Drippers plugged or element not hot enough?

[shootinfox2]

Title says it all. Repaced drippers. First run was great, 300 pounds in a day. Week later, the drippers appear to be plugged. Removed and cleaned drippers, same problem. Is it
Possible the heat element is wearing out? Didn’t think that was possible. Complete burn put , yes, but reduced output?

Casting in a heated garage, so ambiet temp is not the problem.

Any ideas will help.

Fox

[dsh1106]

Did you check the temp of the lead ?

I've used a propane torch to re-start mine a couple of times.

[shootinfox2]

Lead melts fine. After abput 10 minutes, gets a bluish tint.
I’ll check actual temp tomorrow. Thanks for the reminder.

[RED333]

Did you check the temp of the lead ?

I've used a propane torch to re-start mine a couple of times.

The torch is the trick I use.

[Littleton Shot Maker]

Drippers are clear……heat is good….element working….BLUE TINT or PURPLE??

My .02 cents worth here.
You have soluble copper or soluble nickel in the mix- run into this a few times before.

Some times you can "work it out" with adding good Clean Pure or Clean alloy and get it to go away. If the amount is not too hight in the mix.

'Most' times I've run into this is with range lead that had jackets that the lead was smelted at too high a temp and got the jacket to leach out the , Copper or Nickel and worse the ZINC.

be glad you don't have a gold tint or dark burnt yellow sludge floating on top of your mix in the pans, drippers etc….ZINC KILLS shot makers and molds and anything else--kills is a bad word but - close enough. It is very sticky, think Galvanized Nails ( zinc coated)

[Scooby]

+1 ^^^, turn the shot maker on let the lead melt and spoon it out before it starts to drip and add good ww alloy. when I used to run range lead I would put 4 ww ingots in to one range lead ingot and sometimes would still have problems. shot makers are very temperamental with the alloy I used to try to mix in range lead and mystery metal, now I stick to clip on wheel weights. just have patience and work thru it.

[Littleton Shot Maker]

Most important part 'Scooby' put there ( clip on WW lead) I have seen the same or other problems with some STICK/ GLUE ON Wheel Weights.
In those you can get other stuff, not just copper-zinc-nickel…. bad nasty stuff-

I don;t like range lead unless I SMELT IT MY SELF and never use mystery ingots..not worth the hassles , ever...

[shootinfox2]

Put aluminum drippers back in.
Lead temp 680, no problems.
Lead got to 760. Purplish blue film on top of the melt, drippers started slowing down.
Lead temp 785; flow stopped.
Think I need to run this through a PID for temp control.
More tomorrow.

[Littleton Shot Maker]

WAIT!!! you are using Aluminum drippers??
been there DONE WITH THAT!

I have nothing good to say about those….al. drippers are not ideal.
Temp control won;t help in this issue- please give me a call- let me talk to you over the phone- I will send you out MINE and see if that makes issue go away if you want to try?
Is this a home built unit or Mine or some other Co.'s?? That will also help me give you some insight to problem.

[shootinfox2]

It is a Littleton. Had steel single drippers, replaced with aluminum doubles, replace with steel doubles. Steel stopped working, cleaned the aluminum, tried them today. I posted the results.
I’ll pm my number.

Fox

[jimb16]

Sounds like zinc in the mix. That will stop up the drippers every time! For the last few years, I've been very careful to make sure I got no zinc in my melts. I haven't had a stopped dripper since! I run a Littleton myself. I almost always have all 7 drippers going full tilt. The only time one or two stop is when I add ingots and the mix gets a bit too cold. As soon as it gets hotter, those drippers start running again.

[Cap'n Morgan]

I did some gunsmithing for an old guy, and he made shot for me instead. At one point I gave him a batch of lead my dad had collected from burning old cables to get the cobber. Turned out the lead was absolutely useless for dripping shot.