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what do you do to clean your LEE pots? a while back i made the mistake of melting wheel weights in my pot and now, no matter how much i flux, i still get black spots in my lead. i took it appart the pot and rubbed it down with steel whool as best as i could but the pot still seems pretty dirty. when i melt down the wheel weights, i flux it pretty good before they go into the muffin ingot mold. then when its in the Lee pot, i flux non stop but i still get black spots. any ideas?
How are you fluxing and what with?
Did you clean the metering rod in the Lee pot? How about the spout?
Drain the pot and disassemble the metering rod and clean it and the spout as best as you can
reassemble then add water and dawn dish soap turn it on and let it boil for a few minutes, drain and rince, refill with alloy when it comes to temp flux with a stick(paint sticks work good)
scrape the walls and bottom while sturing skim the dross and flux again, now try casting some boolits.
Your alloy may still be dirty so remelt your ingots with a different pot/heat source and flux well.
when i flux in the big smelter, i use some wax and stur it with a paint stick. when im in the lee pot stage, i flux and stur it with some wooden dowels i purchased. i scrape the sides and bottom. when i cleaned it i took it all apart, scrubed the pot, and the metering rod. doing the bottom of the pot was kinda tricky. ill try the soap and boiling water trick and see if that helps.
First, Find yourself a large iron pot to smelt in. Never smelt in your casting pot as you introduce foreign materials into the pot which ends up in your alloy.
You only need one material for fluxing and it is carbon.
Pat Marlin a long time member sells boxes of a cedar shaving that does the best job I have found. You just put a small handful into the pot and stir. After all the bad Dross comes to the top and is skimmed off ,add another small bit and leave it. It serves two purposes, it gives the casting area a nice smell which my wife even loves and second it keeps the top of your alloy from any oxidation.
I feel for ya one the cleaning part. My old Lee 10# production pot of 30 years quit working with the spot going belly up! No matter how I tried to get it clean, smooth, and right, it simply would just give me a trickle! I ended up plugging the spout from within and use the pot with a ladle. But that's ok as I started out that way many moons ago!
Hope you solve you problem, as I know it is frustrating beyond belief!