3006guns
03-22-2020, 03:44 PM
I have a Lee bottom draw pot which has performed beautifully for about two years or so. I started having trouble with the infamous "Lee drip" about three months ago, so I drained and cleaned the whole thing. I lapped the rod tip in the spout and reassembled it. At that point it was put back into storage for future use.
Now, I'm one of those guys that readily admits to a mistake, and this is one of those occasions. I fired up the pot, preheated my favorite Lyman .30 caliber mold and proceeded to have some fun. To my astonishment, every boolit I cast was difficult to eject and had more fins than a swarm of tuna. What the? I held the mold up to the light and saw a slight gap between the halves...........aha! I cleaned the mold blocks and went back to work. The trouble got even worse. Fins, Roman helmet tips, repeated rapping to free the boolits, etc.
At that point I began to analyze things and suddenly realized that I had never tried the pot after cleaning it. I lifted the lever and a solid torrent of lead poured into the ingot mold below. The metal was coming out so fast it literally jammed itself into every vent line of the mold. I loosened the jam nut on the rod and began screwing the rod down until a rather calm stream came out. No problems at all after that.......excellent boolits that released decently.
Moral of this long winded tale? Despite years of casting, the simplest errors can creep in a bite you!
Now, I'm one of those guys that readily admits to a mistake, and this is one of those occasions. I fired up the pot, preheated my favorite Lyman .30 caliber mold and proceeded to have some fun. To my astonishment, every boolit I cast was difficult to eject and had more fins than a swarm of tuna. What the? I held the mold up to the light and saw a slight gap between the halves...........aha! I cleaned the mold blocks and went back to work. The trouble got even worse. Fins, Roman helmet tips, repeated rapping to free the boolits, etc.
At that point I began to analyze things and suddenly realized that I had never tried the pot after cleaning it. I lifted the lever and a solid torrent of lead poured into the ingot mold below. The metal was coming out so fast it literally jammed itself into every vent line of the mold. I loosened the jam nut on the rod and began screwing the rod down until a rather calm stream came out. No problems at all after that.......excellent boolits that released decently.
Moral of this long winded tale? Despite years of casting, the simplest errors can creep in a bite you!