Which pot?

[Steve E]

I have cast for years with the Lee bottom pour pot(10 lb I think) and was wondering if it is any easier with a Ladle to fill the molds, does it ofer any advantage?

Steve E.........

[Dale53]

Steve E;
You'll get a lot of people who prefer ladle casting over bottom pour. However, I have been bottom pouring for more than fifty years. I have tried ladle casting and do quite well with it. However, I am faster with bottom pour and have no problem casting match quality bullets.

I DO recommend a 20 lb pot, however. When I was casting commercially, I used one 20 lb bottom pour and a twenty pound separate pot just to feed the bottom pour. That way, I could have a continuous pour all day long. These days, I am content to generally just cast a twenty pound pot at one time.

Dale53

[versifier]

Some moulds seem to prefer the ladle to the bottom pour. One of mine that does is a .54 MaxiBall. I don't know if it's the size of the boolit or the fact that I cast it with soft lead, but I have problems with fillout and voids using the bottom pour and the percentage of good, usable boolits is really low. With the ladle, however, I get good fillout, no voids, and only the first couple get tossed back in the pot as the mould comes up to temperature. All of my other moulds from 7mm to .45 have no problems with the bottom pour and it is so much faster. I just leave a 4lb melter full of pure lead for m/l boolits and softpoints and keep the bottom pour full of alloy for everything else.

[MLR]

I just recieved my new Waage electric pot a few days ago. Its for ladle use only.
Once I calibrated it the tempreature never changes. It keeps a very constant temp. It cost me about $141 with shipping.

Michael

[DLCTEX]

Lee Pro 20 for $64 is hard to beat. DALE

[454PB]

I own both a Lee Pro 4- 20 and two 10 pounders. I use the smaller pots for .22 to .30 caliber boolits, and the 20 pounder for the bigger ones. The biggest design advantage of the 20 pounder is the fact that the metering rod is vertical and offset to the front edge, whereas the rod is at an angle on the 10's. The vertical rod makes it easier to flux and scoop off dross, plus a dipper can be used if desired.

[Mayhaw2]

Hello Mike, I have a lyman 20 LB bottom pour and about 6 Months ago
the pot sprung a leak. Hot lead was dumping out B4 the spout hole.
Sent to lyman and they said they had to weld the pot. Recieved back
and in 2 month had to send back for the same thing. Wonder if any
other Casters have had trouble with Lyman Bottom pour pots.
Mayhaw2

[robertbank]

Like you, I cast for years with a 10# Lee Bottom pour. My leakamatic. I went with the RCBS ProMelter and couldn't be happier. Mounted the 10# on a stand to feed the Pro-Melter and now have for me, the perfect set-up. I used very fine wire to wire the Lee rod to it's lever and stopped the "clocking" and also the leaking that followed. There are several threads on this subject and lots of pictures of guys set-ups.

Take Care

Bob

[Hunter]

I have a Lee bottom pour pot and through Bob's advice the leak is fixed and I do like the pot but truthfully I like the ladle better. It is slower and a little more work but it just suits me better.