LEE "Drip-O-matic" Bottom pour Pots

[Bigjohn]

Most Esteemed Fellow Casters of the Silver Stream; I am stepping in to an area which brings up many emotions both good & bad; The Care & Feeding of the LEE "Drip-O-matic" Bottom Pour Pots - Tips & Remedies for Successful Casting.

I am not starting this as LEE Precision is one of our Sponsors but because I and many other members must rely on these to produce our required supply of boolits to shoot. I may be told that this information is already posted here but I have not been able to turn up a complete set in one thread.


I have over the years tried several different methods of producing the 'Silver Stream' which I could reliably turn into boolits. Some produced reasonable results, some did not and I have had to return to using LEE Melters to produce my boolits.

The dreaded "DRIP" appears to be the number one issue and sometimes, requires more than just a tweak with a screwdriver to fix.

What I would like to see is anyone who has had a issue with these pots; post details of the problem and fix. Prehaps we could see pic's of home made tools used to coax these pots along.

I hope this works as I have some issue and am lost for solutions.

John.

[oneokie]

John, do a search using the words "visegrip/s". Several have posted that adding a pair of same to the handle adds enough weight to the rod to almost eliminate the drip.

[badgeredd]

Bigjohn,

I have 2 of the famous Drip-O-Matics and have fixed both to "NEAR" perfect non-dripping pots.

The first thing you want to do is lap the rod and hole together with some valve grinding compound.

The second thing is to add weight to the handle. I made a new handle by drilling and tapping an 8-32 into a 4 1/2" long by 1" diameter piece of cold rolled steel. It adds weigh and one has a better feel I believe.

Third I adjusted the rod on one by slightly straightening the bends in the lever wire to make the clips that hold it have less side play.

Fourth, on one I added a piece of copper wire (12 gage solid electrical) in the shape of a "U" to keep the rod centered better. It is bent on the ends around the rod lift wire (for lack of a better description). It still has some free play but it is greatly reduced from original.

These are my fixes and there is a past thread that guys mentioned things they did to fix the drip. BTW, MINE always drips a little at startup, until the majority of the lead has melted. Also it was mentioned in the thread that one should leave some lead in the bottom when they shut down. I leave about a half inch in the bottom. It has worked for me.

As soon as I get a battery for the camera, I'll PM you with some pictures to help. I hope the text helps you.

Good luck and happy casting.

Edd

[badgeredd]

Bigjohn,

This might help too.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...t=drip-o-matic

Edd

[jhalcott]

One OTHER "secret" is to do your smelting in another pot. Clean ingots will cut down on the crud that gets in the spout. I'm on my third Lee pot, all 10# ones. I have a small cast iron pot for when I want to dip a few bullets,but it hasn't seen sunlight in years. I have tried a lot of tricks to eliminate the drip. I can get it to slow down but never go away. I just set an ingot mold under the spout and cast up the pot full of alloy. I do notice that really hot alloy drips quicker and faster than a melt "just hot enough"!

[docone31]

BigJohn,
I have had many Lee Bottom Pour Pots.
I have encountered the drip on a few occasions. The most spectacular was when I was heating the pot up to cast fishing lures. Half the pot emptied onto the bottom plate before I caught it. It was so thick I had trouble folding the lead to put back into it.
From that point on, I have always turned the spout valve. I do this before I start pouring, and I do this when I shut it down.
I have had trickle issues also. I open the spout and it trickles, then freezes. No pour.
I made a paper clip poker. I stuck a paper clip in a pencil. This I use to clean not so much crud, as frozen lead from the spout. I have to do this about every four casting sessions.
When I first started turning the spout, the adjustment screw would back out. Once it had some heating/cooling cycles, the adjustment screw no longer turned freely. Oxidation had built up on the threads.
To date, doing this, I do not get more than a drip once in a while. I always do keep an ingot mold under the spout.
The biggest issue I had was the angle of the mold under the spout. I used to go straight in. Now, I go at a 45* angle. I get great control over the pour.
I donno, I have used the Lee Bottom Pour Pot for so long, I guess I just got used to it. Once I blew a rheostat. I got a router speed control, hotwired the rheostat and used the speed control to control heat. I also just plug it in on the setting, rather than turn it off and then unplug it.
I do wish, on the 20lb pot I have now, instead of the valve control it uses, I would prefer a lever type of arrrangement.
I have not had any real issues with them.

[Shotgun Luckey]

When I bought my 20 pound pot...one of the first things I did was remove the factory rod and handle. the valve assembly I devised is kinda modled off of the Lyman furnace I saw at a friends house

I got a long bolt about a 1/4 or 3/16, ground the head off and put a little taper on it (I tried a long taper, like a pencil, but it would jam tight in the spout). I drilled the spout just enough to dress the valve seat. I laid a piece of bar stock across the top of the pot so it would pass directly over the spout and drilled a hole so the new valve rod pass through the hole. I used 2 nuts to attch an "L" bracket to the top of the new valve rod (using the threads that came on the bolt) Now I had attached a small "L" bracket to the bar stock on the other side of the pot. This became the mounting pout for my handle/lift lever. A long piece of all-thread became the handle with one end loosly bolted to the "L" bracket and passing through the "L" bracket nutted to the valve rod. I added a few 1/2' nuts to the end of the handle for weight.

I used water in the pot for testing as alignment is important. I've been able to get it adjusted so that I usually have no dripping. But you will notice I still keep an ingot mould under the spout. The skinny piece sticking out of the pot near the fulcrum "L" bracket is my thermocouple for my temp controller and not a pert of the valve assembly.

I still get "freezing" in the spout, but that is caused by adding too much cold lead and the temp dropping, so I keep a lighter handy to warm it up. Hope this helps.

[dromia]

All these good and innovative "fixes" tell you that the drip is a reall issue with Lee pots.

If you enjoy fettling then the Lee pot is a good buy, if you don't enjoy fettling or don't want to spend your money on a product with a built in issue then don't put your dosh into Lee.

Me I plug up the spout, ditch the pouring bits and they make good dipping pots.

BTW I use the RCBS Pro melt for bottom pour, 10s of thousands of boolits and no drip, better ergonomics too. For me thats worth the extra.

[lead Foot]

Big John
Had that broblem for along time I fixed it by cleaning the pot completely when you finish then add a tablespoon of Lanolin Grease. Do this while the pot is hot so that it runs out. My pot is a 100 years old and don't drip no more. Also Lanolin Grease is the best flux ever.

[compass will]

After reading all the Lee fixes, I went ahead and bought the 20lb'er anyway.

First thing I did was lap the rod to valve seat with grinding compound.
Every time I start it, as soon as the rod can turn, I give it a couple twist with the screw driver.
Then several times during the session I give it a quick twist.

If mine started to drip, my first attempt to stop it would finding a way to add weight to the handle.
(casting lead into the wood handle? new handle that has more weight to it?)

It's never dripped more then a couple drops in the year I been using it

But my lead is already cleaned before it goes in the pot.

[Freightman]

I ruined a good Lyman pot by smelting in it never cured the drip and I mean excessive, replaced it with a 20# LEE and I have never had a leak. I do not use anything but clean lead, got an old cast pot that I smelt in.

[Dave Berryhill]

For the sake of comparison, does anyone have photos of the valves used in other brands besides Lee?

[Shepherd2]

I tried the "vise grip fix" and a few others on my Lee and they all helped some but before long it would start dripping again. I fiddled with the thing for a couple years before I found the ultimate fix. I bought a used Lyman pot and the leak stopped. Now I enjoy casting again. I sold the Lee cheap to a member here who knew exactly what he was getting.

[HABCAN]

After almost forty years of casting from my LEE ten-pounder with 'The Drip' ever increasing, posts on this forum prompted me to actually drain the thing completely and clean it. What I found was a concrete-like buildup in the spout, probably an accumulation over the years of simple fine grit from dirty ingots. Once drilled/chipped out using a hand-held drill @ ~25rpm, the old reliable hardly drips at all.

Double-fluxing/cleaning your smelts before pouring ingots really cuts down on 'The Drip' from the LEE pot! Like Freightman says, use another setup to smelt in!

[Bigjohn]

I have been reading, casting and thinking (the last one can be the dangerous one). I currently have here 4 (yes, your seeing correctly "4") LEE Bottom Pour Melting Pots. Two are 10 pounders and two are twenty pounders.

One ten pounder is ready to go, the second one needs a thorough cleaning (in the process of being done; spare time issue); one twenty is in use and one NIB. Now, this might seem like I have money to throw around but two pots (1 x 10# & 1 x 20#) were received as part of a deal involving molds, lino and accessories.

I do not use these pots to prepare raw salvaged material into ingots; I have a gas ring and larger homemade pot for this job. It will hold approximately 40 pounds of material.

I cannot control the temperature of this set up and a 30 pound cast pot will reach 950 degrees F, without difficulty, which is what I tested it at last week with a pot of lead.

Some members recommend I change to RCBS or LYMAN pots; at present LEE products are 1/3 the cost of these brands here downunder and the green & orange will have a price increase of up to 20% effective tomorrow. Then we add on the time delay between order and receipt. I can have a new LEE pot here by Monday if I order it today.

I found a solution to the adjustment screw seizing, I applied some high temperature lithium based grease to the thread each session. Just a tiny amount. It works for me.

After I started this thread, I went to the shed and turned on the LEE 20# and cast about 800 boolits in 4 hours. Once liquid, I stirred the metal, scraped the sides & bottom of the pot, fluxed with beewax and stiired again but did not skim the top. I followed the same procedure when adding fresh metal which had been brushed off to reduce dirt going into the pot. The only drip issue during that session appeared to be as a result of the pin being knocked to one side out of alignment.

I will get some valve grinding paste and try that on all valve seats and report back.

Shotgun Luckey's idea may be the way to go to ensure postive sealing of the spout. I find that if I applied a postive effort (for the want of a better description) to the return of the pin into the seat, the drip was only a minor concern. If I let it drop under its own weight then I had drip.

John.

[ktw]

The last time I thoroughly cleaned my Lee 4-20 I liberally sprayed the inside with one of the aerosol "drop-out" products (had it, wasn't using it for anything else, why not see if I could find a use for it).

Seems to have smoothed up operation and reduced dripping. Nothing sticking to the side of the pot anymore. Haven't done a long term test of it yet, but so far so good.

-ktw

[billyb]

The last time I thoroughly cleaned my Lee 4-20 I liberally sprayed the inside with one of the aerosol "drop-out" products (had it, wasn't using it for anything else, why not see if I could find a use for it).

Seems to have smoothed up operation and reduced dripping. Nothing sticking to the side of the pot anymore. Haven't done a long term test of it yet, but so far so good.

-ktw

I started doing the same thing some time ago, it helps with the clean up, i clean mine after 3-4 sessions. i coat the inside of the pot, the valve rod and the inside of the valve after cleaning it with a wire or drill bit that fits the hole.I have never been plaged with drips. I use two of the 4-20 lee's Bill

[shotman]

the last 2 posts is all you need. I have done that to mine never had a dripping problem in last 20years . If I had one that looked like shotguns i would throw it away. Mine is 20yrs old and looks almost like new. I DONOT melt anything but CLEAN lead in mine. If you use Marvel flux it will float any trash that may be in the lead . my .02 rick

[cajun shooter]

I had my 4-20 valve assembly come apart and pouring a full pot of hot lead with no nway to stop it. I never had that much of a drip problem and the temp would stay at 725 with no problem. I sent it back to Lee and they sent me a brand new pot. Now the problems start; the new pot drips like crazy and the temp control will not regulate. I tried to have a casting session and had more time fooling with the pot. This was my final time to be upset. I unplugged the pot and came inside and picked up my new Midway flyer. The RCBS Pro Melt was on sale and now I'm looking out the window for that truck to arrive with my new pot. The Lee will be put to lesser chores. I should have done this a long time ago. Casting is done by me for relaxing and being able to extend that sport I love. Take Care

[Jerry11826]

I remember, like it was yesterday, one of the many "talks" I had with my father. It was after he found the stash of "girlie magazines" in my room. "You shouldn't be reading this stuff son, but I'm not going to tell you what you can or can't read. If you want to read this trash do it in the garage - I won't have it in my house".

That is how I feel about the Lee melters. When I started casting in the early 80's my economic situation was probably less than a quarter of what it is now. I purchased the Lee production pot, two cavity .45 and .38 molds and a Lyman luberisizer with dies. The price was modest, but when you don't have any money even a modest price is a lot. Had to save for a couple of months to make the purchase.

A buddy of mine, who worked for a print shop, gave me three ingots - approximately 60 pounds - of lineotype they used in the print shop. This was not dirty wheel weights or range salvage, but nice clean metal - maybe straight from the foundry.

Anyway, I put the pot on the electric range under the vent hood - and went out to smoke the molds. Watching lead melt is not very exciting! When I returned the lead had melted then leaked out of the spout and formed a "Christmas tree" almost up to the spout. "ut-oh" this ain't good" Remembered the instructions to twist the plunger rod in the event of leaks. Did so and the leak stopped.

Talked to an older caster at the range and he told me not to worry - "they all do that - put a vicegrip on the plunger rod - adds a little weight and will reduce the dripping". He was right - It did reduce the dripping - now maybe I had to twist the rod only every third or fourth time I lowered the rod.

Finally, in about '86, that's the date stamped on the furnace, I decided this was BS and bought an RCBS Pro Melt. "Oh yeah" now this is what a melter should be - NO LEAKS!

Still am using the same RCBS Pro Melt - about a dozen Lee six cavity molds and a Star luberisizer. Sweet setup!

I like Lee products - I use Lee molds, Lee dies and have two Lee loadmasters. Retired my Dillon equipment. Even have one Lee sizeing kit for a little used bullet size.

That said - Richard Lee should be ashamed of himself - He continues to make a product which he must be aware has problems - Why doesn't Lee fix the problem?

Anyway - untill the problem is fixed - the Lee melters - Not in my house!

Keep 'em in the X ring!

Jerry