Drip-o-matic

[GP100man]

I won`t say I have no drips , but I triple flux while smelting then after each session spray it all down with WD-40 after it cools .

After 8-10 pot fulls I empty the pot & clean it .

I also decreased the likely hood of creating a drip by not adding sprues back to the pot & once it`s up to temp flux & leave it alone .

I flux after my session scraping cleaning as good as ya can with an inch of lead left , even take a wire & dig around the spout & rod ,remove the slag then refill & flux that once it comes to temp then leaving what slag there is for a barrier.

[geargnasher]

Recluse, please do yourself a favor and sell that Mini-14 to someone you don't know and likely will never see, and take the money and buy yourself a nice M1 carbine or even another AR before the Ruger ends up being structure for nesting fish. If it doesn't shoot straight now, it never will.

Gear

[Recluse]

Recluse, please do yourself a favor and sell that Mini-14 to someone you don't know and likely will never see, and take the money and buy yourself a nice M1 carbine or even another AR before the Ruger ends up being structure for nesting fish. If it doesn't shoot straight now, it never will.

Gear

I'm almost just plain stubborn--and stoopid--enough to take it to an armorer I know and tell him "Make this ^$%#& thing shoot MOA at 50 yards.

'Course, he might not ever speak to me again.

He's pretty good. He was the first/original armor for Marcinko's SEAL Team Six, then got recruited by the FBI to be their armorer for HRT, from which he retired. Now he builds guns for SAS, Delta, the SEALs, various SWAT shooters, etc.

I gave him the gun one time and he told me he'd have it shooting great in fifteen minutes. I stepped outside to my pickup and when I came back in, he handed me a custom AR15 and said, "Here's your Mini-14. I modified it into a real .223 shooter."

I shoulda taken that high-dollar AR15 and run like hell.

[Pigslayer]

I had the same thing happen to me on my much stouter and much more well built Mastercaster... if you think 20 # of lead coming out of the Lee is entertaining, how about chipping 40 pounds of wheel weight lead from the workings of the bottom of a master caster??

ooooooooh! I can "feel" that!

[jimkim]

hold on, you're wanting MOA at 50 yard from a Ruger Mini 14? If by some miracle you do manage to do this please post the step by step method you used.

[Recluse]

hold on, you're wanting MOA at 50 yard from a Ruger Mini 14? If by some miracle you do manage to do this please post the step by step method you used.

"Step by step?"

Are you crazy?

*Snort*

It will more likely be "dollar by dollar."

[Cowboy T]

First off, AR's *SUCK* compared to Mini-14's.

I had the Drip-O-Matic happen to me last week, too. The pot is a Pro 4-20. Turned out it was because the piece of metal that holds the wide-head screw to the pot's plunger finally bent away over many castings. A pair of pliers to squeeze 'em back together fixed the problem.

For the money, I'm still as happy with my Pro 4-20 as Deanna Troi from Star Trek would be at the Godiva Chocolate Factory.

[jimkim]

"Step by step?"

Are you crazy?

*Snort*

It will more likely be "dollar by dollar."

lol My buddy has one. It is a great little rifle. I just won't be winning any competitions with it.

Mini 14's don't rule. M-14's do. Now that's a rifle.

[Bret4207]

It's not all Lee stuff that I find frustrating, just that pot. In 10 years or so of use my current pot has never leaked a single drop, holds about 40 lbs and cost me under $20.00. I have 3 ladles I can use with it for different capacity moulds. It doesn't rust and has a good heavy handle so I can move it and use the 1100 watt hot plate it sits on for something else. It's perfect!

[Bret4207]

Every time I see these Lee products compared to everything else post, I think about my local Auto repair shop. The guys there use snap on or Mac tools just think how much money they are wasting when they could just go to Wal-Mart.

They probably could get by just fine with much of the Walmart tools for the non- specialty stuff. But Wally World isn't a status symbol either now, is it?! When I see a mechanic with a 10 foot long Snap On tool chest filled with the pretty toys I wonder how in the world our predecessors got by wrenching on cars and trucks for the first 75 years without them? There are lots of good tools that don't come in the pretty truck, ala carte, with the Rolls Royce price tag and status to go with them. I also understand why that guy is still living in his parents basement or a trailer and driving a '84 F150!

[Reload3006]

you obviously dont twist a wrench for a living Bret. you can wipe your butt with a corn cob to it works but i much prefer charmin. it works better and is much nicer.

[geargnasher]

As a professional technician myself, I gotta go with Reload3006 here, but with a few reservations.

First, you don't always need the BEST tool, but the CORRECT tool. This is especially true at home. The correct tool is often not available in cheap brands.

At work, many of my wrenches are Kobalt and Husky. Husky tools are made by Mac/Stanlely, and are pretty decent. The ones I break get warranted, taken home, and replaced at work with Snap-On or Matco at a full five times the price.

For things like all the specialty sockets, torx, torx+, allen, wobble, impact wobble, extra deep, Oxygen sensor, crowfoot, line-wrench crowfoot, I break so many of the best ones money can buy that consumer-grade tools are absolutely useless. A Chinese 20-oz ball-peen hammer is useable, but a Chinese prybar will break your arm. A Harbor Freight 1/2" impact wrench might be handy at home, but it takes a $400 Ingersoll Rand impact to handle daily use on wheels and suspenstion parts. Snap ring pliers? Only the best will do. There is no substitute for a quality, calibrated torque wrench. Actually four torque wrenches to cover the entire range, that's two grand right there.

I have about $35,000 worth of pro-grade hand and pneumatic tools in a $14,000 box. That's only about half the tools I have at work, the cheapos I don't keep track of the cost. I wore out three Craftsman tool boxes before finally going to the dark side and buying one that would hold up to being loaded down with tools and having the drawers opened and shut all day, 45-50 hrs a week for years. Actually, it was pain in my hands that made me spend the money. Jerking open binding, sticking el-cheapo drawer slides makes the job unbearable after a while.

The tools don't ALL have to be overpriced commercial brand, but many of them do. Most of us have the best because much of the time the best is barely enough to get us through the day. If you don't believe that, ask a Snap-On guy to show you the box of broken tools he's warranted for that week.

Now as to those primadonna boneheads who have the entire Snap-On apartment complex in their stalls to the tune of about a quarter million dollars and still can't fix a ham sandwich, we all know them and make more fun of them than a guy on the street will ever know! Tools DON'T make the tech, the tech makes the tools.

Maybe that's why I don't mind cheap Lee casting pots. I've spent my life coaxing machines to function, often (in the case of certain particular domestic automotive manufacturers) my job depends on finding ways to make cheap, ill-designed junk function as quickly and inexpensively as possible, so I have no problem assessing the quality of and working within the physical limits of second-rate machines.

Gear

[Reload3006]

It doesn't have to say snap on for me to use it. in fact I am a machinist/tool n die maker so I dont really need snap on or Mac. however there are instances where I do and so I have a variety of tools Mostly Craftsman they are good enough for me but for someone twisting a wrench all day they wouldnt be. also because I am a machinist I have had to try to fix what the cheap tec tried to do with Buffalo pieces of Chinese ****. Its usually not pretty. there is an old adage you get what you pay for. It is true. I have seen times that i was ready to just get the drill out but though well let me try my snap on and see if it works and more than half the time my snap on wrench took the bolt out when what ever someone else was using had it pretty buggered up. So in terms of Casting Reloading equipment. I equate Lee to Buffalo most of the time it will get you there. But a lot of times it will get you into trouble because you were penny wise and pound foolish. I ask is it cheaper to buy 1 mac or snapon wrench or to buy a Buffalo find out its **** then buy the snap on?

[mold maker]

At 70, I can remember when Craftsman was the top of the line. I still have a pretty full box of them, but haven't used them to their potential in many years. Now if I find the need for a new tool, the price will often determine the purchase.
As far as dripping pots, Lyman and RCBS have had the same problem and it is almost always caused by the same fault. Dirt... If ya don't keep what goes in clean, you'll get drips or plug-ups. None of them will pour trash, and ya don't want it in your boolits anyway.
I know I have more time than most of you, but I don't waste it trying to pour with less than really clean melt.
The only drips I have had with any pot are my fault, not the pot.
BTW,,,,, I have 3 LEE pots and one each Lyman, RCBS, and Wang (sp).

[shdwlkr]

Well I have 3 lee pots and one bottom pour plugged so I made it my ladle pour pot, yes I know what is wrong with it something is stuck in the spout.
I have a ladle pour 20 pound as that is the direction I have gone in casting.
I have watched some of the really expensive bottom pour pots work and I can only say look how much more lead I can buy with my Lee pot.
I have tools that are home owner quality and some that are much better depends on the intended use. if I go back to having tractors the real farm grade then I will be buying some really costly tools because they work for the that kind of use.
When spending my money I look at the item and think how it will be used and to what I expect out of it.
Many don't like Lee products but you know I have found that many times they work just fine and sometimes you have to have a brain and want to adjust it to suit you.
I look at this way buy what you want and feel you need and if you have a 20 pound Lee pot that you just can't stand and are willing to mail it to me just to get it off your hands please do as I can find a home for it most likely before it even hits my mail box.
Yes I have moved up from the 10 pound pots as they just seem to run out of lead to fast anymore.

[FirstBrit]

In my experience the main culprit for dripping on any bottom pour pot results from fluxing the melt in the pot. The fluxing causes the crude and metal oxides to coagulate some of it rises to the top of the melt and can be simply scooped off. The rest sticks to the walls and bottom of the pot and even the around the seat of the pour hole. This is difficult to remove without doing a complete strip-down and cleaning operation. IMHO the best way to solve this is to invest in two Lee pots. use one as a Pre-Melt pot where you do any fluxing and re-melt the sprues and rejects from your castings. The other pot is kept spcifically just for bottom pour casting. Fluxing is absolutely taboo. If you find crude building up on the surface just simply scoop it off and add it back to the pre-melt pot. When the casting pot gets low on lead, simply flux the pre-melt pot and toss out any dross and just ladle clean metal over into the casting pot. That way you only have clean metal in the casting pot and any build up around the seat of the pour hole will be very slow. Another tip, before you start a casting session try flushing the pour hole generously with molten lead. If necessary try freeing up the pour hole with a steel nail or rigid paper clip. If the pour hole is completely free of debris the stream of melt coming out of the pour hole - even when throttled down - should be very very steady and smooth. By that I mean no vortexing and the stream of melt coming out of the pot should be absolutely perpendicular and not come out at an angle. This flushing issue is no big deal if you have a pre-melt pot with same alloy and temperature on hand. Since you can simply top up without any waiting You may need to let something like 4-5 lbs. of molten lead flow through the pour hole to get it really free especially if you don't use your pot that regularly.

That way you should have a drip-free enjoyable casting session. With two lee pots at approx. 60$ each ist still cheaper than either a single Lyman or RCBS melting pot.

Best regards,

Adrian - Germany.

[dbarnhart]

I'm not a Snap-On bigot but I still remember the day I used my first Snap-On tool. It was one of those ratcheting screwdrivers. There was a world of difference between the Snap-On phillips bit and the Craftsman screwdrivers I had been using all my life.

My tool chest contains a mix of brands (Most of my metric tools are Stahlwille) but there are certain tools (like the 1/4-inch drive universal sockets) that nobody beats Snap-On.

[Bret4207]

you obviously dont twist a wrench for a living Bret. you can wipe your butt with a corn cob to it works but i much prefer charmin. it works better and is much nicer.

Sorry bud, been twisting wrenches on and off for a living or part time for 30 years.

[Bret4207]

As a professional technician myself, I gotta go with Reload3006 here, but with a few reservations.

First, you don't always need the BEST tool, but the CORRECT tool. This is especially true at home. The correct tool is often not available in cheap brands.

At work, many of my wrenches are Kobalt and Husky. Husky tools are made by Mac/Stanlely, and are pretty decent. The ones I break get warranted, taken home, and replaced at work with Snap-On or Matco at a full five times the price.

For things like all the specialty sockets, torx, torx+, allen, wobble, impact wobble, extra deep, Oxygen sensor, crowfoot, line-wrench crowfoot, I break so many of the best ones money can buy that consumer-grade tools are absolutely useless. A Chinese 20-oz ball-peen hammer is useable, but a Chinese prybar will break your arm. A Harbor Freight 1/2" impact wrench might be handy at home, but it takes a $400 Ingersoll Rand impact to handle daily use on wheels and suspenstion parts. Snap ring pliers? Only the best will do. There is no substitute for a quality, calibrated torque wrench. Actually four torque wrenches to cover the entire range, that's two grand right there.

I have about $35,000 worth of pro-grade hand and pneumatic tools in a $14,000 box. That's only about half the tools I have at work, the cheapos I don't keep track of the cost. I wore out three Craftsman tool boxes before finally going to the dark side and buying one that would hold up to being loaded down with tools and having the drawers opened and shut all day, 45-50 hrs a week for years. Actually, it was pain in my hands that made me spend the money. Jerking open binding, sticking el-cheapo drawer slides makes the job unbearable after a while.

The tools don't ALL have to be overpriced commercial brand, but many of them do. Most of us have the best because much of the time the best is barely enough to get us through the day. If you don't believe that, ask a Snap-On guy to show you the box of broken tools he's warranted for that week.

Now as to those primadonna boneheads who have the entire Snap-On apartment complex in their stalls to the tune of about a quarter million dollars and still can't fix a ham sandwich, we all know them and make more fun of them than a guy on the street will ever know! Tools DON'T make the tech, the tech makes the tools.

Maybe that's why I don't mind cheap Lee casting pots. I've spent my life coaxing machines to function, often (in the case of certain particular domestic automotive manufacturers) my job depends on finding ways to make cheap, ill-designed junk function as quickly and inexpensively as possible, so I have no problem assessing the quality of and working within the physical limits of second-rate machines.

Gear

There's nothing wrong with Snap on or Mac or Blue Point or whoever else is making the nice stuff, well except for the Snap on ratchets being junk and their screw drivers being abominations from the lower reaches of Phyzztickignhed-stan. I love high quality tools and there is a need for good stuff, and certainly a need with the specialty tools. But as was mentioned, tools don't make the man. The man makes the tool. The original idea was comparing Lee products to everything else and how Lee stuff was like Walmart garbage tools. That's bogus. I HATE Lee BP pots, no apology about it, I HATE them. But too many people use them for me to say they are junk. They just don't work for ME. Maybe I jinx them, I dunno. Lee makes lots of other stuff that is just as good as RCBS or Lyman or Dillon. It just doesn't come in a Green or Orange or Blue box with the inherent status of those vaunted colors. Just as a lot of mechanics (I just can't call you guys "techs", the tech takes your urine at the hospital, the tech is the guy in Pakistan not helping you with your service related problem!) display that zillion dollar Snap On tool chest like Anna Nicholes dead hubby displayed his arm candy, a lot of guys display that Dillion or Star or RCBS for the same reasons- status. Same thing with cars, trucks, boats and guns. It's just the way some folks are, not all- some.

I'm fortunate enough to have a lot of excellent tools from the 40's and 50's and I was the beneficiary of a lot of KD tools from an old line Chevy/GM dealer, a nice mess of Starrett and B+S instruments and I have a few high dollar specialty tools of recent manufacture. I love nice stuff, I just don't get all wrapped up in thinking it makes me any better than the other schlubs around me. I'm not saying you do either Gear, just explaining my position.

[Sonnypie]

... some folks will break and anvil with a glass hammer.