Lee Loader

I just put it all back together and turned it on followed by a fillup of water. It got the water boiling pretty quick and it did not leak any. Drained the water thru the spout stopping the flow a few times and no drips. Once the water steamed off I unplugged it and after a few minutes and gave it a spray of WD-40.
I am gonna turn it on a few more times to cure the bottom cap I sprayed red as well. It looks good and I don't think it will be rusting for a while. And now that I know how to properly clean the pot after each use it will stay looking good.

I want to say thank you all for the advice, tips, do's and don'ts in educating me with this. It would have taken me years to figure this all out on my own.

I hope this thread goes on to help many more as well.

I do not judge anybody's time or effort spent while partaking in any aspect of our hobby, but what is your reasoning behind all the preparation of the pot's ID? I have never heard of boiling water in a casting pot. "Treating" the pot with WD40? I have been working with metal since I was 12 years old (now 72) and started casting sinkers when I was 13. I got my Lee pot 30 years ago and have never had the opportunity (need) to use the methods of "prepping" my pot. I just wire brush the scale from the ID and occasionally lap/seat the valve. The ID of my pot does not rust, but will have a bit of scale on it, but when casting I keep the alloy stirred with a paint stick (wooden shim). Annual cleaning, clean alloy and it's a go...

Make sure and read the entire topic.

GasGuzzler wrote:Make sure and read the entire topic.

Yep, reread all of it. One mention of "boiling the salts out" but in my 60+ years of working with metal from machining to fabricating and casting (aluminum, brass, and lead), I have never heard of this process. Polishing the pot ID serve's what purpose? Painting parts of the OD? Yep, I've used some High Heat paint on mine. Polishing anything but the tip if the needle does what? I was just asking what purpose, besides personal wants, does all this serve? If it is all done "just 'cause", fine, but I just wanted to know...

The water question wasn't the only one you asked. You questioned the use of WD-40 too and that was answered elsewhere in the topic. Maybe I need to reread because I don't recall the mention of polishing the pot. I'm certainly not doing that. Boiling water in mine allowed me to get it cleaner than before I did so. My pot is only used for "clean" lead (I smelt from FREE wheel weights) but I had been leaving it full in the past. It's been years since I emptied it so there was a lot (by my standards) gunk in there.

mikld wrote:

GasGuzzler wrote:Make sure and read the entire topic.

Yep, reread all of it. One mention of "boiling the salts out" but in my 60+ years of working with metal from machining to fabricating and casting (aluminum, brass, and lead), I have never heard of this process.

The subject of the topic was primarily about keeping contaminants out of the spout. Every time that I have boiled my pot, there has been enough crude depart the interior of the pot that I can see where this debris could work its way into the spout. Few of us are working with pure, certified alloys, our casting material is dirty and not everything is going to flux to the surface where it can be removed.

I don't smelt alloys in my casting pots, but one of the worst contaminates I get on my alloy ingots are mud dauber nests and the material left in them. I'm able to break these "fist full" clods off the ingots but not the cement residue that attaches the nests to the host object. This residue never fluxes to the top but boils up and pours out of my pot as mud later. I try to wash my ingots prior to use, but sometimes I need them now.

mikld wrote:Polishing the pot ID serve's what purpose? Painting parts of the OD? Yep, I've used some High Heat paint on mine. Polishing anything but the tip if the needle does what?

I've not polished the interior of my pot, but I've kept it near new with the light brush and rag work after use. I've seen some pots sold on eBay that I would buff before use. Lapping the valve rod to spout and coating it with anti-seize has kept these parts trouble-free from the start. I see casters complaining about a drip from the pot, I've not seen it because of the maintenance I perform.

mikld wrote:I was just asking what purpose, besides personal wants, does all this serve? If it is all done "just 'cause", fine, but I just wanted to know...

That's all this is, a guy asked for advice on the Lee bottom pour pot.