Gave up on fixing my old Lee 10lb pot...

[PhilB]

I replaced the temp control in it and the pot worked great for about a half hour. The heating element went bad so I ordered one of those. Installed the new element the other day and found the pot would not get hot enough to melt the lead. Re-checked all the connections and even bypassed the temp control thinking maybe it was bad. Talked to a repairman at Lee and he suggested that either I got a 220volt element by mistake or maybe the coil wasn't making good contact with the pot. I took the pot apart again to make sure the element was tight enough for good heat transfer and tried again. It just doesn't get hot enough to do any good. It makes no difference whether I have the temp control wired in or not. Decided that the pot was getting shipped back to lee. They can fix it for me. If it is beyond repair( I can't imagine that) Lee says they will replace it for half the retail cost of a new one. My 20lb pot is on back-order until June so it looks like my casting is done unless I want to break out the cast iron pot and dipper.:lol: BTW, it took me 45 minutes with a torch to get the lead out of the pot. Naturally it was full when it quit and I didn't want to pay to ship 10lbs of lead to Lee. The only decision left to make is whether to re-assemble the pot or just leave it in pieces like it is now.:grin:

[freebullet]

There is a thread floating around here for adjusting how hot the dial makes the pot get. I don't have a link for you, but if you relax and search for threads about those pots you'll find it.

[PhilB]

There is a thread floating around here for adjusting how hot the dial makes the pot get. I don't have a link for you, but if you relax and search for threads about those pots you'll find it.

What good would that do? The pot will not get hot enough even running direct 110volts. I thought I eliminated the Temp control as a problem when I took it out of the circuit. I'm not an electrician so maybe I'm missing something here. How would adjusting a control that either reduces or shuts off voltage make a pot get hotter when it won't heat properly getting full voltage all the time? When I talked to the fella at Lee and explained what I had done, he said if it won't melt lead when wired directly to 110 I may have been sent a 220 volt coil by mistake. He also said that if the replacement heating coil was too loose a fit around the pot it may not get proper heat transfer to the pot. Hopefully my 20 pound pot will be here soon and I can give a working 10lb pot to my oldest son.

[mrjata]

What good would that do? The pot will not get hot enough even running direct 110volts. I thought I eliminated the Temp control as a problem when I took it out of the circuit. I'm not an electrician so maybe I'm missing something here. How would adjusting a control that either reduces or shuts off voltage make a pot get hotter when it won't heat properly getting full voltage all the time? When I talked to the fella at Lee and explained what I had done, he said if it won't melt lead when wired directly to 110 I may have been sent a 220 volt coil by mistake. He also said that if the replacement heating coil was too loose a fit around the pot it may not get proper heat transfer to the pot. Hopefully my 20 pound pot will be here soon and I can give a working 10lb pot to my oldest son.

Check the resistance of the coil you got and call lee. Bet you got the 220 version. I have repaired dozens of pots for people. Really not much in there. Do you have the part number of the coil you got?

[PhilB]

[QUOTE=mrjata;2239273]Check the resistance of the coil you got and call lee. Bet you got the 220 version. I have repaired dozens of pots for people. Really not much in there. Do you have the part number of the coil you got?[/QUOTE

That is an excellent idea except I mailed the pot in today.:lol: I'm pretty sure I have the 220 volt element too. There is not much that can go wrong with a simple heating system like Lee uses. I bought the heating element from Midway and I just figured it would be easier to send the whole unit back to Lee than the hassle of taking the new element back off the pot, trying to return it to Midway and then getting a replacement. The fella at Lee says the pot will be like new when I get it back or they will replace it with a new pot for half retail price. Thanks for the help!

[PhilB]

I know for sure that Midway sent me a 220 volt heating coil now. I went to their site and enlarged the photos of both the 110 and 220 volt elements. They are slightly different with the 220 volt element having an inner lining that is red in color and it protrudes slightly from the outer covering of the element just short of the spade lug on each end. That is exactly what the replacement element Midway sent me looked like. I assumed that since I had an old pot that the new elements were just constructed a little different than the original heating coil of my pot. No wonder the pot wouldn't get hot enough to melt my lead. Oh well, I guess Lee will install the correct one and send it back to me. :lol: I also checked the backorder for my 20lb pot and it has now been delayed from June 5th to the 10th. If Lee has a fast turnaround time I may be casting more boolits with the old pot yet.:)

[mrjata]

Fixed or new at 1/2 price, hard to beat that deal! For future reference, I get all my LEE stuff especially the pot stuff(now I sound like a drug user) from www.fsreloading.com. A bit slow on shipping, but they have the stuff and the right stuff and don't gouge you on shipping. I even live in Missouri about 3.5 hours from Midway. FS has always come through for me. I have replaced several coils and they always had them. If I work on many more pots, I am going to have some more on hand. I hadn't planned to turn this new casting into a job fixing pots, but am glad to do it.

[slohunter]

Ditto on FS Reloading!

[Mike Kerr]

PhilB wrote "If Lee has a fast turnaround time I may be casting more boolits with the old pot yet. "

Hang in there. Things are bound to get better.