This is one of the reasons I use a ladle. Less tinkering, more casting.
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This is one of the reasons I use a ladle. Less tinkering, more casting.
Yeah, me too, but that's not a GUARANTEE that bad things can't happen. Once lowered a slightly wet WW into a pot that I didn't detect, and got a small but very attention getting shower. No injuries other than a few tiny shards that hit exposed skin areas, but even with ladles, bad things CAN happen. There's just no way to avoid focusing on what we're doing that WON'T eventually cost us, or at the very least cause some instantaneous alarms. Focus is where it's at, and where it's always going to be.
In our "modern" world, we've become accustomed to being so busy and having to balance so many thoughts at once, that we don't "see" any need to change gears when casting, and we simply don't FOCUS like we really need to. When the price for that comes, it's just not pleasant, no matter how it turns out. This is something I see reflected in the general overall attitude of many newbies here, at least as it appears in print in this electronic world. That may not be entirely "fair" or totally accurate all the time, but it's so common that I KNOW it applies to at least some here, and it's been a concern of mine for some time. I've tried to broach it a time or two, and with varying degrees of response, and I just hope this little thread and the kindness and honesty of the OP is appreciated and the lessons heeded. It COULD prevent a serious accident that is MUCH more costly.
And all we have to do, to learn the lesson, is FOCUS, and take serious things seriously. Very simple, but crucial if we are to get the kind of results we all truly want.
Last edited by Blackwater; 05-30-2015 at 03:02 PM.
ARGH! I did just about exactly the same thing around a year ago. What a mess! It did give me an opportunity to completely empty the pot and clean it out thoroughly which it needed. White vinegar in a warmed pot, near boiling, works wonders. The stuff coming out is toxic, so handle it appropriately.
"A cheerful heart is good medicine."
I had never had a spill like the OP talked about until about two years ago. I came up with a bright idea that I needed to put something under my bottom pour 4/20 Lee pot. My wife gave me a cookie pan that she did not like, it is 1" deep 11" wide and 17" long inside measurement. About the third time I used it I had a spill. I was heating up a pot for a casting session and decided I needed to do something in the house I was only gone for about 10 minutes. The pot was empty and the cookie sheet held all of the lead from the pot. I learned two lessons from that experience, never leave the pot unattended, and always put the pan under the pot.
You can try putting a 1/2 restaurant baking pan under your pot for safety over flow. My Lee bottom pour that was a week old started to run & I stopped using it before it it got to the point where it wouldn't stop the flow. Amazon took it back for a full refund, plus sent UPS to pick it up!
One thing to remember if you decide to use the cookie sheet -- some of them have a *tin* coating. You can very easily end up *soldering* your casting pot's stand to the cookie sheet. BTDT...You will pretty much destroy the cookie sheet trying to get it unstuck.
These days, if it happens to me, I put something under the spout to catch the lead so that it doesn't make a mess. This gives me time to do other things. I then unplug the pot and if there is room for it, I add cold ingots to the pot. If your pot is not too full or you are running it too hot, this will often cool it down far enough to solidify it. Solidifying it doesn't fix your problem, but it gives you time to think about what you need to do before you heat the pot back up and have to deal with the molten lead possibly coming out again.
I haven't tried it, but I suspect that you might be able to just hold a stick firmly against the bottom of the spout and shut off the flow. If you are using a mold where you hit the sprue plate with a stick to cut the sprue, that stick might work.
The best solution might be to just have an ingot mold that would fit underneath the pot while also being large enough to hold a full pot worth of lead and being of a size that could be could be fed back into the pot later without needing to be remelted or cut up.
Bottom pours are nice, but they do have different issues than ladle pouring.
Or you can try a compromise between bottom pour and ladle pouring that I came up with awhile back that FortuneCookie45LC made a video about and reviewed on YouTube.
Bottom pour ladle design
My dipper only Lyman Mag 20 sits on 1 bench area. My RCBS pot sits on another bench area and has an 8"x8"x1 1/2"H old aluminum cake pan in the dribble catch area. Maybe now you fellas understand why my stool that I sit on while casting has casters on the legs so I can kick back away from a "silver shower" a little quicker that just getting up off a non easy moving stool.Robert
1911KY,
My post is really not about the lead waterfalls, but the fact you were going to adjust the screw on the top of the pot...
I never really understood it much, but I do know it is to control the flow...
I just always left mine the way it was from the factory or thereabout if I tore it apart to clean the pot...
Do you turn the screw clockwise to slow the flow down?...
My brain just doesn't work along the line of looking at something and figuring out what is what in many cases!!!...
Thanks...BCB
Well, there are actually 2 adjustments you can make. You have the valve rod screw which is what I was turning and shouldn't have been. The bolt head that connects the handle to the pot is what I needed to turn to give my handle a shorter open and close pull. The valve rod adjustment becomes easier to adjust once you set your handle travel. Clockwise turns of the valve rod will decrease the flow while counter clockwise increases the flow.Originally Posted by BCB
http://www.leeprecision.com/cgi-data...uct/EL3469.pdf
Page 2 outlines the flow adjusting.
I like this sentence "Do not rotate the valve rod too far counter clockwise as continuous flow will occur."!
"The Constitution shall never be construed to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms."
- Samuel Adams
COTEP CBOB0736
Apparently, this just isn't my week to be reloading and casting. I was reloading last night and after my 20th loaded cartridge, the pistol meter insert on my LNL AP decided to just drop out of my rotor, thus dumping a half a powder measure full of WST all over my press and on the floor!! Geez!! Can't catch a break!
I managed to salvage the majority of the powder and it gave me a chance to totally clean up my press, but I can't figure out why it came out.
It seems that the meter is only held in by slight side tension and it isn't locked in with a machined groove. So my guess is that the constant dropping of the meter in the rotor eventually just broke the side tension and it gave way. Needless to say I will be checking the tension on the meter a lot more now.
"The Constitution shall never be construed to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms."
- Samuel Adams
COTEP CBOB0736
Interesting...
My 4-20 does not have the same adjustment as the instruction manual shows...
Apparently, mine is an older model...
I have a big screw that fits in a slot on the valve rod. It is obviously more sloppy adjustment than the one you have...
I got mine at a yard sale so I didn't have instructions...
Thanks...BCB
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