Lee Furnace Gremlin

I have the Lee Pro 4 20 Lb Furnace and I've cast maybe 2000 boolits with it. When I bought it, I knew it wasn't the greatest pot in the world but I'm pretty handy at troubleshooting and fixing things. I added a PID controller to better control melt temp's and it is working great. The pot itself worked OK for a while.

Now, I'm getting the much celebrated valve leak. It's not a drip, it's a full dump of the pot through the spout with unrestricted flow when least expected. What's happening is a failure of the flimsy and poorly designed adjustment screw to valve stem connection. This begs for a redesign (my brother recently bought a 220 VAC version and it has a new threaded valve stem design -- hummm). I'm tempted to swallow my pride and buy an RCBS (or similar) fix, but the spendthrift in me wants to make this work. If anyone has, I'm sure someone on this forum has developed a clever fix for the version of Lee pot that I have. So …

Does anyone have ideas about how to fix this situation?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Why not thread your valve rad and use nuts to adjust?

Mine doesn't leak. Never has. I fixed it before I had any problems. I took the covers off and squeezed the slot that the screws screw into. Some here have welded these up but I didn't have to. I then took out the rod and put some valve lapping compound on the tip and spun it with a drill. I did this several times. Cleaned it out really well and then heated it up. I then put a hose clamp around the adjustment screw and rod to hold them together. Just tight enough to hold them. If it does start to leak, turn the rod about a turn or two and it stops.

Tomme, That hose clamp looks like it could be the answer to my issues. The problem is the screw head slipping out of the notch in the valve rod. The clamp will prevent this from happening. I was obviously over thinking this! And, I've got a couple of fuel hose sized clamps in a bin within arms reach of my Lee pot. Duhhhh!

Excellent, thanks!

A couple heavy washers behind the handle help.

And watch out for the bottom shoulder screw coming loose. When lead is pouring out of the pot and it does Not want to shut off look at the lower valve assembly guide screw and get the valve assembly back over the screw's shoulder. ........... Tighten Screw

My 10# Lee came with those gremlins free of charge. For the money, I have no complaints. I recently received a RCBS pot and what a difference it makes. The only problem of the RCBS is the cost. If you can see to spend the money you will not be disappointed.

I have a small pair of long nose vice grips attached to my rod, it adds weight and gives me something to easily turn without having to grab a screwdriver. I believe I got the tip here somewhere for this.

What has helped my Lee 4-20 is I use Bullplate Lube on the shoulder bolts and this keeps the valve mechanism moving freely. The bullplate stays on the shoulder bolts very well and just need a little more now and then. When the shoulder bolts are dry they tend to make the valve mechanism stick and hang up allowing lead to seep out because the valve is not closing completely.

Ken

I used a piece of stainless steel "safety wire" to hold the screw head in contact with the needle valve rod. I also keep all the moving parts lubed with Bullplate and all other screws tight...

Attachment 100154

The rod is the perfect size for 10-32 threads. The bolt is 5/16 just long enough for a washer and nut. Drilled out the existing hole to fit.

Rat-Man

Rat-Man, I like it! Thanks for the recon' on the rod size and for sending a pic of your fix. Very helpful.

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Originally Posted by Rat-Man

Attachment 100154

The rod is the perfect size for 10-32 threads. The bolt is 5/16 just long enough for a washer and nut. Drilled out the existing hole to fit.

Rat-Man

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wonder if you could tap the top flat piece and then only need one jam nut?

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Originally Posted by Walter Laich

wonder if you could tap the top flat piece and then only need one jam nut?

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Nope!
Can't do that the hole is larger than the rod. That bolt is drilled and tapped 10-32 and the rod then screws up and down thru the bolt and is not locked in any way. I guess you could if you wanted too but the way it is now you can turn the rod back and forth to clear
any junk in the seat to stop a dip.

I just took the plunge and bought the 4-20 myself. My new pot has a threaded rod without the adjustment screw and instead of a wood knob, it has a heavy steel one for weight to shut off the flow. Hope this is Lee listening and fixing their own problem. I still will wait so I can get some valve grinding paste to fully seat the rod.

I did the Tomme Boy fix yesterday and it worked as intended. It seemed like a quicker, simpler fix than threading the rod and adding the nuts as my pot was about 2/3 full of alloy at the time. Many thanks for the advice, TB. In retrospect, I think TB's fix and Rat-Man's are very good. RM's obviously has a more refined look and would be a very good option -- especially in the first stages of setting up the pot for the first time. A critical parameter in RM's in the gap between the two nuts.

I have the "old" Lee 4-20, added the washers and replaced the wooden handle with a bright solid brass drawer knob. I like the idea of securing the screw to the rod with a hose clamp or wire. Less elegant than threading the rod but much simpler. A "Presidential Solution" for sure.

An update from the OM … This afternoon, I threw in the towel, waived the white flag, surrendered and gave up on this ill designed contraption and bought the RCBS machine. Maybe I'll figure out how to use the Lee as a pre-heater when I need to do high volume, big boolit production. I just got tired of fighting it when I only have a couple of hours (or less) to cast some slugs. Good luck with yours.

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Originally Posted by h8dirt

An update from the OM … This afternoon, I threw in the towel, waived the white flag, surrendered and gave up on this ill designed contraption and bought the RCBS machine. Maybe I'll figure out how to use the Lee as a pre-heater when I need to do high volume, big boolit production. I just got tired of fighting it when I only have a couple of hours (or less) to cast some slugs. Good luck with yours.

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I use a Lee 20 pound melter for rendering dirty stuff. If you plug the hole and remove the valve assembly you may be able to use it for occasional dipping or melting WW into ingots. You'll be very happy with the RCBS. I didn't know what I was missing until I received one.

The rcbs pot still has it's own little quirks, but it is much better than the Lee pot I had and gave away because I got tired of it dribbling despite my efforts to make it work.