How to clean the pot?

[Tom W.]

Didn't work. Sanded the rod,cleaned the hole, got the thing looking great. Still leaks a bit, but not as bad as before.

[rbt50]

been casting for over 40 years and never clean a pot

[Strtspdlx]

I clean mine with plain old room temp water and I have a wire brush chucked in my drill. I do this to keep the dust down. For the pour spigot I use a small wire brush for cleaning copper pipe. I can't remember what size it is but I can look in the morning. I clean the rod on my bench grinder with a wire wheel attached. And I usually take a small piece of wire and clean out the pour spigot hole that the lead flows through. If there's lead stuck in it I hit it with a propane torch and run the wire through. I usually quickly lap the rod to the spigot with valve lapping compound or car polishing compound if it looks excessively dirty or was leaking fairly good on the previous casting session. I do this every time the pot runs empty before I melt more alloy as I always seem to pull dirt from my alloy in my casting pot. I did remelt all my I gots and cleaned again 3 times. I was amazed at the amount of dirt that was still in it. The Lee pots in my opinion seem to be hyper sensitive to dirty alloy. Lapping the rod in real good once usually corrects the majority of that. Then a quick lap when cleaning usually keeps it from reoccurring.

[Phlier]

Here's a pretty good thread on pot cleaning: http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...-a-Casting-Pot

[Skinny]

Ive not cleaned my casting pot in 30-40 yrs since ive started. It is probably because i make my ingots into good, clean bullet metal(from a cast iron pot/propane set up) ....then keep flux up while casting(with my bottom pour). If you dont let trash in you wont have a problem.

I can see the need to clean a pot that one may have aquired cheap because someone let it trash up and wont pour right. If you keep clean material in the pot, then flux often with a clean material, you should never have a problem.

Just my .02

[LUCKYDAWG13]

this is what i did drain pot of lead fill with water turn on let boil for 1/2 hour add water as needed to keep full
scrap sides flat stick wire brush empty out let cool i have done this on my Lee 4/20 pot and after it looked
like new and no drip

[robg]

Our club had a Lee 10 lb pot worked well till someone decided to clean it ,never worked again .haven't cleaned mine since I've had it ,10 years drips now and then I can live with that .if it ain't broke don't fix it.

[luis7]

A WD40 bottle and a wire brush on a drill works too, wear a mask for that one and eye protection. Like a new...........................

[paul h]

I've never cleaned a pot to sparkling new condition, but there have been times when I wanted to cast a few bullets and I didn't have any clean ingots so put in some COWW's, fluxed and cast what I wanted. Guaranteed to crud up a pot.

It that case what I do is drain the pot and let it cool to room temp. Then fill the pot with water and let it heat up until the water boils. Use a ss or brass scrub brush and brush the crud off the sides. Unplug, let cool, dump the crud. It'll be clean enough to cast good bullets and you won't have to deal with lead dust or other crud getting airborne as the water traps the dust.

[Walks]

I clean after the end of a casting session. I drain the pot into ingot molds. Then tip it back an inch with a paint stir stick under the front of the base. Turn it off and take off the entire flow control unit. By this time the lead at the back of the pot bottom has cooled enough to remove as a solid piece.

I polish the inside of the spout with 00 steel wool on a specially shaped screwdriver ground to fit the spout.
Then I turn the pot over to rest on a pair of 2"x 4"s inside an old cookie sheet. I beat on the bottom and sides of the pot to get rid of as much loose crud as possible. Use a leather hammer.
Turn it upright and scrape the inside with a hacksaw blade.

By this time it has cooled enough to scrub the inside with a full side piece of 00 steel wool. The "OVE-GLOVE" from Buffalo Arms is what I wear on my right hand while doing all of this.

After the pot is cold I pour boiling Vinegar water into the pot with the spout plugged. Turn it on until the water boils again. Turn off and drain. Dry and oil with BALLISTOL. The spout "stuff" is polished with steel wool too. And oiled with BALLISTOL.
Sometimes I'll run a drill bit by gloved hand up into the spout while it's still hot.

Needless to say I wear a respirator when doing all this.

[toallmy]

If you notice in post # 13 the picture is of the old style valve assembly , for a few bucks lee will sell you a new stile valve assembly upgrade , that has a threaded valve rod .
I've had good luck with the replacement .