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Melting pot.

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16 April 2010, 23:26
alleyyooper
Melting pot.
Looking at the lee 10 pound pots and it says not to use it with wheel weights. Also says not to use it to cast any thing bigger than 3 oz.

Inform me on whats what.

Big Grin Al


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17 April 2010, 07:44
carpetman1
I guess you are speaking of a Lee furnace? Why wheel weights can't be used is beyond me. I have used em for years in a Lee furnace.
17 April 2010, 07:50
tasco 74
me too i've used all kinds of lead in my lee 10# production pot.... it has cast thousands of of 150 gr swcs........... i've kind of got a sticky pour hole for the first time though..... i need to get that opened up so i can cast a bunch of 12ga. slugs for a friend of mine...............
20 April 2010, 03:56
R D McMillan
The advise not to use WW in the pot is likely in reference to melting the raw WW as doing so will often cause plugging problems from all the crud! Melt and clean WW in a separate pot, and cast into ingots! Then you can use the clean metal in the lee pot with no problems. Have a great day!!!
20 April 2010, 07:29
carpetman1
RDMcMillan---You are probably correct. I dont melt wheel weights in my Lee furnace--I do melt them in a cast iron pot and make ingots which go into the Lee furnace. That probably answers the wheel weigh part but no bigger than 3 oz?
20 April 2010, 19:39
R D McMillan
There is no reason (that I know of)that will prevent you from casting any size bullet you want as long as your ladle will hold enough molten alloy to do so in one pass. BUT,7000 grains in a pound divided by 16 ounces = 437.5 grains to the ounce. This means that a 3 ounce bullet would have 1312.5 grains in it (3x437.5), and that is one BIG sucker of a bullet!! Not something I would care to have bouncing off my poor old shoulder!! To put it in perspecive, the same amount of alloy will make 6.908-(almost 7)-190gr bullets.
21 April 2010, 22:47
Paul H
I've used a lee pot for years, and it'll work fine with ww's.

As to casting 3 oz's, I'm going to guess this is for a fishing weight or jig. I cast up to 4# sinkers and 16 oz jigs, but I don't use a bottom pour furnace. I use a pot w/ ~30#'s of lead and a 2# ladle for the heavy stuff. A bottom pour pot is just too slow for the heavy stuff and the sprue hole can freeze up before you've completed the pour.


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02 May 2010, 00:02
fredj338
quote:
Originally posted by R D McMillan:
The advise not to use WW in the pot is likely in reference to melting the raw WW as doing so will often cause plugging problems from all the crud! Melt and clean WW in a separate pot, and cast into ingots! Then you can use the clean metal in the lee pot with no problems. Have a great day!!!

Exactly. The biggest cause of the pot leaking is using it to smelt with. Just feed it clean alloy & it will work fine. I would bypass the 10# & spend the extra $15 & get a 20#. When you start using 6cav molds or casting big 300gr+ bullets, you run out of alloy quickly & the pot is running hard to melt new alloy.


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