Drain the pot?

[qajaq59]

Do you guys drain your lead pots before you shut them down? Or do you just leave the lead in them until you are going to cast again? I don't think I've ever seen that mentioned.

[No_1]

When I am done casting, I fill my pot, flux it then shut it down. My thinking is the pot heats up faster when lead is in full contact with all heating surfaces. Been doing it for years without a problem. Just remember to keep something under the spout and watch it will it heats up. Sometimes when the lead cools it lifts the drain pin and allows lead to drip while heating.

Robert


Do you guys drain your lead pots before you shut them down? Or do you just leave the lead in them until you are going to cast again? I don't think I've ever seen that mentioned.

[copdills]

I always fill mine back up before shuting it down, I'm thinking like no 1

[Bret4207]

Leave it full.

[HABCAN]

+1 to no 1. As he says, put an ashtray or some container under the spout when reheating!

After 20+ years of use, my Drip-o-matic got emptied and cleaned (something I learned HERE): now it only drips when starting up. 20 minutes heating at max and it's ready to go, good as new. Also, I add another ingot every 40 boolits or so to keep it full whilst casting, which works fine for me.

Sometimes I flux the pot on initial melt, but I have found that, using a combo of grated Ivory soap followed by sawdust when SMELTING (in another setup!), the ingots are very clean.

[dale2242]

I leave mine full unless I will be changing alloys---dale

[eka]

Same here, I fill her up and shut her off.

[mooman76]

I leave it full too. If you use several alloys mark it somehow so you know what alloy it is. I use a majic marker after it cools.

[dromia]

I fill mine up and then shut it down.

I never empty it completely unless I'm going to clean it, do some maintenance or change alloy.

[Tom Herman]

I always leave at least a half a load of metal in the pot. By not filling it entirely, I can use the pot as a place to hold QC rejected bullets.
If I'm going to make alloy, render scrap lead or wheel weights, I'll heat the pot and pull the melted alloy metal down to an inch or less and then drop in whatever I'm going to work up.

Happy Shootin'! -Tom

[qajaq59]

All 9 answers essentially say the same thing so I guess now I know the correct way to do that.
Thanks folks. Appreciate the effort.

[Railbuggy]

I have the Lee 4-20 drip o matic.I keep mine full as I feel that it will heat up faster and not rust up being full. I turn it to 6.5 and leave for about 15/20 minutes.Once I came back and it had driped and formed a collom all the way to the spout and stoped there.Im lucky it was a slow drip.:)

[jnovotny]

I think standard procedure is to leave it full, for the next casting session. That's the way I was tought.

[35remington]

Far, far more likely than dripping when cooling is opening of the drain spout when the full pot of alloy is heated, as the lead is expanding from a solid to liquid state.

The bottom and sides warm first, and the "cap" of unmelted alloy rises as the melt warms and expands from solid to liquid. This expansion can open the drain spout and let the pot drain.

Which can cause either a lead pyramid (if you're lucky) or a fire.

Keep something under a full solid pot when heating it to catch this lead that drains from alloy expansion.

It's better not to leave it unattended, as you can close the spout when it opens up.

[TAWILDCATT]

I would drain it and clean it and spout.give it a quick spray of wd 40 if not going to use it for a while.or even wipe it with oily rag in stead of wd 40.the oil will burn off:coffeecom[smilie=1::Fire:.