Rebuilt my old drip-o-matic

[stubshaft]

Ordered a new pot for my drip-o-matic. I ordered it on wednesday and it arrived today from Lee by Priority Mail. Total cost $21.00!

They may not be the shiniest or the best finished products, but if/where possible I will continue to use Lee products.

They understand the meaning of customer service and value.

[thx997303]

You know, my Lee pro 4-20 pot dripped when I first got it, but after using it a few times, it seems to be just fine.

[carpetman]

thx997303---Your Lee dripped when new but no longer does. Does it still melt alloy? Maybe heating element burned out?

[thx997303]

heh, why yes it does, and to be fair, it dripped a few drops when it was heating the spout, but that was what had solidified on the outside of the valve.

It works well, I like it.

[Buckshot]

.............What usually causes the Lee pot to drip is that the valve stem sits down in a well. Crud will naturally collect there and keep the valve from closing fully. I've never seen the setup RCBS, Saeco and Lyman uses in their pots. There is a simple solution that will help in keeping the dripping down some (besides cleaning the pot out after some number of 'pots-full') and that is to let the valve close of it's own weight.

In other words if you lift the valve handle and then lower it, don't. Lift it to fill but then pull your finger out from under the handle and let it fall to shut it off. A modification I made to mine was to make a new heavier valve stem. I used a piece of 3/8" low carbon steel and turned the bottom down to fit into the well and then turned a 45* point. I don't think the angle of the point is important except that it not be to long.

On the upper end it was turned down to 1/4" OD and the hole in the sheet metal lifter was drilled out to pass it. This top end was left a bit longer then stock and then threaded 1/4-20 for about 1/2". I didn't weigh the old vs the new valve rod but the new one has to weigh 3 times as much. The reason for threading the top of the new valve rod was to add more weight and create a kind of height guage, or flow adjuster.

I used a piece of 1" OD steel about 1.25" long, drilled and tapped through it's center to thread on the valve rod. This adds more weight. It's is above the sheet metal lifter arm. I drilled and tapped 10-32 into it's side down low so it would intersect the threaded portion of the valve rod and installed an "L" shaped brass arm as a lock.

I'd also drilled out the delivery hole in the pot before, and with a full pot it will deliver a veritable FLOOD of alloy :-). To control the volumn of flow, I unlock the valve stem weight with the "L" shaped brass lever and rotate the weight up the valve stem and test the flow before locking it in position. As the pot empties it's simple to unlock the weight and screw it down the valve stem. Doing so the lifter arm now raises the valve stem higher increasing the flow.

With a 3/8" OD valve stem and that 1" OD weight on top, when you pull your finger out from under the valve operating knob, it closes with authority :-)

................Buckshot