Pressure Bottom Pouring with a Lee Pot

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I would imagine I am not alone in having problems casting small caliber hollowpoint bullets, and in particular skirted pellets…. particularly in regards to incomplete fillout…. I use a 10 lb. Lee Bottom Pour Pot (the drip-a-matic), and even running it way up at 900*F with 40:1 alloy (2.5% Tin) my reject rate is dismal….  :-[

I have been looking at the spectacular results that Wayne has been getting with a hooded dipper and pressure pouring, just a few rejects out of 500 skirted pellets….  😮 …. and wondered if I could adapt my Lee for pressure pouring…. I had tried it stock, and the small rounded spout went so deep into the taper in the sprue plate, and sealed against it, so you couldn’t tell when the cavity was full…. My solution was simple…. I got out a grinder, gathered up my courage, and ground the bottom of the spout off flat, just below where the taper on the spout transitioned into the rounded end…. I then filed a notch, facing forward, using the corner of a square file, to create a path for the lead to escape from the tapered hole in the sprue plate…. Here is a photo of the modified Lee spout….

When you cast, you lift the mould up so that the end of the (now shorter and flat) spout hits the inside of the tapered hole in the sprue plate, and lift the handle to pour the cavity…. You MUST start at the front cavity and work towards the rear, or the overflow, which happens quite quickly, runs into any hole forward of where you are pouring, and stops you from pouring that cavity on that pour…. Hold the mould at about a 45 deg. angle to the base of the pot, so that the overflow (which comes towards you) is easily visible…. Stop pouring before the lead runs over the edge of the sprue plate, of course…. You will see this….

If you hold the mould up against the spout too long, the lead will solidify and you will have to rock the mould a bit to break off the thin part of the sprue…. The trick is when you see that squirt of lead that indicates the mould is full, lower the handle to stop the lead flow, and then drop the mould down and move it to pour the next cavity, or cut the sprues…. I have only done a few bullets so far, I was so excited by how well this worked that I needed to share it immediately…. Here are some 60 gr. NOE .224 cal bullets, the first few from the mould…. I had 2 wrinkled bullets out of the first 4 (using a preheated mould), so even without getting the mould up to temperature the fillout was perfect….

After I do some more of these, I have some 24 gr. HPs to cast in .172 cal…. THAT should be a critical test…. I’ll let you know how it goes…. 

Bob

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[rsterneParticipant]

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I was able to turn the temperature way down on my PID and still get perfect fillout with the pellets…. Previously, even at over 900*F I was getting 30-50% rejects…. Not any more!!!!…. 

I cast some 25 gr. HPs today in .172 cal, and here is a photo of just a handful of random bullets I scooped out of the tray….

You have to see these little gems to appreciate them…. they are less than 1/2″ long, and the HP is not much over 1/16″ in diameter….  😮 …. I also cast some of the NOE .217 cal Magnum Hunter pellets today…. This is a mixed batch of 24 & 26 gr. pellets…. The mould comes with 4 sets of base pins to produce 4 different weights of pellets…. These are the lighter two….

Here is a closeup of a random handful of them, you can see the two different skirt depths….

The 61 gr. .224 cal and the pellets were cast at 800*F, the tiny .172 cal HPs at 850*F…. For anyone who is having difficulty casting small, intricate shapes…. try modding the spout and pressure pouring…. I will NEVER go back…. 

Bob

[rsterneParticipant]

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Here is the mod. I made to my Lee pot….

Bob

[rsterneParticipant]

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I cast 280 of the NOE .25 cal. Hunter pellets today half were the lightest, 26.5 gr. and half were the medium weight 28.2 gr…. I only had TWO skirts that weren’t 100% filled out…. 

Bob

[leonhart]

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Very interesting idea. I may try that on my Lee pot. It shouldn’t hurt even if I didn’t pressure bottom pour.
Leo

[rsterneParticipant]

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The stream comes out on a bit of an angle towards where you file the notch, otherwise it still work normally when you don’t pressure pour…. The angle kind of matches the angle of the rod you lift to open the valve….

Bob

[Author]

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