Got rid of the drip!

[spfd1903]

I have owned a Lee 4-20 pot for the last 10 years and cast a lot of boolits from it. The dripping started about three years ago and was sporadic for awhile until it was continuous the last year. I have read a lot of posts here on tackling the problem, but never wanted to take the thing apart, fearing I would do something to make it worse. Got some Amazon gift cards for Christmas and used them, in part, to buy an RCBS Pro Melt. Took the 4-20 apart, cleaned the rod and inner part of the spout, scraped all the gunk out of the inside of the pot, and melted some pure Lead. Cast a couple dozen Lee Minie balls and kept waiting for the drip. Nothing...not one molecule of Lead dripped out. Always wanted one pot for pure and one for alloy, and no dripping. Hallelujah!!

[rancher1913]

I had trouble with mine and took a power screwdriver to the rod and spun it like you do a valve seat, still drips a little but only just barely and I can live with it.

[Hick]

Neat idea-- I'll have to try it. Mine drips regularly, but not so much that I can't handle it, and I like how easily and quickly I can cast with the bottom pour. Speed vs. drip seems to be the trade-off.

[xdmalder]

My friend in college told me he had to get on antibiotics

[toallmy]

I think that's a different kind of drip , and burn .

[Harry Tobin]

I put a threaded connector on the adjusting rod, then a wing nut and put a screw down from the top just cut the screw down till it bottomed out on the rod. Now I can adjust the flow on the fly and if it drips I just move the wing nut back and forth

[William Yanda]

My friend in college told me he had to get on antibiotics

"My friend in college" I think I have heard that one before. Or was it; A guy I knew in the barracks.....

[km101]

When my pot started dripping I emptied it, and cleaned it good. I removed the metering rod and cleaned the seat. Then I replaced the rod and chucked a variable speed drill onto it. I turned it slowly at first as I didn't want to wear the seat too much. Once it felt relatively smooth I gave it a few seconds of high speed spin. Checked to be sure there was no debris, then filled it and fired it up. No drips since. Took more time to empty and clean than to fix the drip.

[notagain15]

My Cadillac Lyman Mag 25 pot also drips but even after doing all the cleaning it'll start dripping 5 minutes after I start casting.


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[spfd1903]

My Cadillac Lyman Mag 25 pot also drips but even after doing all the cleaning it'll start dripping 5 minutes after I start casting.


Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Tapatalk

Have not started using the Pro-Melt yet, hoping it will stay drip free.

[No Blue]

Hey OP, now that you've overcome your morbid fear of taking things apart, pull apart the green pot and compare the valve to the red pot. I'm realllly curious about the valve on the green pot and how it's different and supposedly doesn't leak; forever, not ever, not gonna happen. At least that's what they claim.

IMHO is smelt all the trash in another vessel and only put clean ingots in your casting pot. Keeps all the junk out of the valve area....

[spfd1903]

Never smelted anything in the Lee pot. Clean ingots always. No morbid fear here.

[17nut]

One thing i have learned with bottom pour pots: When you stir keep off the bottom. Slag is what seats at the spigot and creates the drip.

[No Blue]

Never smelted anything in the Lee pot. Clean ingots always. No morbid fear here.

So are you gonna pull apart the green one???? The world wonders. Well, at least me...I want to know if the green one is better or just that when you pay that much more, it's harder to be objective about it. Kind of like being honest about your female...lol

[Taterhead]

Have not started using the Pro-Melt yet, hoping it will stay drip free.

I bought mine new in 2016. Fewer than 2k bullets cast so far, but not one drip yet.

[kmrra]

Well I may not have to do it but I empty and clean my pot after every use. and then I wipe the pot inside with bees wax .

[gondwana]

17nut, you got me thinking. I am going to give that a try after I next clean my Promelt. I occasionally get a drip so I empty the pot, disassemble and clean thr rod and seat until the next time, about once a year or so. I will try your idea and if it works I owe you a beer!

[JBinMN]

I am needing to do something like this.... I just started to get the "hang open" issue with dribbling. Today, I lowered the pot down to about 1/4 full added some pewter & clean lead & ran some "mold ingots" into one of my jig molds a few times & then went back to casting boolits. It seems to have cleared up, but I can't get the adjustment screw to turn either way yet.

{ I actually have been using my electric ladles to do my "mold made ingots" for some time, but I think I got a little spoiled with the bottom pour & let things go a little too long without a "flush & clean" of the thing.}

So, I think I will have to do the "flush & clean" + a "lap" pretty soon on my bottom pour like the rest of ya..

Glad to hear that things worked out for the OP & the rest of you folks who did some remedial work on your pots.

[ikarus1]

I lapped my Pro 4 20 pot before the first lead ingot went into. No drips, ever. I used baking soda plus water to make a paste then chucked the rod into a cordless drill, like others mentioned. Worked great. While I was at it, I put antiseize on the pins that retain the lever, and a touch of Loctite blue to hold the knob to the lever.

All Lee equipment needs some TLC before putting it to heavy use.

[minmax]

My USED mag 20, I just drained it cleaned, polished the rod, everything else. I've done that three times in a row. Then ordered new parts from Lyman, the new rod was longer, so it didn't work. Not sure what next.