Furnace Repair

[Echo]

Long time no speak. I have an old SAECO pot that still functions sorta well. I just had an incident that has me stumped. I turned it on (in the workroom), came inside t do whatever, went back out 30 minutes later - and the pot had dumped 10 lbs of alloy! Carrumba. I cleaned the pot (GRUBBY! A surprise!), chucked up a wire brush in the hand drill and cleaned it some more. all nice, or so it seemed. Put a few ingots in, and it still leaked. I ran the torch on the spout while scraping up with a bent safety pin, and no improvement. I tried running a 45 bronze brush in manually to clean to spout area, and no improvement. Does ANYONE have a solution? Maybe someone here in Tucson known for their expertise in furnace repair? I'm open to suggestions. Boy, am I!

[HATCH]

I would empty the pot completely.
Remove the pour rod.
Look at the seat (inside the pot)
Look at the end of the rod.

I am not familiar with that particular pot but most of them the rod basically looks like a sharp pencil.
I would examine it to make sure there isn’t a groove worn into the rod.
On the seat make sure it’s clean.
You could use drill with a small wire wheel on a drill to clean it.

Pictures of the inside would go a long way to help diagnose the problem.

[Winger Ed.]

Yep. You'll need to clean the needle & seat where they contact each other.

[Echo]

I've pulled the needle & wire-brushed it spotless. The seat is the problem, I'm sure - I mentioned using a 45 bore brush engaging the seat are, aith no joy. I'll pull the needle and take a picture...

[Winger Ed.]

Can you put the needle in a drill and spin it in the seat with some slightly abrasive polishing compound?
You should just need to polish the needle tip & seat, not re-cut or change them.

They're matched surfaces and that should work.

[gwpercle]

All bottom pours will leak at some time in their life , sooner or later ... and when cool and cotaining alloy and you plug it in and start heating is when it's gonna start leaking ... so do not leave it unless you have a nice large pan under the unit to catch that 10 pounds that is going to leak right out .
You need to drain the pot and clean the sealing parts maybe even replace a few that need it .
My first bottom pour leaked all it's alloy onto my bench ...I pluged it in and ran into the house , nature called , when I got back lead was everywhere .
My pot lives in a large aluminum baking pan now , it can leak all it wants ... the shallow pan will catch it all .
Gary

[HWooldridge]

I have one of those pots and they will start dripping at times. You may have some seat damage if it won’t seal with a bit of extra hand pressure when hot with a load of lead.

I have reseated the valve simply by spinning it in the seat with a hand drill, although keep the rpm down and check it frequently. No abrasive is necessary, but you might have a nick on the pin or the seat so inspect both under magnification.

[PhilC]

Saeco 24 by chance? Reason I ask is the Lyman 61 is virtually the same. I had the same problem with mine and prior attempts to resolve the issue failed. I liked the pot too much to give up. Last week I went back after it after more than a year. I put a dab of valve grinding compound in the spout and chucked the rod in a slow speed drill made absolutely certain it spun true then centered the rod in the spout and ran the drill until I could feel the compound break down. Rinsed the spout with lacquer thinner and wiped the rod clean with same. Repeated 2 more times, then filled the pot with ingots and fired it up. Not...a...single...drop.

Melted 15b of pure lead then 8lbs of lino still not a drop. Wednesday I cast 150ea 200gr boolits for 35Rem and 80 290gr boolits for 45 Colt, not a single drop.

I'd given up now I'm thrilled. Unlike my ProMelt 2 which takes almost 45mins, the PID controlled old Lyman will take 10lbs ingots from cold to 725° 20mins.

[Rich/WIS]

IIRC the end of the rod on the SAECO 24 is not tapered like a pencil, it is flat and square on the end. As someone else said pictures would hel a lot to diagnose the problem.

[PhilC]

IIRC the end of the rod on the SAECO 24 is not tapered like a pencil, it is flat and square on the end. As someone else said pictures would hel a lot to diagnose the problem.
Sure would.

[Froogal]

I have just encountered the same problem with my LEE 10 pound pot. No matter what I did the drips would not stop. Of course I was just getting a good start, so the pot was nearly full. Got my ingot molds and drained the pot. Lots of crud down in the bottom. I was able to remove the stem and there is a lot of crud on it also. I've always been careful to use only good, clean lead. Most of it purchased from Roto-Metals with a little range scrap thrown in from time to time, so I really don't know where all of that crud is coming from.

Right now I am letting it all cool down.

[Fritz D]

If I recall, the old SAECO pots were very similar to the Lyman 61 pots. Many years ago, my Lyman 61 developed a large crack on the end of the spout. If you still have not figured out the source of your leak, you might want to check for a crack.