Team.
I'm a ladle man. I won't lie to you. My main pot (Lyman 20lb) and my sprue pot (Lee 10lb) were both bottom pour but to prevent "dripitis" I removed the plungers, plugged the holes and bought a ladle. This worked brilliantly for years...........only this evening.:groner:
I fired up both pots and pre warmed two moulds prior to dinner. Put the girls to bed and retired to the garage. The CBE 313 215, CBE 316 175 and Lyman 225462 HP bullets were near prefect straight away and I was progressing well until the 20lber suddenly began pour lead from the bottom. For a brief moment I looked at the silver stream with bemusement thinking to myself "you know Jeff, I am sure you plugged that orifice some time back. HANG ON! I DID:!:"
So there I stand, lead pouring out ad nauseam and nothing to catch it in. For a while I caught liquid silver in my ladle and transferred to the Lee 10lber until an epiphany befell me that the Lee pot was nigh on full[smilie=b: Right. Time for action. I grabbed a steel plate from under the bench and jammed it under the pot then bolted to my lead store, grabbed the ingot moulds and commenced to empty the pot.
Turns out that way back when I converted the moulds I the ever so handy object used to fit exactly into the hole in the bottom of the Lyman pot was a spend 12 gauge primer. Real snug fit from memory and prefect for the job...........until the cup burnt through this evening. After I stripped the pot down and cooled it in water I found a counter sink 5mm bolt and matching nut and installed them for a long term solution.
On the bright side I made 56 of each of the bullets before the excitment began.