I can live with the drip

[mugsie]

Since I can't fire up this board with a political discussion, I'll take another tack. The other week my gun club held a flea market of sorts and I picked up a Lee Pro 4 pot for $40. Up to this point I always laddle cast. I found the laddle made good bullets but for me, was slow. I fired up the Lee pot the other day and sure enough it dripped, and dripped, and dripped..... but another funny thing happened too, I began cranking out oodles of good bullets a lot faster than I ever had using the laddle.

So, I guess either method yields good bullets, but from now on I'm a fan of the drip!

Enjoy.

(Hope all your hopes come true on Nov 4th!)

[docone31]

I am on another forum. I have had enough of the slinging. I am grateful there is no real off purpose here. I rarely go to the other forum anymore.

My first attempts at casting were with a ladle. I watched my father do it when he made ingots. I tried, and it was 20yrs later I got my first Lee Dripomatic! I also case a few good ones where as I had not even made one before.
I cast the small ones. I find the Lee Pot great for that. Mine does not drip. Perhaps as I knew about it from my first one, the steps I took before I fired it up worked.
In any case, I get results from the Lee Pot I never could. Most of my casting is 180gns and less.
I float my Lee molds in the melt, wait untill the lead does not stick to the bottom of the mold, and cast away. My 200gn ACP castings are the best although they do overheat from the speed I can cast with. Such a problem!
With my Lee pot, I can cast fast enough my arm gets tired when I have a full days range work ahead of me!
I have two ladles. I use them for melting the wheel weights for fodder for the Lee pot. One ladle, one ingot. I do not care about wrinkles with them.
I have the 20lb pot.
Works great for me.

[Heavy lead]

Ditto to both of you, I cast big boolits too, shotgun slugs as well. I take a Lee bottom pour any day of the week.

[Boerrancher]

If you take a pair of Vise Grips and clamp them to the top of the valve rod it will stop your drip. I did this to mine and the extra weight was all that was needed to keep the drip monster away.

Best wishes from the Boer Ranch,

Joe

[DLCTEX]

I only bottom pour certain calibers. Just those from 22 to 58 caliber. DALE

[VTDW]

I added a spring to the lever on my Lee pot. The only time it drips much at all is if I have left lead in the pot. It will drip as the pot heats up so I stay close.

Dave

[ra_balke]

The drip !
Well, I cure it by shoving a paper clip wire up the spout from the bottom, it seem to work out the booger that is holding the plug up too high.

Then I twist it around a few times with a screwdriver.

[bruce drake]

For a moment from reading the subject line I thought someone was talking about thier brother-in-law!

I plugged my LEE pot but I lived with the drip for several years. No issue with it as long as you stayed close to the pot and didn't go gallivanting somewhere else.

I call it "Paying Attention to the Details"

Bruce

[copdills]

my lee pro 4 drips from time to time sometimes more than others , but being a fan of the silver stream it dosen't bother me:castmine:

[Shiloh]

I think the drip comes with the territory. Weighting it helps a lot and cleaning around the spout.
My pot only drips occasionally and I never leave it unattended so it isn't an issue for me.
The finished product is my reward for a trivial nuisance.

Shiloh

[cajun shooter]

I lived through the drip without much to say. But when the screws holding the valve assembly came loose and emptied a full pot with me grabbing for ingot molds; that was upsetting to say the least. Lee sent me a new pot no charge; then my problems started with the reostat. I could not control the temp! I had swings of 150 to 200 degrees; from 700 to 900 and then back. I took it apart and filed the points. While doing this my new Midway flyer came and right There on those pages was my answer. RCBS Pro-Melt on sale. Went inside to the PC and the brown truck made a stop at my house around 5:00 pm on Monday. As soon as I return home from doing my civic duty, I'm going to start to "ENJOY" casting at a new level. Take Care My Friends

[Southern Son]

I had the little 10lb pot and the only real prblem with that is the fact that 535grain boolits empty it really quick. So I got the 4-20. I don't mind the drip (I think that if your pot dripping a little bit is your biggest problem, then you are really lucky). What drove me nuts was the temperature fluctuations, like Cajun Shooter said, 150-200*, sometimes more (One minute the boolits are frosty, then next the spout is clogged). I took the reostat/thermostat (don't know what it is, I ain't smart enought to be a sparky) from my old 10lb pot and put it in the 4-20 and it was O.K. for a while, but then it went bad again. Tried rubbing the contacts with sand paper, and it did not help at all. I finally snapped and and got out my old LP gas burner ring, cut the top off a couple of old LP gas bottles and started ladle pouring. I am getting much better boolits, but I don't know if that is because the LP gas burner setup keeps the temperature at a more consistant level, or if it is because I am ladle pouring. I do know that gas is a PITA compared to the old 4-20. Getting a gas bottle refilled in this town can be challenging, turning on the switch is easy.

[cajun shooter]

Southern Son, Sometime back I ordered a new whatever temp control for my old 4-20 to have as a spare. Since I'm now the proud owner of a new RCBS I'll send it to you so that you can get back to bottom pouring. I will not guarantee it for 1 day but it is new. PM me with your info if this would help a fellow caster.

[mugsie]

Cajun shooter - that's very nice of you.

(guess that's why I love this forum. Not only are the people nice, but also a little wacky like me! - Hey - we cast don't we?!)

[copdills]

Very Nice indeed , good man , Great forum

[vanilla_gorilla]

Very nice of you, Cajun Shooter. I'm with the Ozzie right now, working over a gas burner with a ladle. I'm not too sure yet if I want to subject myself to any more Lee equipment yet or not. Boy, was that Lee ladle a waste of $4.

[rbuck351]

I bought a 10lb Lee pot some where about 1975 and so far it has worked very well. There is the drip, but a twist or two of the rod and it's good to go for a while. A friend gave me another one a couple of years ago and same results with it. I've been meaning to add weight but never get to it. For the $29.95 I paid for the first one, I'm more than satisfied.

[Southern Son]

Cajun Shooter,
Most generous of you to make that offer, but I will have to say thanks, but no thanks. I am saving for either a Magma (I will have to import it) or , like you have, an RCBS (someone is importing them into Australia now). I am getting by with my Gas Ring Burner setup, and it is making fantastic boolits for the 45/70. I want to start making 7mm (for my TC Contender), .310 (for my little Cadet, I just got 100 cases, dies and a Mould) and when I can get some money together I want a .44mag lever gun, but in the mean time, I can make do with the burner.

I am sure that there is someone who has no option but to use their Lee and who is closer to your location that could use the switch. Anyway I have not had a day off in a couple of months where I could sit down and do some casting and I have only been to the range once or twice in that time, so the boolits I have stored under my bench will probably last untill Australia gets a decent government.

Once again though, thank you for the offer.

[cajun shooter]

Anytime Southern Son, I know you fellows have a hard time laying in some of your shooting supplies. The offer still stands and if in the coming days things don't work out I also will ship with it a Lee 10 lb pot that is almost new that will replace the one you used for parts. I started up my new RCBS yesterday and I don't want to gloat but it's so easy and nice. The temp control keep my lead at the right temp and for the first time I was able to cast non frosty boolits. As far as governments go, look what just happened to us. I hope that he does not try to bring his state politics to the BIG SEAT, if he does were in for a rough 4 years!!!

[TAWILDCATT]

I have a Saeco thermostat died so I got a lee 20lb.yes it drips but the price was right.I clean mine by emptying it and run a 22 wire brush on pistol rod in hole and cleaning the rod.I am going to try the spring next.I also used a ball mill on my molds and ran it the lenth of the sprue holes.:coffee:[smilie=1::Fire:

[Southern Son]

Cajun Shooter, thanks again. The only reason I got the Lyman 4-20 in the first place was because at that time nobody imported the RCBS. Apparently there are some daft electrical wiring regulations here in Queensland and they wont sell anything that is made for 110volt. For some reason, I have no idea why, I could only buy the 4-20 through a NSW Gunshop, and when they sell them, there is no plug on the end, so you have to wire up the plug. Anyway, shortly after I bought it, a company started importing the RCBS. Always happens to me.

I have seen the results of the election you guys had. I think that there are more than a few things that made me wonder. Like McCaine getting about 46% of the actual votes, but under the system used, he only got half as many of the"Electoral Colledge" votes????? 46% aint that far behind what the other bloke got, but the final tally of who won how many areas makes it look like about 25% of people voted for him. The other concern is how big a deal the media over here is making about the facts that Obama is (1) young and (2) black. If they are his biggest selling points, he aint got that much to sell himself on.

[Doug Bowser]

I have a Lee 20 pound pot. It drips. I keep a screwdriver handy and turn the shaft that serves as the valve. By doing this the slag on the downspout is cleaned off and the drip stops.

[44man]

I am not going to add anything except my wife says she has lived with a drip 47 years! :bigsmyl2::bigsmyl2:

[Bob Jones]

When my 4-20 starts to drip I take a lead ingot and tap the top of the rod that activates the valve. It seems like the dripping is usually caused by a piece of grit stuck in the valve and the lead ingot is heavy / hard enough to crush it (just a good tap mind you). That usually takes care of the issue for quite a while.