which melting pot

[enfield]

hello, I'm going to buy a new melting pot ( most likely a Lee ). I've been using a
10 lb style with the flip up handle and I'm o.k. with it, but I was thinking of getting
the Lee Pro 20 with the swivel style spout [B]are they better or worse ?[B] thanks for any help.

[Lloyd Smale]

I allways get flak for this but skip the lees and step up a notch to a lyman or an rcbs or two notches and get a magma. You wont regret it.

[imashooter2]

To answer your question, the valve on a Lee 20 is a better design and less problematic than their 10 pound pots. Well worth the price.

[dromia]

The Lee is OK if you can't afford anything better, or if you enjoy fettling to get it to work.

The drip is famous and there are various fixes on this board, my other big grief is the positioning of the spout, the pot needs to be almost raised to eye level before you can see the spout and connect the mould with it. I just use mine as a dipping pot now.

For bottom pouring I use a RCBS Pro melt and find it to be excellent, I'm sure the others mentioned are as good or better than the RCBS, for me, in electric pots, more investment = better product.

The Lee will help you make cast bullets and for the price it makes a great dipping pot if you plug up the spout.

[Springfield]

I had Lee's, then RCBS, now a 40lb Magma. I was perfectly happy with the RCBS except it was too small to keep up with 2 6 cavity moulds on a long run, like 3000 bullets. One thing I do like about the Magma that hadn't entered the equation until I bought one was the two orifice spout. Helps speed things up even more. The LEE's are just OK on the best of days. They are OK for casual casting but not even in the running for volume work. And remember the 20 lb LEE's hold only 17 lbs but the 22 lb RCBS holds.....22 lbs. Also the RCBS and Magma have real thermostats on the pot where the LEE has a thermostat in the tower NEXT to the pot. Not the best for keeping an even temperature.

[686]

was there much learning to the 2 spout from one in pouring your bullets? i just got the 90 lb pot with single . was thinking about getting the double and trying it.

[dubber123]

My brother had a Lee that ran well for 20 years, so I bought one, crapped out after 2 years. No biggie, bought another, crapped out after 2 months, (wouldn't heat at all). When I picked it up out of the corner where I threw it, (still full), I found it decided to work again. I gave it to a friend and bought a Mag 20. You may have better luck than me, but quality usually costs. The Pro 20 is a better pot than the 10 pounder.

[45r]

I have a lee and a rcbs pro-melter and I like the rcbs better but it won't get my alloy hotter than 740 degrees anymore and my lee will go up to 1000 degrees and doesn't drip compared to my old one that they replaced.A lee is good if you don't want to spend a lot but if you start using a pro-melter you won't go back to a lee.I might have to send my pro-melter back to get to cast hotter but I like to cast at 740 degrees for now but I'm wondering if it is getting worn out.It's cast a lot of boolits.I think they would rebuild it if I sent it in.They are great about standing behind their products.

[joed]

I started out with a Lee Pro 20. As stated by others the spout drips and I could live with that. For some odd reason mine wouldn't hold temperature and as the pot got lower the temp got higher, that I couldn't live with.

But, for someone starting out it is OK. I eventually sold it and went with a Magma 40 lb. No regrets.

[Texasflyboy]

As I've stated in other threads, when I was building my own casting pot, I found it expedient to use the Lee 20lb spout because it was exactly what I was looking for.

However, when I got the spout rod, the first thing I thought was "That ain't gonna work...it's gonna leak for sure".

So...I made my own.

As you can see from the photo, the Lee spout rod is almost an afterthought, if you want to cure your Lee 20lb pot leaks, make your own [but better] spout rod.

http://hgmould.gunloads.com/newpot/instructions_files/image008.jpg

I've been using my homemade casting pot for over three months now, and have had as much as 200lbs of molten lead in the pot, and it has not leaked once. I have over 20 .30 Caliber ammo cans full of cast bullets, and in all that casting, my homemade spout rod, made with a file, drill, and sandpaper, has not leaked once.

Here is what a wax casting of the inside of the Lee 20lb. spout looks like:

http://hgmould.gunloads.com/newpot/instructions_files/image009.jpg

[nvbirdman]

My ten pound Lee bottom pour is saved for pure lead only and I was using it today for round balls. The rod slanting across the pot makes it hard to stir the metal, it seemed to heat unevenly, and it leaks. But it was cheap.
I much prefer my old old Saeco bottom pour and if it ever craps out I'll probably mortgage the house to buy an RCBS.

[45r]

your rod is very simular to the rcbs pro-melter rod and is a great cure for the lee drip problem.you ought to make a lot of them and sell them on E-bay in the mold section.I'm surprised Lee didn't do that in the first place.A push lever and your type of rod would make a Lee much better.I'd buy one of the magma's but 400 bucks is more than I want to spend when my rcbs gets er done.Maybe i'll get rich someday,but I dought it.The rcbs works so well for the money it's hard to get one cheap even on E-bay.

[Tom W.]

Tx Flyboy, that rod looks a lot like a Hornady elliptical expander/decapper...

[RANGER RICK]

hello, I'm going to buy a new melting pot ( most likely a Lee ). I've been using a
10 lb style with the flip up handle and I'm o.k. with it, but I was thinking of getting
the Lee Pro 20 with the swivel style spout [B]are they better or worse ?[B] thanks for any help.


I have the Lee 20 and like the others it was a leaker .I plugged it , no more problems .
I am a full time dipper .The lee is set up for straight linotype and my regular casting pot is a Magma 90 pounder .

I have had my lee for 7 years although I run it maybe three or four times a year . My Magma is ran two or three times a week .

RR

[Crash_Corrigan]

My first Lee 4-20 started to leak badly from the spout. It became a PITA. I bought another new one. This one was made right and has never leaked. I keep the old one on a shelf 3 ft above the new one. To stop the leaking spout I use a small vise grip wrench. I leave it gripped onto the sprout screw and the weight keeps it from leaking. The downside is that it makes the process difficult to use but since I only use it when I need to resupply the lower pot it is not a big deal to take off the vise grip and empty the pot. I melt my ingots, scrap and sprues in the old one and run a molten stream down a piece of angle iron into the new one. So I have two 20 #'s running at once. I cast with 2 Lee 6 bangers for my .45 LC and my .45 Taurus 1911. One is throwing a 255 Gr LRN and the other a 200 GR SWC. When I get into a good rythem I can really pile up boolits quick. Last time I almost filled a 5 gallon plastic bucket. I know because the water ended up all over the concrete deck in the yard. I quench them and then dry them. I cull out the baddies and separate the LRN from the SWC. I ended up with 6 30 cal ammo boxes of boolits ready to size and lube. The pace hardly ever slackens as it only takes a few minutes for me to drain the top pot to the new one on the bottom. I do need to make a permanent support for the angle iron as I could make a mistake and have a silver stream all over the ground if I bobble the channel for the lead. I used up 3/4 of a bucket of ingots on that last casting and it got done in about 5 hours. Now I need to replenish my ww supply next week as I have orders for over 100 boxes of 40 S & W Truncated Cone boolits from a shooting club at my church. At least I do not have to lube these. I coat 'em with LLA and dry 48 hours and then I get to assemble the rounds. That new casefeeder I got for my Dillon 550 has certainly been good for me.

[EDK]

If you use a ladle, the BLACK POWDER CARTRIDGE RIFLE shooters all seem to like the WAAGE. Go over to shilohrifle.com/forums and do a search. Bill Ferguson is selling one that looks a lot like the Waage to some people. My Lyman bottom pour is tempermental about sprout freeze and I got tired of wasting time trying to unplug the nozzle, so back to the ladle. I'll probably get a Waage over the summer and fire it up when it cools down. A drop of sweat in a pot full of molten lead is an experience for someone else to talk about. I'm not selling boolits so a 20-to-30 lb pot is adequate. Refilling and melting another pot gives me time to put the first cast of boolits into coffee cans, get a drink and a smoke, and go to the "little boolit casters room."

:castmine:

[RANGER RICK]

How about this casting pot.
http://cgi.ebay.com/electric-lead-furnace-melting-smelting-pot-scuba-dive_W0QQitemZ180117076559QQihZ008QQcategoryZ71118 QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
RR