Considering bottom-pour pot - need insight from Forum Members

[Smoke4320]

Went thru at least 4 lee 4-20 pots. All leaked no matter what i tryed.
Got a RCBS pro melt added a PID have been for years now

[AnthonyB]

JackQuest; I have a Magma I stumbled on for a very low price. It is the 90lb version and is overkill for me. As you described your casting, I believe it would be for you as well. Tony

[Bigslug]

The progression in the family foundry has been:

Lyman Mag 20 (a real bad dripper. It's now the emergency backup to the emergency backup)

RCBS Pro Melt (MUCH better, much less-drippy pot)

RCBS Pro Melt II (for dedicated use with non-lead hunting alloys)

Use a separate PID to control temp on all three.

The factory mold racks I've largely dispensed with. Found a large aluminum block to slide the molds across and control height by adding or subtracting thin strips of "box" plywood underneath

A bottom pour is going to drip to some degree at some time. No big deal - I pick up a small stalagmite from under the mold guide every few minutes and toss it back in the pot, or just use the mold to bump it off the aluminum block and move on. To my mind, it is still far preferable to the slow, three-handed PITA juggling act that is ladle casting, and bottom pour is just more streamlined & productive - especially when you kick up the cavity count. Ladles for me are the final nuclear/biological/chemical option that is to be avoided if at all possible - I'll FIND a way rather than resort to spoon-feeding my molds.

My suggestion is go RCBS. I suspect you'll find it solves all your problems, but if you still find ladles to be in any way preferable - such as for filling the huge, single-cavity, buffalo rifle molds - get yourself a dedicated ladle pot. The reason for this is that the spigot hardware - especially when combined with any extra temperature control hardware you may add - gets in the way of going in and out with the ladle for every pour.

[gwpercle]

I started casting in 1967 with a dipper . Listened to all the great talk about bottom pour and bought a Lee 10# bottom pour. Discovered I could make a lot more second rate boolits with the bottom pour ...trouble is I don't want second rate.... I want perfect boolits , well filled out ,no voids , no imperfections . Pressure casting with a ladle worked better for me . A sale at Midway prompted a new 20# magnum melter and new Lyman ladle .
Best move I ever made . Considered plugging the 10# bottom holes but realized I needed a larger pot even if ladle casting .
After buying the 20 # Magnum Melter , Bazoo , see post # 2 , said he could use it , ( had lost his equiptment in a fire) so I sent it to him , now I see he's going back to the open top and ladle like I did .
My solution to casting is a big 20 # pot and a ladle , pressure casting gives me better boolits .
Gary

[DerekP Houston]

RCBS Pro-melt version 1 for me with a PID from a forum builder. I had the standard lee drip-o-matic and while I could fix it for awhile nothing did long term. Rcbs drips very rarely and usually caused by me putting dirty lead and not skimming enough.

[Springfield]

I have 2 RCBS Pro-Melts and a Magma 40 lb pot. Noe of them drip. The Magma is for the bulk of my shooting, one RCBS is for pure lead for balls and such, and the other is for harder rifle bullets. I started with LEE 10 and then 20 lb pots, but once I got the RCBS they went away. But I cast a of of bullets every month, as 4 of us in the family shoot Cowboy Action shoots every month, sometimes I go 2-3 times. So volume is important to me. We don't do any precision long range shooting, so the bullets don't have to be within .1 of a grain or anything like that. And I don't have that much spare time so I need to get a lot of bullets cast/sized/lubed and not take all day. All 3 of my pots are connected to a PID.
I always tell people, if you use a progressive reloader, then you need an RCBS or Magma. If you load on a single stage, then you don't really need the larger pot for the volume. Pretty simple.

[Andy]

I had a lee 4-20 and now have the rcbs pro melt, the lee dripped at first then I honed the spout and it didn't drip for a year, then started dripping again, albeit slower. Held temp ok (50 degree fluctuation) until you got within 1/3 of the bottom then would fluctuate too much. RCBS holds more steady (maybe 25 degrees fluctuation until 1/4 full) and actually holds about 25lbs. Nicer sturdier setup all around on the RCBS but the lee is probably the "best value" in that it does work and you can overcome its issues fairly easily. I kind of wish i had kept the lee to leave other, less used, alloy ready to go in. It's not the one you want to use primarily, but if you get one you will probably always have a use for it, and it would get you familiarized with bottom pour at no big risk money wise, so i would say start with that (and hone the spout before you use it).

[Jruby38]

Go with a LEE Promelt 20 pound bottom pour. You get at least three times the production and better quality with bottom pour. None of the top of the pot slag you get and have to keep skimming with top ladle. I have three of them for different alloys. Muzzle Loader, Pistol, and Rifle. The are not pricey like the others and work great with 6 cavity molds.

[poppy42]

Here’s my thoughts on it for what it’s worth. Yeah can go out and spend a few hundred on our CBS or alignment or whatever or you can go out and buy three or four Lee 20 pound bottom pour pots. I have a lead for 20 love it no drips no runs no errors. For me it’s a no brainer. But then again I’m broke and have cash flow problems basically gets down to how much money do you have to spend and how comfortable are you with different brands available . It’s kinda like cars some folks a very comfortable with their basic Ford Chevy Chrysler etc. others have to have a Cadillac or Lincoln. Ultimately the decision is yours and Hass to be made by you. And yes I do realize everything that I’ve stated is probably of no use to you whatsoever sorry about that

[MOA]

I went from just a simple pot over a burner with a ladle, then I got the Magma master Caster, but when I found out that I could purchase the base stand that Magma uses on the Master Pot I ordered it and now I have a 40 lb bottom pour too. I just take out two bolts holding it to the master caster and place it on the master pot stand and I'm ready to go. Holds lots of lead so I'm not slowed down by having to wait when I add more lead since I do lots of heavy grain boolits. I get more boolits done in the same amount of time cause I don't have to wait long for it to get up to temp either.

[kevin c]

MOA,

Even with as nice a set up as you have there (clean, portable, self contained and all that), I don't think I could ever get my wife to let me cast in the kitchen...

[MOA]

MOA,

Even with as nice a set up as you have there (clean, portable, self contained and all that), I don't think I could ever get my wife to let me cast in the kitchen...

kevin c,
I have an extraordinary wife. As long as I'm not toooooo unsafe, or messy, or until we move into our new home, or/until it gets below 95 outside she lets me do what is not normally accepted in most marriages as far as casting goes. It's way too hot outside to do this with the "AIR YOU CAN WEAR" down here on the Mobile gulf coast. When Winter comes I go outside to do this. When we get the new place, I plan on having the whole upstairs of the garage barn for my casting and reloading room so as to leave her new kitchen devoid of my reloading/casting vices. lol

[robg]

same here mine dips now and then but works well most of the time

[sharps4590]

I have an old Lyman Mag 20. Bought it new probably 30 years ago after fighting and fiddlin' with a couple Lee "Drip-o-Matics". I ladle all my rifle bullets because I can cast within less than 1 grain difference. I've never been able to achieve that bottom pouring. The only thing I bottom pour is plinking/playing revolver bullets. If I'm after serious revolver accuracy, I'll ladle them as well.

[CamoWhamo]

I have a Lee 4-20 that I use with an external PID made by Hatch on these forums.
I have also owned both the Lyman MAG-25 and RCBS Pro Melt-2 thinking they would be an upgrade over the Lee and they would be neater and less cable clutter on the bench.

Well, i ended up selling both the Lyman and RCBS and I'm still using that Lee. Yes, it sometimes drips but other than that it works well. The flow rate can be easily adjusted and is has a better stream. I get less rejects when using it. Having the PID's temp probe in the alloy is also way better than it being in the pot walls like in the Lyman and RCBS. The mold guide is simple but effective. Very easy to adjust with one hand and without tools.

The Lyman needed aftermarket upgrades to work with Accurate or NOE molds. The flow was forever changing and needed constant tweaking, and line of sight to the spout is blocked by the shroud so it is hard to line up the mold cavities when using it. On the plus side the Lyman's PID was easy to use and was accurate and very good at maintaining temp.

The RCBS' PID is terrible. It doesn't work anywhere near as well as the external PID or the lyman.
The physical design of the RCBS is good. It was fairly easy to use and adjust the flow. The mould guide is good but if you need to adjust it you need to use tools and it can't be done on the fly with one hand.
The RCBS also has poor insulation of the electronics and so the manual says you need to leave it running with the PID set to zero until the alloy cools . This takes several hours so you need to be aware of that.

[rbuck351]

I have never been able to cast a decent boolit with a dipper so I use Lee 10 and 20 lb bottom pour pots. Yeah they do drip sometimes but a quick twist of the stopper rod and they stop dripping for a while. My first 10lb Lee I bought about 50 years ago and so far no problems other than the drip issue. I use pieces of 1/4" and 1/8" steel plate stacked under the spout to bring the mold up to the height I want. Any drips or over flow slide off when resetting the mold for fill. My biggest mold is about 370 gr and I have no problems filling it with a lee pot.

[Nick10Ring]

I've had both LYMAN and LEE. The Lyman is a MoldmasterXX and it is great. I also picked up a 10 pound Lyman Ideal(it's old ) but it still works.
Like other people have said the LEE is a dripper.

Nick10Ring@aol.com

[Iowa Fox]

I started with the ladle almost 50 years ago now. I'm getting a little old and shaky now so a lot get bottom poured using a NOE rest.

[lign]

This is a very helpful thread. Before I started casting, I thought 10 pounds seemed like a lot (lol) so I got the Lee Production Pot IV. I don't like it because the pot is almost impossible to access to flux and stir or skim due to the fat rod right in the middle of it and it's tiny size. It drips quite a bit, and that used to bother me until I learned that most bottom pour pots do that. Now I am trying to decide whether to get the Lee 20 pound bottom pour and build a PID or buy the Pro Melt 2 or Mag 25. I'd rather buy one of those but the reviews are not very good. Watched a lot of youtube videos also. It's not about the money. Thanks to this site I have learned there is another option, so I am considering a Magma pot but there isn't much feedback available on those.

[44magLeo]

If you get the Lee and build a PID, you can use the PID for other things, like your PC baking oven.
If you buy a fancy pot with it built in that's all it can do.
I built my PID into an old cash box. I used a wall outlet in the side of the box. When not in use the power cord and temp probe get coiled in side. When in use the box stays open with the pot/oven plugged into the outlet.
Clean your scrap lead in a big pot on a propane burner, flux well and pour into ingots. This lets you put only clean lead in your casting pot. This minimizes dripping.
Leo