Broke My Lee 10lb Pot today

coltsleeper

coltsleeper

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Hey everyone,

I was out making a bunch of buckshot and slugs for reloading some emergency zombie ammo and the spout on my lee basically stopped allowing lead to trickle out, So after dumping out the lead and allowing it to cool down I decided to run a drill through it to clean out the hole and then open it up the next drill size larger. Cleaning the spout with the drill bit was easy, Then came opening up the hole where my drill bit snapped off recessed into the spout and unable to be removed.:mad: :(

Now this leads to me having to build a completely new casting pot tomorrow from scratch so just a heads up to follow the thread if you like DIY projects.

Thanks
Jeff
 
i drilled mine out, but only the bottom part, it's not a straight through hole though, it's on a 45 angle halfway.

you can buy a new liner with spout pretty cheap FYI, http://leeprecision.com/pot-pro-assembly.html and for the price i would also get a new stem. http://leeprecision.com/valve-rod-complete.html

hummison should have it or a local place but if not titan reloading has it, they are a great place for all lee products.

http://www.titanreloading.com/lee-em1143-pro-4-valve-rod?filter_name=EM1143
http://www.titanreloading.com/lee-em1097-propot-assembly?filter_name=em1097

it's a bit of a pain to remove the pot, but it can be done just take your time. you could also turn it into a ladling pot, put a self tapping screw in the pot or weld it.
 
I cleared the obstruction using a piece of stainless wire but the stream would not return to normal, I looked it over before drilling and noticed the hole is straight up and down for about a depth of 1/4" and then makes a 45 angle into the pot so in drilling I was just trying to open up that 1/4" worth. Then the drill bit caught and broke inside and I am unable to remove it, I should have mentioned I am using 58 caliber molds to make slugs and the slugs are 600gr a piece so they are very large molds and I felt I needed the little extra volume to help with casting.
 
I cast for 500 S&W up 700gr and find the 20lb pot from Lee can handle it once you have everything up to temp.
 
step one in prototype complete, Still a lot more work ahead of me to complete but should easily hold 40 lbs of lead.
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I wont give up on this now, its going to change I am sure as everything I build always changes 3-5 times before I like it. I am working on the valve / spout today and should have it hopefully ready to do some test runs tonight.
 
Major reason so many hate Lee molds and pots is that they don't read instructions.

Also we all got use to "maintenance free" appliances,tools and other gadgets.

I have Lee 4-20 for close to 7 years and I love it.I could use 30lbs pot too if Lee ever made one.
 
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