BullPlate?

[Iowa Fox]

Has anyone ever used BullPlate on the inside of the nozzle and the tip of the shut off rod on their BP pots? Or maybe kroil. Thought I would ask before I do it and get myself in a pickle. Once the lead starts sticking it just wants to stick all the time.

Thanks

[Doby45]

How is lead sticking to the rod in your pot? If you are talking about the spout where the lead comes out, if that is sticking it means your melt is too cool.

[btroj]

I have put some on a needle and used it to clear the spout when it became partly clogged.
But lead sticking? Not sure what you are getting at.

Brad

[Iowa Fox]

The last time (last fall) I tried to use my Lyman mag 20 the lead just started leaking out as fast as the pot warmed up. I couldn't get it to even slow down so I just let it all leak out then dumped the pot into a pan. After things cooled off the spout had a hard slug of lead fussed to the inside of the spout or nozzle its entire length. I drilled through it today but what is left is really stuck. Tomorrow I'm going to take the torch and mellt off/out whats left and push a q-tip through to finish cleaning it up. I think after I get the lead wiped out I'm going to take a Q-tip with Bull Plate and wipe the inside of the nozzle to see if it will keep the lead from sticking as bad as it did this time. Boy that stuff is stuck on.

[Doby45]

Sounds like your melt froze. Lead will not "stick" in a bottom pour furnace. It might freeze if the temp is too low near the spout but as you turned the pots temp up it should un"stick". Sounds like as the melt was pouring out of the spout that you need to clean the spout then with a bent piece of wire. Every now and then I will get a piece of grit in my Lee bottom pour and it will drip a bit. I can either work the handle up and down a few times and then rotate the pin or I take a bent paperclip (one of the big ones) that is straitehed out with exception to the last half inch and that is bent at a 90* angle. I run the little half inch piece of the paperclip up in the sprout and that will clear out any trash..

[mold maker]

I keep a propane torch handy to unfreeze the spout on my Lyman furnace. I cast outdoors and the spout freezes if I take any extra time between pours. In cool weather any thing below 700* will cause it.
I really like to cast fast at 700* and don't want to change. (Old and set in my ways)

[casterofboolits]

+1 on the propane torch. I use it to help clear the crud out of the nozzle during a casting sesion, by heateng the nozzle cherry red and running a couple pounds into an ingot mold.

When I'm done casting, I take the needle valve apart and run a wire thru the nozzle from the inside to clear the crud out.

[HATCH]

Sometimes my spout is clogged (froze not full of ****).
So I take my ladle full of hot lead and hold it underneath my pot with the spout in it.
It starts working is just a few seconds.

[wiljen]

I've taken a blowtorch to the spout a time or two to cure that problem. Pot is hot enough but the exposed part of the spout remains cool enough to cause freeze problems on one of my old 10 Lbs Lee pots.

[tackstrp]

spent a couple hours cleaning all the crud off the sides of my Lee 20# . found a piece of lead shot stuck in the sprout. What a mess. used a brass brush to scrub and polish a little.