Lee Production Pot IV help

COREY

COREY

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Ottawa, Ontario
I have been casting for over a decade. I use a 20 lb Lee Pro 4 pot. Works well for what I need it for.

I was given a pot from a friend of my father's. It is a Lee Production Pot IV. The one with the diagonal rod to act as a stopper. Well it had been stored full of crappy lead and it is a bit of a mess. I melted off the lead but the rod does not seem to want to seat, but I am not sure. The end of the rod tapers down to a narrower rod that fits in the pour spout.

Does anyone have one of these? If so does the rod drop all the way in and have the tapered portion fit in a tapered recess in the pour spout, or does the narrow portion of the rod barely sit in the pour spout? I think I have quite a bit of work ahead of me, but want to make sure first.
 
I am not sure which version of Lee Bottom pour pot that I had, but it had similar symptoms - I had to partially dismantle - clean - scrub - spin that shut off stem really well - as if tiny bits of crud stick in that bottom pour valve - then resigned that the bottom pour is going to leak and dribble - always had an aluminum pie plate or paint can metal lid on the counter under the spout to catch the dribbles. Sometimes hanging an extra weight on the handle helped - other times seemed to make no difference.

I am pretty certain that stem had a screw driver slot on the end of it - Lee's User Instructions said to rotate that stem a bit - back and forth - in it's seat, I think.
 
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I have two of these and despite my best efforts I was never able to consistently stop them from dripping. The above suggestions from Rod B and Potashminer are good advice and should improve your situation but for some reason this model has an inherent dripping problem. I finally just gave up and bought a couple of the 20 pounder Pro 4 models and while they drip on occasion they are far better than the Production Pot IV.
 
Just to add what has been said, i increased the weight on the end of the handle. That helps somewhat but they all drip right out of the box. I finally had enough and just use it to preheat lead for my lyman pot. I built a stand over the lyman so i load up the both pots and when the lyman starts to get low i top it up with the lee. This way the lee can drip all it wants.
 
hunter64 said:
I finally had enough and just use it to preheat lead for my lyman pot. I built a stand over the lyman so i load up the both pots and when the lyman starts to get low i top it up with the lee. This way the lee can drip all it wants.
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This reminds me of a woman I used to work with. She used to clean her house before the cleaning lady came so the cleaning lady wouldn't think she was messy. ;)
 
Yeah, the 20lber I have now leaked when I got it, but I drilled a hole in the base and hooked a spring and wire to it. Stopped the dripping until about a month ago.

Been clean this little one up in the weekend. It had not been put away well. May be a lost cause but worth keeping at it.
 
I have the 20lb and a 10lb both. No drips. When they did it was dirt in the spout. Turn the screw while applying down pressure .
It sounds like yours is just dirty.
Adding a bit of weight to the handle sounds like it could help in some cases.
 
Burton Urnie said:
I have the 20lb and a 10lb both. No drips. When they did it was dirt in the spout. Turn the screw while applying down pressure .
It sounds like yours is just dirty.
Adding a bit of weight to the handle sounds like it could help in some cases.
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Same with me, a ten and twenty. If mine leak they’re dirty. What I do is bend a piece of rebar tieing wire into an S shape so I can pull and twist the wire in from the bottom on a hot pot. Use a drip tray and gloves of course, and raise the handle once you have the wire startedThe first time I had to do this wasn’t so much because of dribbles, it was that the flow was noticeably slower.
 
A lot of the crud in a well used pot is lead oxides which is water soluble. With your pot empty, pour in some boiling water and let it sit for about 10 minutes. Then dump it out in a safe place. The lead crud left over can be easily scraped poff with a screwdriver. This will really help with the casting. NEVER scrape a lead pot when it is dry. The lead dust is toxic with a capital T.
 
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