Lee pot stops poring when 1/2 full?

[milsurpcollector1970]

I have the Lee 10lb bottom pour pot.

my pot stops pouring when its 1/2 full. I dont think its contaminated because I get good fill out in my 6 cavity 45 acp tc tumble lube mold.

It still leaks out a little but just drips and not the stream needed to fill the mold.
When I fill the pot back up and let it get up to temp the problem disappears.

If I just let it sit there I cant get it to start pouring again. It seem like the bottom of the pot isnt getting hot enough and the lead is hardening a little there.

I have had the pot for 6 years. Is it time for a new one?

[waksupi]

Welcome aboard. I see you are also addicted to milsurps.
With your Lee pot, I'm guessing either the rheostat or the element are going south on you. You can order replacement parts for a reasonable price from Lee. It's a fairly simple operation to take one apart to rebuild. Just keep track of what, goes where. Half hour job, maybe. When I rebuilt mine, I ordered the element, and rheostat, along with a new crucible, as I had used Marvelux in mine years ago, and it was in pretty sorry shape.
Someone here may know how to test wheter the element or rheostat is the bad part. It just made sense to me to replace them both, while I had it apart.

[milsurpcollector1970]

Thanks for the info. I disassembled my pot last night and ordered the rebuild parts from Lee. I am going to try to reuse the old pot being (cheap) frugal.

Anyone know how to clean out the pur spount real good. I heated it up with a propane torch and used a bore brush but its not perfectly clean yet.

I learned all of what I know about casting from this sight and when the board was a shooters.

I used an abrasive wheel that is just a little bigger than the pot to clean the sides of the pot. It works great.

[waksupi]

While you have it torn apart, chuck the stem up in a hand drill, add some valve grinding compound, and smooth out the seating. I will solve a lot of drip problems. You will be able to see when the end of the stem is polished, and can probably shine a light in to see if the seat is equally bright. Keep a straight on angle, I doubt it would help things to wallow out the hole oblong too much

[David R]

Last time I had trouble (and the only timeso far) with stuff in my pour spout, I drained the pot, put in a chunk of boolit lube and ran it out the spout with the pot hot. It cleaned it out pretty good.