.

[MarkP]

Some of the guys pour a puddle on the sprue plate before the first boolit so the lead that has been sitting in the spout doesn't go into the mold.

This sliver of solidified lead can mess up smaller boolits such as (225107)

[DrCaveman]

I went through a bunch of stuff lately with my 4-20. Swapped the upper and lower guide screws for something with enough length to BITE. much better

Swapped the flow adjusting screw out for one with some balls, whose threads wouldnt strip out from a stern look, and whose head accepted philips drive (much harder to slip off into MOLTEN ALLOY) much better

Added weight to the top of the nozzle rod, in the form of vice grips clamped tight. Drip GONE

Top of muzzle rod busted due to vice grip clamping. Swapped muzzle rod for a 40d nail, worked the end on my grinder til it fit well enough to stop flow from spout.

I got a few hundred cast with this setup, til the nail got on top of some crud and i couldnt get t to stop the outpour. Some nimble swapping and dumping of ingot molds let me get away without a huge mess, but my pot was empty and back to square one.

TRY THE LADLE APPROACH, AND GIVE IT A CHANCE. YOU WILL PROBABLY NOT BE SORRY

[44man]

My friend Pete came to make .44 boolits. Ladle, a few minutes to show him and he made a pile without a single reject. At home he has three bottom pour pots and never made a good boolit.
I can't do it after 67 years of casting something from sinkers to boolits.

[Dale53]

I started out like most, ladle castling. I was about 14 years of age. When I got to the place I could cast 50 good bullets, I thought that I had arrived. Then-n-n, I met an older guy at the gun club (Lord have mercy, he must of been as much as 35 years old:-o). He taught me how to volume cast match grade bullets. I had a job, so saved up and bought a Lyman bottom pour (the old 11 lb. pot) and in no time I was casting 1000 bullets at a sitting.

Later in life, I started shooting BPCR and learned how to cast match grade BIG bullets (522 grains 45/70, etc).

I have two RCBS bottom pour pots and if I had to go back to ladle casting I would probably quit!

You CAN get good bullets ladle casting, no doubt (I have) but I sure enjoy getting good bullets with a bottom pour pot a LOT more!

Do what you prefer but don't tell people that bottom pour doesn't work... because that is BAD information.

Occasionally, my RCBS spout will freeze when I try to cast at low melt temperatures. I keep a self igniting propane torch handy, a quick click and it is lit and a few seconds on the bottom spout and I am back in business.

I am a "Certified Old Fart" and can turn out 20 lbs. of finished match grade bullets in an hour to and hour and a half of actual casting time. No brag, just fact.

Bottom pour, FOREVER!:bigsmyl2:

YMMV
Dale53

[dondiego]

How can a man have 3 bottom pour pots and "have never made a good bullet". Why didn't he just quit after he failed with the first 2 pots??????

[44man]

How can a man have 3 bottom pour pots and "have never made a good bullet". Why didn't he just quit after he failed with the first 2 pots??????
I HAVE made them work but it did take more work but Pete does not understand how. All the things like flow and heat escapes him. I fully agree that I would not make a six cavity work with a ladle so you do need a good bottom pour.
Yet, it is the wires and torch and stopping leaks that is still there. I just did not like stopping to make them keep working. I do not know why a coil is not placed at the bottom too.
I have never been in a production mode. I don't care if I make 100 per hour as long as they are perfect. The day I need 1000 per hour to size and lube is not in the cards. I actually HATE the work until I pull the trigger. A boolit MUST hit were aimed or kill a deer right now or it is worthless. I spend time with each boolit, it is a jewel by itself. Each and every round I load is crafted to the highest I can do, If I load 10 that work it is better then 500 in a can. I refuse to make noise only.
Yes guys, I do hate repetitive work and a pile of boolits that need lubed, etc and then loaded is not pleasant to me. I do it because I make them work without spending money. I have started deer season with five rounds and that means five dead deer. When the trigger is pulled, I hit, do not need the speed shooting stuff. Power to you that practice. You need it according to what you do.
To see 1000 boolits on the bench, OH MY GOD, You need to be brain dead!

[dondiego]

It is true that they need to place a small heat coil near the spout on all pots. It would take care of a lot of headaches.

[NavyVet1959]

It is true that they need to place a small heat coil near the spout on all pots. It would take care of a lot of headaches.

Or make it when a leak did occur, it would guarantee that it would empty the pot. :)

[Super Sneaky Steve]

Those pots have a slot on the needle thingy-do. If it's not pouring right stick a screw driver in there and twist it around. For me, that usually works.

[NavyVet1959]

Those pots have a slot on the needle thingy-do. If it's not pouring right stick a screw driver in there and twist it around. For me, that usually works.

My Lee casting pot was free flowing once and I needed to do that, only to find that some molten lead had filled the screw driver slot. So, the question was whether to try to scrape out the lead and let it continue to free flow or to just start putting ingot molds underneath there to catch the lead that was coming out.

I ended up doing the latter while also turning the casting pot off and dropping a few cold ingots into the pot to help it solidify quicker. Managed to get it done without too much of a mess.

Looking back, I suspect I could have just taken a wooden stick and pressed it against the bottom of the spout while working on the screw driver slot with the other hand.

[44man]

It is true that they need to place a small heat coil near the spout on all pots. It would take care of a lot of headaches.
It would be a good thing but when I empty a pot to change an alloy, there is always a pile of black junk in the bottom. Just why does it not float to the top??? I have tried sticks, sawdust and all other fluxes but that stuff is always there.
I keep my ladle clean by wiping the nose now and then, gets tinned and so does the bottom spout.
When the ladle needs cleaned I tap it on my vise to knock out anything inside the spout because there is a build up. As hard as it is to keep a ladle right, the bottom pour spout is worse. The nose of my ladle never goes below the surface so don't use the ladle to stir or flux. I use an old spoon with a long wood handle riveted on.
I will not have any leaks at my ladle nose and have tried everything from Bullplate to spray moly and nothing works as good as a cotton rag.

[dondiego]

That black stuff found on the bottom of the pots must be gold since it doesn't float on lead!

[44man]

That black stuff found on the bottom of the pots must be gold since it doesn't float on lead!
Don't we wish?