Length of thermometer stem

[konsole]

I'm going to get a lead melting pot thermometer and I've looked around so I know where to get them. The only thing I'm unsure of is what length of stem is appropriate. Some have stems that are 12" long while others are only a few inches long. My guess would be to get a thermometer that reaches the bottom of the pot since that will be the hottest spot, and you don't want the bottom of the pot up to zinc melting temperatures, but thats just a guess. Maybe a stem only needs to be long enough to reach a little way under the surface of the melt I dunno. Should it reach the bottom of the pot or just reach the surface of the lead shortly after the lead has started to melt? Hopefully you guys can help me out with this

[62chevy]

Mine need 2 inches of molten lead to get a reading and its put as close to the bottom as possible.

[osteodoc08]

Mine is an RCBS with a 6" stem.

If on a budget the Tru-Temp 200-1000* with 6" stem can be found fairly reasonably.

[imashooter2]

I have a long stem Tel-Tru that I placed in a simple bent wire stand clipped over the edge of my pot. The long stem allows me to leave it in the lead and still have the dial out of the way for adding lead, etc.. A poor cell pic:

http://home.comcast.net/~imashooter2/pictures/castset1.jpg

[konsole]

So far without using a thermometer I've gotten very efficient with managing the heat and catching a handful of zinc weights in the pot. Of course before I started melting I went through the weighs and tried to remove any zinc/steel that I could find. While melting about 200 pounds of lead weights I have caught about 10 zinc weights before they melted, and all of the zinc weights had the same design, they were varying sizes but same design. I've gotten really good at removing the steel weights, and with this last zinc weight design I think I can safely remove 99% of the zinc/steel before melting. Now that I know what all the zinc weights look like I might take pictures of each type so everyone knows what to look for.

[country gent]

The thermometer mount for mynew potis made from 1/4" black iron pipe and is with in 2" of bottom of pot. thermometer sets in this and is within 1" of bottom of pot. Thepipe provides a shield around what would beexposed shft on the thermometer.

[MrWolf]

I use the Lyman's lead thermometer with the 6" stem. I made a simple holder out of a wire hanger that I wrapped around the stem in the middle of the hanger. Works great using it in my cutoff propane tank smelter.