Tired of that steady drip,drip,drip.....

[contender85]

from my Lee Pro20 melter......anybody got any ideas on how to stop it? Do they all do that ?

Mark

[SharpsShooter]

You have a piece of dross on the valve seat. Empty pot and remove the valve. Clean both the seat and pin until they are spotless. Apply some coarse grinding compound (automotive) to the seat area. Chuck up the pin in a drill and spin it on the seat. Try to maintain the same angle so that you are cutting a new seat for the pin. It does not take much to do the trick, so do not overdo it. Clean it again and put it all back together and it will seal up fine. Use clean alloy only or the problem will return.


SS

[45nut]

My advice:

Heat it up to melt any residual lead and pour it out. Fill the pot with water and let it boil,,rolling boil while scrubbing the sides and bottom with a paint stick to loosen and remove any "stuff", repeat and then rinse with clear water. heat it back up on a low setting and gently re-seat the valve.
Next,,remove the little wood knob and back it with some heavy washers to gain a bit more leverage.
refill with clean alloy and re-seat the valve once more and you should be golden.

[Ohio Rusty]

I had the same problem a few years ago with my Lee bottom pour pot. I finally ended up emptying it completely, removing the pour arm and stopper from inside the pot and putting a screw into the spout to close off the spout completely. Never another drip. I now melt cleaned lead in the pot and use a Lyman dipper/pourer to hand pour boolets and round ball.
Ohio Rusty

[contender85]

Thanks for the help guys......Sharpsshooter, Ive had this thing apart and cleaned it (although I didnt try re-seating with the grinding compound) and it quit/slowed down a bit but started dripping again rather shortly......I will try one or all of these ideas as soon as I get a chance, 45nut, I like the idea of the washers under the wood knob, seems like some extra weight is what it needs sometimes as just a push down on the handle will stop it..............and, if all else fails I'll just plug it and use it with a dipper like Ohio Rusty does.

Mark

[pumpguy]

Rusty has the best idea. Buy a ladle!!

[chunkum]

Just keep a Lee ingot mould under the spout. Twist the seat screw if drip is excessive, but mainly, get used to it. It's not much trouble to pull out the Lee ingot mould by its convenient handle periodically and dump it back in the pot. Stick with clean alloy and don't do any smelting in the pot. But mainly, quit letting it bother you.
c.

[SharpsShooter]

Thanks for the help guys......Sharpsshooter, Ive had this thing apart and cleaned it (although I didnt try re-seating with the grinding compound) and it quit/slowed down a bit but started dripping again rather shortly......I will try one or all of these ideas as soon as I get a chance, 45nut, I like the idea of the washers under the wood knob, seems like some extra weight is what it needs sometimes as just a push down on the handle will stop it..............and, if all else fails I'll just plug it and use it with a dipper like Ohio Rusty does.

Mark

I have had 3 of these apart. 1 was my own and the other 2 belonged to a friend. In each case the seat didn't match the valve rod closely enough to create a seal. The seating operation is time consuming and the pot should be cleaned again after you finish. It did solve the problem in each case and was proofed by heating a pot full of aloy to 900* and filling ingot moulds (stopping between each pound ingot to observe for leakage ) until the pot was empty.

So with that said, If weight will stop it in your case then by all means add some to the handle and give it a try. If it works that is great. If it doesn't don't get too disgusted as there are ways to solve the problem. I'm afraid using it with a dipper would be somewhat difficult due to the 4" diameter of the pot and the depth.


ss

[budman46]

contender,
i saw a post somewhere that recommended clamping needle-nosed vise-grips on the top of the valve rod putting extra weight directly over the seat; i tried it and found it to work very well for me.

budman46

[flinchnjerk]

Blasting some spray graphite into the cleaned spout will keep the dross from building up in it for a good while.
If you go the lapping route, don't remove the rod bracket...removing the adjusting screw will allow you to chuck a drill onto the part of the rod that's protruding above the bracket, allowing the bracket to serve as a guide to prevent your changing the angle of the rod seat. Not to worry if you butcher the lapping job; the spout's replaceable. It's $3.50 from Lee, and changing it's a 35 minute job... or a 5 minute job, if you chose not to drop the jam nut and have it bounce under your loading bench amongst the cans and boxes of boolits, the piles of ingots, the open cans and boxes of brass, the open bucket in which you store your tumbling media.....

[USARO4]

This works for me. The safety wire holds the adjustment screw into the slot on the valve rod, then when you tighten the adjustment screw it actually tightens the valve rod and stops the drip.

[Namerifrats]

I have that same pot and have had no drip problems yet not including the occasional dripping right after I pour. I just keep a small cast iron ash tray under it and dump it back in when it gets a small pile in it. Otherwise, I've never smelted in it and only melt down clean lead in it. No problems yet and I've casted a couple thousand bullets so far.

[Crash_Corrigan]

Attach the above onto the top of the stem. The added weight helps to stop the drips and if it does drip then just turn the vise grip about 180 degrees and back and that should stop it. My first 4-20 is 10 years old and I just melt ingots in it to feed my casting 4-20. The old one drips a little but the grips keep it under control. The new one does not drip at all. Not even a little but it only receives melted alloy from the top pot and has never been used to smelt ww's at all. It is the best value today in casting but you have to know how to use it.

[Dale53]

I have two RCBS 22 lb pots and both of them drip from time to time. A little rap on top of the valve stops it. I have purchased a small vise grip just for this purpose - will add it to the valve to increase the weight as has been suggested here. I am waiting for it to get below 90 degrees before I start casting again (there is a limit to everything).

Dale53

[buck1]

My Lee dripped like that. I cleaned with no change.
So I put a bit of steel wool on a .17 cal brush and chucked it in a drill and polished the seat. Then I chucked the rod in the drill and with automotive valve lapping compound , I reground the seat to valve seal. After 1 year it still holds fine. Hope this helps some...Buck

[Shepherd2]

I think I tried all the fixes mentioned above on my Lee Dripomatic and maybe a few more nothing worked until I retired the Lee and bought a used Lyman furnace from a member here. Not one single drip since. If anyone wants a Lee Pro 4-20 for $30 plus shipping send me a PM. It's guaranteed to drip.

[Sundogg1911]

mine drip a little. I keep an ingot mould under the spout and Keep twisting the cleaning screw! On my 10 pound pot that feeds the 20 pounder I put a small pair of vice grips above the weight on the handle. The extra weight helps keep the drips into the other pot down to a minimum. I also clean the Lee pots on a regular basis and clean the rod and spout with emery cloth and steel wool. I usually use my Magma pot now, but you just can't beat the Lee's for the money.

[hunterldh]

I have an old Saeco bottom pour pot that has processed many hundreds of pounds of lead alloy and it has never dripped even once. - Hunter

[JeffinNZ]

I added a self tapping screw to the outlet on the inside of the pot and bought a Lyman ladle. Never looked back.