How to clean the pot?

[buckeye]

Didnt know quite where to post this,but here goes. I have a Lee bottom pour pot and want to know how to clean it. I want to drain it clear down and scrap it. Is there a chemical one could use to make this easier? Thanks

[GSM]

Think about how you would get rid of the chemicals you used. Also, any "active" chemical would most likely off-gas some fairly nasty fumes you don't want to be around.

Steel wool and a little elbow grease seems to work fairly well. Some folks have reported good results with boiling water and a bit of soap.

[Bret4207]

A wire brush on a drill works too, wear a mask for that one and eye protection.

[Maven]

Unfortunately the wire wheel & electric drill produce too much Pb dust, which is "ungood" unless you wear a respirator. The better way is to fill the cool, empty pot with boiling water, scrub it with a small wire brush, empty the water, and repeat until the pot is clean. Works like a charm!

[shotman]

I sand blast mine. You can get the little blaster at Harbor freight

[anachronism]

Plain old clean water works wonders. You could also take it to a machine shop & have the inside of it bead blasted. You'll want to rinse it out with clean water after blasting. I usually just drain all the lead out & scrape it while it's still hot. Then I boil water in it & scrub with an old brass or stainless steel brush. Then rinse.

[hydraulic]

Never clean mine. I smelt in another pot and flux with a stick. The pot stays clean. I have used a variety of fluxes before hearing about the stick method on this forum and they all left deposits in the pot. Never have to skim the melted lead either. Just dump a handfull of kitty litter on the melted lead and add lead right through the litter.

[dek]

Stick method? What kind of stick? Kitty Litter? Clay type? Thanks, Dennis

[04heritage]

Bead blasters work really good. Easy to use also! :)

[motorcycle_dan]

I have a Lee Pro 4 20lb pot. The bottom pour nozzle keeps getting clogged. Any suggestions on proper clean out. Get it good and hot then dump out the top? Not sure what happened, I suspect a helper melted some zinc wheel weights into the melt. I was smelting into ingots with an old cast iron pot over a propane stove. The helper was using a MAP torch to help melt the wheel weights from the top. The bullets I managed to cast are very frosted and not filled in correct. Wanted to dump the half pot of melt but not sure how to clean the pot and nozzle so as not to contaminate the next batch.

[Chapo]

great ideas all. I will order a wire brush set from amazon to clean my pot with them and boiling water

[DLCTEX]

I empty my pot by draining it and the wearing heavy gloves turn it over while still hot and bump the rim on a wood block. This will shake much of the crud loose.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

This thread was linked to, in the sticky thread, "this old pot"
But doesn't really have a very good tutorial of how to clean a pot...til now :-P


I have a Lee Pro 4 20lb pot. The bottom pour nozzle keeps getting clogged. Any suggestions on proper clean out. Get it good and hot then dump out the top? Not sure what happened, I suspect a helper
...snip...
I recently got a Lee pro 4-20 pot from a member, where the spout was clogged and for the most part, it was empty of alloy, except for the spout and some stuck on the sides as well as the valve rod, so it couldn't be disassembled without heating it up. So I thought I'd post how I cleaned it up, without chemicals or a wire brush on a drill.

First, I filled it with clean WW alloy and plugged it in, then fluxed with pine sawdust and a tiny bit of candle wax, did that a couple times while scrapping the pot sides and bottom with a charred wooden stick..as well as a large slotted screwdriver. Oh yeah, this makes for lots of smoke, do this outside.

Then I used a small "right angle" allen wrench to clean the spout (while hot) to get it to run. I ran all the alloy out the bottom, I had to re-clean the spout with the allen wrench a couple times. It seemed to have a small stream, no doubt there was still some crud that was well adhered in there. I decided drill out the spout after it cooled down. I started with a bit that'd fit the hole to clean out any lead or crud. Then I went one size larger, and then the next size larger...that third drill removed a tiny bit of steel, that was my goal, so I stopped.

I then filled the pot with water, then plugged in the power, til near boiling, then unplugged the power...to get the remaining crud out of the pot. There was a yellow chalky stuff stuck on the wall, that I brushed off with a hand held steel brush, while it was half full of hot water...so as to NOT make any dust to breathe in.
I repeated this process a few times with fresh water, til the pot was clean.

So, then I filled the pot up again with clean WW alloy, the stream is larger and it worked well, but I don't think the stream is much larger than the Lee pot I've used for the last four years, that I bought new in 2010. But if it is, it shouldn't matter as it is adjustable... so I am able to adjust the stream smaller with the adjustment...which would be necessary for small cavity molds like 22 cal and such.

ANYWAY, just thought I'd share my results.

I didn't take a 'before' photo...here it is after cleaning.
http://i640.photobucket.com/albums/uu127/JonB_in_Glencoe/POtII_zps554acbc7.jpg (http://s640.photobucket.com/user/JonB_in_Glencoe/media/POtII_zps554acbc7.jpg.html)

[williamwaco]

A wire brush on a drill works too, wear a mask for that one and eye protection.

Ditto!

Don't fool around with chemicals.

If you want to remove rust, there are several rust removers available at the hardware store. The one I use is CLR.
( Don't use it on your guns! Bluing IS rust!)

[Ricochet]

I'm taking a tip from my wife cleaning the coffee pot and heating it with diluted white vinegar in it. Man, that stuff clouded up fast! That solution will be quite toxic from lead acetate, of course.

[PMK]

stop it all of you... what are you talking about cleaning for? You melt lead, flux with a good amount of sawdust cooked off into charcoal and scrape the sides of pot, and use and cast. Never need more than that, for nothing not rust or anything else the flux will get it all out. I have pots that have cast far more than most and have never "cleaned" the pot, It just puts lead into the air. You that are compulsive about cleaning check your lead levels I bet they are off the charts.

[FLHTC]

Didnt know quite where to post this,but here goes. I have a Lee bottom pour pot and want to know how to clean it. I want to drain it clear down and scrap it. Is there a chemical one could use to make this easier? Thanks
If you're going to scrap it, why even clean it?

[stormingnorm]

Please clarify the stick method and kitty litter. I have decided to use a cast iron pot for the first melt, flexing as I go. I cast this in to small muffin pans. I then use a bottom pour just for reflux in and get clean lead out bottom. I use another bottom pour to cast boolits with.

[Mike W1]

Haven't had to try this one but the tip looked promising.

A tip I got from a member on Tuco's forum worked. It worked even better then I
thought it would. He told me to get some hardwood charcoal and crush it down to
bean sized and fill the pot. I went to WallyWorld this past Sunday and bought a
bag of 100% wood charcoal. Crushed it up and filled the pot. I turned it up to
max and let it burn. After I dumped the ash my pot was completely clean. I worked
the spout with a dental pick after it got really hot and it cleaned out all of
the zinc that was clogging the spout. Worked the valve rod in the cavity and
cleaned it. Pot is completely clean and I am again able to cast. This took several
hours but it saved my pot. Long story actually but it worked and I have a working
pot again.

[Tom W.]

I just emptied mine and dumped the crud out of it. It didn't start dripping until I moved here, after being unused in a storage for a year. I'm going to try the boiling method next week. I hope the water doesn't all leak out.

[Tom W.]

Didn't work. Sanded the rod,cleaned the hole, got the thing looking great. Still leaks a bit, but not as bad as before.

[rbt50]

been casting for over 40 years and never clean a pot

[Strtspdlx]

I clean mine with plain old room temp water and I have a wire brush chucked in my drill. I do this to keep the dust down. For the pour spigot I use a small wire brush for cleaning copper pipe. I can't remember what size it is but I can look in the morning. I clean the rod on my bench grinder with a wire wheel attached. And I usually take a small piece of wire and clean out the pour spigot hole that the lead flows through. If there's lead stuck in it I hit it with a propane torch and run the wire through. I usually quickly lap the rod to the spigot with valve lapping compound or car polishing compound if it looks excessively dirty or was leaking fairly good on the previous casting session. I do this every time the pot runs empty before I melt more alloy as I always seem to pull dirt from my alloy in my casting pot. I did remelt all my I gots and cleaned again 3 times. I was amazed at the amount of dirt that was still in it. The Lee pots in my opinion seem to be hyper sensitive to dirty alloy. Lapping the rod in real good once usually corrects the majority of that. Then a quick lap when cleaning usually keeps it from reoccurring.

[Phlier]

Here's a pretty good thread on pot cleaning: http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?301700-Cleaning-a-Casting-Pot

[Skinny]

Ive not cleaned my casting pot in 30-40 yrs since ive started. It is probably because i make my ingots into good, clean bullet metal(from a cast iron pot/propane set up) ....then keep flux up while casting(with my bottom pour). If you dont let trash in you wont have a problem.

I can see the need to clean a pot that one may have aquired cheap because someone let it trash up and wont pour right. If you keep clean material in the pot, then flux often with a clean material, you should never have a problem.

Just my .02

[LUCKYDAWG13]

this is what i did drain pot of lead fill with water turn on let boil for 1/2 hour add water as needed to keep full
scrap sides flat stick wire brush empty out let cool i have done this on my Lee 4/20 pot and after it looked
like new and no drip

[robg]

Our club had a Lee 10 lb pot worked well till someone decided to clean it ,never worked again .haven't cleaned mine since I've had it ,10 years drips now and then I can live with that .if it ain't broke don't fix it.

[luis7]

A WD40 bottle and a wire brush on a drill works too, wear a mask for that one and eye protection. Like a new...........................

[paul h]

I've never cleaned a pot to sparkling new condition, but there have been times when I wanted to cast a few bullets and I didn't have any clean ingots so put in some COWW's, fluxed and cast what I wanted. Guaranteed to crud up a pot.

It that case what I do is drain the pot and let it cool to room temp. Then fill the pot with water and let it heat up until the water boils. Use a ss or brass scrub brush and brush the crud off the sides. Unplug, let cool, dump the crud. It'll be clean enough to cast good bullets and you won't have to deal with lead dust or other crud getting airborne as the water traps the dust.

[Walks]

I clean after the end of a casting session. I drain the pot into ingot molds. Then tip it back an inch with a paint stir stick under the front of the base. Turn it off and take off the entire flow control unit. By this time the lead at the back of the pot bottom has cooled enough to remove as a solid piece.

I polish the inside of the spout with 00 steel wool on a specially shaped screwdriver ground to fit the spout.
Then I turn the pot over to rest on a pair of 2"x 4"s inside an old cookie sheet. I beat on the bottom and sides of the pot to get rid of as much loose crud as possible. Use a leather hammer.
Turn it upright and scrape the inside with a hacksaw blade.

By this time it has cooled enough to scrub the inside with a full side piece of 00 steel wool. The "OVE-GLOVE" from Buffalo Arms is what I wear on my right hand while doing all of this.

After the pot is cold I pour boiling Vinegar water into the pot with the spout plugged. Turn it on until the water boils again. Turn off and drain. Dry and oil with BALLISTOL. The spout "stuff" is polished with steel wool too. And oiled with BALLISTOL.
Sometimes I'll run a drill bit by gloved hand up into the spout while it's still hot.

Needless to say I wear a respirator when doing all this.

[toallmy]

If you notice in post # 13 the picture is of the old style valve assembly , for a few bucks lee will sell you a new stile valve assembly upgrade , that has a threaded valve rod .
I've had good luck with the replacement .