Are Lee Pots just garbage?

[Dapaki]

Yupper, LEE is all junk! Please send it ALL to me for proper disposal!

I love LEE, I can get anything fixed or repaired if need be, they are inexpensive, I can have custom work done for less than a custom set from a one man shop. Best of all, I dont have to worry about it, if I screw up a mold by dropping it off the shelf, 8' off the concrete, I just box it up with a note and send it off to LEE and 2 weeks later I get a new/refurbished one.

The only thing I have ever paid for when sending it in is a single stage press where I put a breaker bar on the handle to 'size' some .357 boolits to 308. Broke the base, told them what I did, $23.00 later and I was back in business.

Cant hate on that.

[murf205]

Well they might not be an older Pro Melt or a Magma but you don't have to get a loan to buy one either. Junk? No they are not, I have an old 10 pounder that has cast a kazillion boolits and it's now my dedicated fishing jig caster. I bought it in 1980, 40 yrs ago. That's just the other day in geezer years!

[onelight]

Well they might not be an older Pro Melt or a Magma but you don't have to get a loan to buy one either. Junk? No they are not, I have an old 10 pounder that has cast a kazillion boolits and it's now my dedicated fishing jig caster. I bought it in 1980, 40 yrs ago. That's just the other day in geezer years!

Man do you think you are gonna get your moneys worth out of that.

[murf205]

So far it is as durable piece of casting equipment I own.

[mvozz]

This thread cracks me up. I started casting a couple of years ago, I bought all of the equipment from someone that just thought casting was a waste of time so he was selling his stuff for about 1/2 price. It came with a Lee 20# bottom pour pot that I just absolutely hated. Dripped like crazy so I decided to just get a new RCBS Pro Melt. Just before I ordered it I need to do a little casting and was reading a few of the threads on here and saw some fixes for the Lee pot. I thought what the heck and lapped the rod and valve, made sure there was no dirt in the pot at all and filled it up. It has been over a year with little or no dripping at all!! One thing I did discover though is that I never let the pot go empty period and I haven't cleaned it since. When I fill it I skim and flux with sawdust then pour away till it gets down to about 1 to 1/2 inches of alloy then fill it again and start over. I am just going to keep my Lee pot and may someday add a PID control but it has been a joy to use since I cleaned and lapped the valve. I did run across an old SAECO 10# bottom pour I may buy just to cast pure lead round balls for my neighbor. That way I won't have to switch my pot over to pure rather than alloy from time to time. If I don't end up with the SAECO I will probably just buy another Lee!

[OS OK]

I think the 'quality in casting' is 'directly proportional' to the amount of effort you put into it...
I use a spring for quick adjustment on the valve & added some weight to that assembly, built a more versatile, adjustable mould rest & added a PID...I am quite satisfied.
LEE always leaves a little to be done by the purchaser, otherwise they'd cost what a Cadillac furnace would...
Like Conditor22 said in post #8, you have to keep them clean & flux correctly.

[onelight]

This thread cracks me up. I started casting a couple of years ago, I bought all of the equipment from someone that just thought casting was a waste of time so he was selling his stuff for about 1/2 price. It came with a Lee 20# bottom pour pot that I just absolutely hated. Dripped like crazy so I decided to just get a new RCBS Pro Melt. Just before I ordered it I need to do a little casting and was reading a few of the threads on here and saw some fixes for the Lee pot. I thought what the heck and lapped the rod and valve, made sure there was no dirt in the pot at all and filled it up. It has been over a year with little or no dripping at all!! One thing I did discover though is that I never let the pot go empty period and I haven't cleaned it since. When I fill it I skim and flux with sawdust then pour away till it gets down to about 1 to 1/2 inches of alloy then fill it again and start over. I am just going to keep my Lee pot and may someday add a PID control but it has been a joy to use since I cleaned and lapped the valve. I did run across an old SAECO 10# bottom pour I may buy just to cast pure lead round balls for my neighbor. That way I won't have to switch my pot over to pure rather than alloy from time to time. If I don't end up with the SAECO I will probably just buy another Lee!

It is funny if you buy the SAECO pot you may have to clean and lap the valve on most brands that is called maintenance and is expected but if you need to do that to a Lee it's a defect in the pot.

[Conditor22]

"It is funny if you buy the SAECO pot you may have to clean and lap the valve on most brands that is called maintenance and is expected but if you need to do that to a Lee it's a defect in the pot."

[Dapaki]

"It is funny if you buy the SAECO pot you may have to clean and lap the valve on most brands that is called maintenance and is expected but if you need to do that to a Lee it's a defect in the pot."

Spot on!

[pacomdiver]

mine always constantly dripped from brand new, i lapped the rod and spout a while ago when i first got fed up with it dripping, didnt make a difference. use clean alloy, dont put any dirty lead in the pot, clean it every time i use it, still dripped. after seeing some of the replys on this thread this week, i went out and looked at mine and decided to flip the rod around (only thing i did) so it sits on top of the wire instead of the bottom. plugged it in and it didnt leak a drop in the 45 minutes i had it plugged in, cast about a dozen rounds on a mold i had sitting at my station to see if it was a fluke , but it didnt drip a single time, so im thinking mine was a wire that wasnt bent quite right. ill give it a thorough test this weekend and make a couple thou just to put my mind at rest

[fcvan]

I bought my first Lee 10 lb pot in 1985. The heating element failed 5 or so years ago so I bought a new pot, but also bought a replacement heating element. I think a flaw in the design is that the heating element basically holds up the pot. So, I bought a 3" x 3" angle bracket which was screwed on the housing to support the weight more effectively. I modified 3 pots with the brackets.

A buddy from college used to reload with me, I'd bring my gear and we got after it. I gave my buddy the newer pot and he bought some molds, yes, Lee. I moved the family to Colorado about 12 years ago, I didn't want my youngest daughter finishing high school in California. I basically doubled up on a press, dies, another 10 lb pot, and some molds. My neighbor in Colorado bought some molds and dies for calibers he shoots so I didn't have to re-buy everything. I didn't/couldn't retire for a few years so we kept the house in California (mile from the beach) and my older daughters and their children are still out west.

Yes, the Lee earned the name 'drip-o-matic' because a dirty pot will clog and drip. A member here suggested a brilliant suggestion or two. Don't smelt in your casting pot is an obvious start. Second suggestion was: 1) empty the pot and let it cool, 2) while cold, pour water in the pot and turn it on and let come to a boil then empty the boiling water. Just that simple. I haven't had to keep a bent safety pin to clear the spout ever since.

I could always use Dad's Saeco pot which is great but it is in my brother's garage along with Dad's reloading equipment. He doesn't reload anymore unless he's visiting. My brother and I keep him 38/357, 41, and 45 Colt. I tried to gift him a S&W 639 as he admired it, he declined stating he would only go shooting when visiting his boys. He's almost 81 and still walks/works out every day, Mom is 81 and she walks about half as much as Dad, then he walks home for the car. I don't think she has shot her S&W M27 in 30 years but man could she shoot!

[hollywood63]

"it is funny if you buy the saeco pot you may have to clean and lap the valve on most brands that is called maintenance and is expected but if you need to do that to a lee it's a defect in the pot."

x2

[smithnframe]

I've never owned/used one and I doubt if I ever will!

[iomskp]

I have had m Lee pot for 20-30 years without any problems, I think I have had my monies worth.

[mozeppa]

when i cast , i may do it for 6 or more hours...i bought the magma pot and a pid....yeah $600. (saved long time) i'm not rich.

never have any problems...holds 90 pounds of lead. almost never drips. ain't looking back.

[onelight]

when i cast , i may do it for 6 or more hours...i bought the magma pot and a pid....yeah $600. (saved long time) i'm not rich.

never have any problems...holds 90 pounds of lead. almost never drips. ain't looking back.

A pot that holds 90lbs would be wonderful

[robg]

my 10lb pot is 20years old had to clean it out once but i was smelting ww in it so my fault .im a ford type guy.

[eveready]

Lee should rename the casting pots The Trump Pots. No matter how good of a job it doesn't get any credit for anything from some people.

[1hole]

Smelting means using heat to extract metal from ore; we don't do that. For some reason many of today's cast bullet shooters (wrongly) call the melting of stray bits of lead based alloys in a pot "smelting".

Are Lee's simple melting pots the mechanical equals to those costing several times more? No, but that doesn't matter at all to most of us.

I've been bullet casting for about 55 years and have happily used one of the original Lee bottom pour melting pots for some thirty of those years; if it falls apart today I'll sigh, smile and get another one tomorrow. It appears I'm not the only one who feels that way about Lee's comparatively inexpensive pots; are we just too stupid to know what we're doing???

[JerryCan]

I just plain find them convenient. I have several big bore moulds with 4-6 cav. I set my keep bottom pour up, and git r dun