Stacking Lee Pots - Double lee 4-20s?

[psychbiker]

Anyone do this? I don’t like how I have to stop and reheat when my 4-20 gets low.

Picked up lead from a local shooter who has a pot on top of a bottom pour, allowing fro a good amount of constant lead.

Anyone with photos?

Thanks

[country gent]

I had done this with 2 10lb lee pots years ago. I reversed the top pot on its base and built a riser block for it to bolt to over the lower pot. Worked real well. I would run 1/2 pot drop the top and refill the top. You want to leave enough room to flux and skim the bottom pot. Nice thing was the bottom pot caught all the top pots drips. A sheet metal guard between the 2 save a lot of splatters when refilling. I was castings pistol bullets and this kept up very well with them, might have a pause doing heavy rifle bullets in the 400-550grn range

[GregLaROCHE]

I don’t understand the benefit. If you already have two pots, why not use one while the other one is heating up?

[dbosman]

Ummmmmmmmmmmmm


I don’t understand the benefit. If you already have two pots, why not use one while the other one is heating up?

[kevin c]

254181

Lee 4-20 on top of a ProMelt.

I shortened up the Lee by swapping out the housing and legs of a Lee Magnum Melter then drilled a hole in the base plate with a hole saw. The Lee stays put with nothing more than two mending plates clamped together with threaded rod, nuts and wing nuts. Both PID controlled, which are not mounted in the picture, but attach to the bar clamp of a NOE mold guide for the ProMelt, and a wire loop in a ring connector underneath one of the screws on the 4-20's lip.

Ingots and sprues into the Lee, casting temp liquid alloy into the ProMelt as needed, usually at regular intervals based on the number of pours that lets me add the same number of ingots each time, usually just a couple (I think it keeps the head pressure more consistent and keeps my cadence even so the mold doesn't cool too much while I'm fiddling).

Works for me so far. It feels solid, not top heavy, with no wobbling on shaking the full pots (when cold and the alloy solid, of course) when the thumb screws are only hand tight.

Dratted iPhone. I'll get an unrotated picture up later.

[richhodg66]

Sounds like a good idea to me. Most of my casting sessions are limited by how long I have to do it, so a ten pound pot or maybe two at the most is all I ever seem to get done in a session, but I can see where this method would allow for some serious production time.

[Wheelguns 1961]

This post got me thinking. I have a lee 4-20, if I had 2 of these, I wouldn’t have to stop to refill. I could refill, and while it is melting, pour from the other pot.

[dimaprok]

What i did is got lee melting pot without bottom pour than I took it apart unused and got stainless steel replacement pot i picked up in thrift store it's slightly larger in diameter and taller, I spread the heating element in diameter and coils a bit to accommodate new pot and put empty tuna tin can underneath to support it and wrapped it with kaowool blanket the result is now i have melting pot that holds about 30lb perfect for mixing bathes of alloys or processing wheel weights without having to fire up propane and not worrying about overheat even though it's heating ability went up, I reached almost 800 degrees on setting 4 with lead and I have made zinc ingots from wheel weights. After mix a batch I transfer lead with laddle to casting pot and than I use it to remelt cuts and refill casting pot when needed. Works great.

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[Mike W1]

Long ago I stacked my 10# pots and gradually refined things on them bit by bit. The lower one slides out a bit to make the pours and of course back for the refills. Pour pot has smooth aluminum floor so mold can be easily slid around a bit with curved front so lead bits easily swept into the catch box below. Different thickness molds are accomodated by a similar piece of floor that fits on top of the other floor. Everything is lighted up by puck lights up top and on sides. Like to see what I'm doing! I could see this system being a little more of a challenge using 20 pound pots though. The couple minutes it takes to refill gives me a change to grab a smoke. Both pots and the hot plate for the molds to heat on are PID controlled. Flip 3 switches and about a 20 minute wait and everything is ready and temperatures are known. FIRST bullets out are always keepers. The hotplate warmup totally beats sitting the molds on a warming shelf. I KNOW how hot the mold has to be because I've done lots of measurements on things and those PIDs eliminate guess work.
254212

[psychbiker]

This post got me thinking. I have a lee 4-20, if I had 2 of these, I wouldn’t have to stop to refill. I could refill, and while it is melting, pour from the other pot.

Exactly what I was thinking. Would also stop me from drooling over a magma master pot that would be $700+ with PID.


254181

Lee 4-20 on top of a ProMelt.

I shortened up the Lee by swapping out the housing and legs of a Lee Magnum Melter then drilled a hole in the base plate with a hole saw. The Lee stays put with nothing more than two mending plates clamped together with threaded rod, nuts and wing nuts. Both PID controlled, which are not mounted in the picture, but attach to the bar clamp of a NOE mold guide for the ProMelt, and a wire loop in a ring connector underneath one of the screws on the 4-20's lip.

Ingots and sprues into the Lee, casting temp liquid alloy into the ProMelt as needed, usually at regular intervals based on the number of pours that lets me add the same number of ingots each time, usually just a couple (I think it keeps the head pressure more consistent and keeps my cadence even so the mold doesn't cool too much while I'm fiddling).

Works for me so far. It feels solid, not top heavy, with no wobbling on shaking the full pots (when cold and the alloy solid, of course) when the thumb screws are only hand tight.

Dratted iPhone. I'll get an unrotated picture up later.

Thanks Kevin for the photos here and the ones you sent. I'm definitely going to do this. Just need to decide on doubling up with 2 Lee's or splurge and get a new RCBS pro melt 2. The lyman mag 25 get's some poor reviews.

[jimkim]

I use my two ten pound Lee's to feed my 20 pound Lyman. It took a while to figure out it's quicker for me to just pick them up, and dump pour them in the Lyman.

Sent from my VS880 using Tapatalk

[Ausglock]

My 10Lb over the 20 Lb both running off PID controllers.
https://i.imgur.com/utqYT7g.jpg

[dverna]

I don’t understand the benefit. If you already have two pots, why not use one while the other one is heating up?

One benefit is keeping a more constant head pressure on the bottom pot if it is a bottom pour. Anything done to make the process more consistent likely will make for more consistent bullets.

You can also dump sprues into the top pot and not affect the melt temperature on the pot used for making bullets...again, a bit more consistency.

Of course, it may not matter all, depending on what someone expects. YMMV

Plenty of people cast without PID's or thermometers....so whatever works.

[kevin c]

Trevor's set up is what inspired mine, though his is by far the more refined. Also, I've never been able to run THREE molds in rotation. Going that fast, high capacity is pretty much a necessity, and a feeder pot is one way of doing that without coughing up the $600 for a Magma master pot.

[psychbiker]

Got my 2nd lee 4-20 coming. Haven’t decided if I want to make a PID for the 2nd top one. Have one for the one I use for molds currently which will be the bottom of the two. Figured I’d try without a pid in the top pot and see how it goes. Plan is load them Both up with lead and cast until they are empty. When the bottom gets half way I’ll pour from the top into it.

[centershot]

254181

Lee 4-20 on top of a ProMelt.

I shortened up the Lee by swapping out the housing and legs of a Lee Magnum Melter then drilled a hole in the base plate with a hole saw. The Lee stays put with nothing more than two mending plates clamped together with threaded rod, nuts and wing nuts. Both PID controlled, which are not mounted in the picture, but attach to the bar clamp of a NOE mold guide for the ProMelt, and a wire loop in a ring connector underneath one of the screws on the 4-20's lip.

Ingots and sprues into the Lee, casting temp liquid alloy into the ProMelt as needed, usually at regular intervals based on the number of pours that lets me add the same number of ingots each time, usually just a couple (I think it keeps the head pressure more consistent and keeps my cadence even so the mold doesn't cool too much while I'm fiddling).

Works for me so far. It feels solid, not top heavy, with no wobbling on shaking the full pots (when cold and the alloy solid, of course) when the thumb screws are only hand tight.

Dratted iPhone. I'll get an unrotated picture up later.

Very nice job, Kevin!!