How I seemingly fixed my Lee 20lb driptastic pot

[wurgerburger]

The tricks I learned from this forum seemed to work:

1) the usual emptying + cleaning
2) drilled out the hole to 1.5mm diameter (no idea what it was originally)
3) polished the stake and the "sink" or whatever you call it. Power drill + lapping compound.
4) ditched both top and bottom handle alignment screws, because they came loose all the time and swayed this way and that. I put a piece of straightened metal bucket handle through the whole apparatus and now the handle stays in line
5) tightened a quite bulky chinese clamp on the handle for weight

It's a bit of a work-in-progress right now, but it held water perfectly and I just cast a test run of maybe 50-60 bullets and no dripping. At all. Let go of the handle and the flow stops. Push it up and it flows quite well (had to wiggle the handle a bit sometimes to get it flow correctly).
It's now much harder to flux and add lead and return sprues to the mix but overall it's a good trade if the dripping really is fixed now.

[bangerjim]

Sorry to hear you had to go thru all that. I have two 4-20's and they have never ever dripped or leaked. For years. Mabe because I keep ALL fluxes out of there????? And use only beeswax to reduce the metals back into 100% clean melt? And never re-melt dirt carp in them. And make sure all my feed ingots are 100% clean (3X fluxing in the re-melt pot).

Could be. Just could be.

Glad you got your problems solved!

banger

[FISH4BUGS]

Mine leaks but hardly at all. I keep a screwdriver next to the pot and twist on the screw when it leaks. Apparently reseats the valve seat and plunger to fit again....I think it is caused by dirt getting in there and not sealing properly.
Stops it immediately.

[merlin101]

Mine leaked once and that was when warming up, good thing I always leave a small pot under it! Other than that not one problem with it.

[Mike W1]

Sorry to hear you had to go thru all that. I have two 4-20's and they have never ever dripped or leaked. For years. Mabe because I keep ALL fluxes out of there????? And use only beeswax to reduce the metals back into 100% clean melt? And never re-melt dirt carp in them. And make sure all my feed ingots are 100% clean (3X fluxing in the re-melt pot).

Could be. Just could be.

Glad you got your problems solved!

banger

Think I'd better get some beeswax and give it a try. A quick google yielded lots of places to purchase it.

Anything in particular to look for or beware of???

[bangerjim]

Support our brothers......get your beeswax from RandyRat on here.

banger

[Mal Paso]

Yep! Randyrat

A piece the size of a dried pea is plenty to flux a pot.

I use his beeswax in my bullet lube too. Heat in a stainless steel beaker and pour into the sizer. No air pockets like when using sticks.

[SSGOldfart]

Mine leaks but hardly at all. I keep a screwdriver next to the pot and twist on the screw when it leaks. Apparently reseats the valve seat and plunger to fit again....I think it is caused by dirt getting in there and not sealing properly.
Stops it immediately.
Or a little rust I have a drip-amatic 10# headed to Scott for restoring I really don't use it much any more

[dogmower]

"I just cut the edge of the top metal rim of the pot with a dremel tool (had to trim a little of the aluminum side walls as well) just big enough to slide the bolt through with the nut under it. then I made a space the same size as the nut for the bolt to keep it from turning in the top of the aluminum wall. this was the real pain because of course the bolt goes in at a joint where two aluminum plates intersect.
disassembling the pot is no big deal. someone on my last post chirped in to "watch out for the wires in the walls of the pot". they apparently never disassembled their pot. you take out the three sheet metal screws and the one nut holding the metal rim on, and just pull out the steel pot. the aluminum sides just interlock, and the screw holes for the three screws that secure the top of the pot are a joke at best. when you take it apart, you can see how lee sells it for $50, but it's still the best deal out there."



see my earlier post on this thread. so far, works great and NO DRIPS. the key, I think, is to keep the plunger spindle in alignment with the spout hole. that's why the weight on the handle works (for a while until the alignment screw comes loose).

[wurgerburger]

It does not seem to need the clamp weight. I'll add a smaller weight or a spring probably.

Cleaner alloy helps too... :-)