Thread: LEE LEAD MELTER ADVICE

Hi all. Just picked up a Lee lead melter pot IV and I need some advice on first set up and usage due to Lee's instructions being quite limited and there being no video's I can find on youtube. What prep do I need to do before I start melting lead? What regular maintenance/cleaning do I need to do and is it normal for it to smoke when first turned on? Any and all advice will be appreciated. Thanks

Originally Posted by Three O'Three

Hi all. Just picked up a Lee lead melter pot IV and I need some advice on first set up and usage due to Lee's instructions being quite limited and there being no video's I can find on youtube. What prep do I need to do before I start melting lead? What regular maintenance/cleaning do I need to do and is it normal for it to smoke when first turned on? Any and all advice will be appreciated. Thanks

Turn it on and put lead in. Heat lead and pour. Noting difficult about it apart from setting the temp and pouring rate
You may get blockages to a small nail and pliers is needed. Keep stirring your mix and be very aware of moisture anywhere near it.
Check out YouTube….

No prep is needed, smoke is just forming oil burning off. Just add lead head nails bits of pile or recovered .22s etc. Be aware the spigot will probably leak during inital heat up and keep checking that it's fully closed. Flux as normal. I gave up using the outlet due to it leaking and now melt in the pot but use a ladle to fill the mold.

My only advice is assume that everything has at least a bit of moisture in it.
I use a blow torch to cook off any moisture before using any tools (ladel, stirrer, spoon, ingot moulds etc.)
I had an incident where a spoon looked totally dry, but dipped into the lead to stir, and 'POP' a small steam explosion sent a few tiny splatters of lead flying.
Not super dangerous, unless you dont have glasses on, but sore as hell.

Best to be over cautious.

My advice replace the temp controller on it, its a horrible inaccurate piece of crap.
Mine has a digital heat controler on it and now holds temp much more accurately.

Originally Posted by dannyb

My advice replace the temp controller on it, its a horrible inaccurate piece of crap.
Mine has a digital heat controler on it and now holds temp much more accurately.

Can you throw up a pic of that? Ive just bought the jumbo one from gunworks. Yes i had to watch the youtube vid on attaching plugs because no, im not an electrician. Tbh it looks easy so i'll have a crack

Originally Posted by T.FOYE

Can you throw up a pic of that? Ive just bought the jumbo one from gunworks. Yes i had to watch the youtube vid on attaching plugs because no, im not an electrician. Tbh it looks easy so i'll have a crack

Yup but won't be until tomorrow evening @gadgetman did mine

And the obvious with these, avoid any fumes - period. Track down a scrapped overhead kitchen extractor fan and set it up on legs with a 3-pin plug on it, and send the fumes somewhere away from anything. And a decent mask and safety gear...

You can get tin powder off trademe, avoid any of the lead flashing with the green anti-corrosion coating or anything with too much paint on it - old paint has a lot of interesting metallics in it and it can pull stuff out of the alloy which can make it really hard and crystalline which isn't much use for sinkers and no use whatsoever for bullets. I cast up a batch of diving weights and they shattered when dropped - had to remelt and mix them with an equal weight of linotype and wheel weights to replace the missing elements. Having some tin powder can make the alloy more ductile, and fix a major headache in short order. Linotype used to be good for that as well, but it's in very short supply now. Even lead-scrap-any can be a little hard to get hold of at all sometimes - although having a mate in a boat yard can work wonders if a yatch is getting it's keel replaced. Not cheap but top grade casting lead.

Originally Posted by Three O'Three

Hi all. Just picked up a Lee lead melter pot IV and I need some advice on first set up and usage due to Lee's instructions being quite limited and there being no video's I can find on youtube. What prep do I need to do before I start melting lead? What regular maintenance/cleaning do I need to do and is it normal for it to smoke when first turned on? Any and all advice will be appreciated. Thanks

Don not melt scrap lead in the pot that you are going to cast bullets only use clean lead that has been melt down a had the shit fluid out of it,
Buy 50/50 solder sticks for the tin I stick to a pot full will be enough,
if you want to learn buy Lymans Cast bullet manual it has everything you need to know and dispells all the BS old wives tales and myths about Casting bullets
For melting down scrap leaf buy a cast iron casserole pot plenty on Trade Me you won't need the lid
A double ring gas burner and LPG 9k bottle will last months
Best thing to flux with is a wooden stirrer the carbon from the burnt stick acts as the flux also wood shavings work well
no need for Beeswax it just makes smoke.

Originally Posted by shooternz

Don not melt scrap lead in the pot that you are going to cast bullets only use clean lead that has been melt down a had the shit fluid out of it,
Buy 50/50 solder sticks for the tin I stick to a pot full will be enough,
if you want to learn buy Lymans Cast bullet manual it has everything you need to know and dispells all the BS old wives tales and myths about Casting bullets
For melting down scrap leaf buy a cast iron casserole pot plenty on Trade Me you won't need the lid
A double ring gas burner and LPG 9k bottle will last months
Best thing to flux with is a wooden stirrer the carbon from the burnt stick acts as the flux also wood shavings work well
no need for Beeswax it just makes smoke.

I was given some roof flashing lead strips, quite dirty and didn't want to put it in my nice new Lee pot. Will be melting it down in a old saucepan to remove the impurities and making some nice ingots out of it.
How many solder sticks for say every 1kg of lead? Thanks

Originally Posted by Three O'Three

I was given some roof flashing lead strips, quite dirty and didn't want to put it in my nice new Lee pot. Will be melting it down in a old saucepan to remove the impurities and making some nice ingots out of it.
How many solder sticks for say every 1kg of lead? Thanks

Start with 1 stick to 10 kg of lead is usually enough you only need enough to fill out the mould Tin is not for hardness,
For hunting bullets the softer the better, High velocity with cast is obtainable but the bullets are no better than FMJ's

Originally Posted by T.FOYE

Can you throw up a pic of that? Ive just bought the jumbo one from gunworks. Yes i had to watch the youtube vid on attaching plugs because no, im not an electrician. Tbh it looks easy so i'll have a crack