How to use my pot

[donS]

I have for years used a lee 10# bottom pour pot. Well I started to pour bigger Boolits so I replaced my old pot with a lee 20#bottom pour.
Now I want to get my old pot back.
On the small lee I could see the pour spout and sort of guid the mold to it and flip the lever and I would have a Boolit.
On the new lee the pour spout is way back You have to guess and the shape is not suited to fit in the sprue plate so there is no feel to when it is located in the sprue plate.
Am i stupid? What am I doing wrong This thing is not user friendly. The suposed mold guide also seems like a poor effort for that purpose.
I also have recently read that you should not locate off of the spru plate but hold the mold some distance below and just direct the stream of lead into the mold. How many do this? how do you locate the mold?
How do the casters among you do this? I am really interisted in others method and solutions.

share with me and other casters the result of your experience.

Don S

[dromia]

I had exactly the same irritation with my Lee 20lb dripomatic. Initially I raised the pot up on a subsantial shelf but was never happy having 15 lbs of molten alloy at eye level.

Finally the continuous drip wore me down after trying every fix under the sun.

I blocked up the spout, use the Lee as a dipping pot and bought an RCBS Pro Melt for bottom pour. Never looked back you can see the spout and the sprue hole making pouring easy.

Some will say its an expensive solution but I never find investment in good tools a waste of money.

[kingstrider]

I find I have to bend over a lot to see but for the cost and speed I can't really complain.

[Dale53]

I don't have a Lee pot (two RCBS' and a Lyman bottom pour) so I can't help you with that part of the equation.

However, nearly all of my moulds work well by dropping the molten stream 3/4"-1" to my mould sprue holes. I ALWAYS pre-heat my moulds before starting (with a hot plate).

Dale53

[donS]

do your lyman and RCBS have a good set of mold guides so you can line up the mold with out looking

[WHITETAIL]

Don, yes my lyman 20 pounder has a mould guide.

[Dale53]

My RCBS just has an "L" shaped rod that you rest the mould on. However, it is toward the front of the pot and has a good view. It is not a problem orienting the mould properly. I prefer the simple rod. When you cast with a 3/4"-1" molten metal "drop" as I normally do (some moulds require "pressure casting") I tend to most always have a bit of "run off". The more complicated mould guides can get "leaded up" and it can be difficult to remove. The RCBS rod simply lets you slide the metal off the end (the use of Bullshop's Sprue Plate lube makes this work even better).

FWIW

Dale53