Frozen Lead Removal Lee Pot

Under warranty. Used as expected, properly. Failed when used properly, under warranty, as expected.
Expectation 1: shouldn't they pay return shipping for warranty repair? Dunno, I don't know what warranty is. "We'll repair/replace?" or "we'll provide replacement parts?"
Expectation 2: If they'll repair/replace warranty ... seems like they should provide a return shipping label AS IS ... including the 10lbs of solidified lead. If you're willing to forgo said metal.
Caveat: I don't cast, don't melt, no experience with furnace, just working off a "under warranty" situation.

-jb, so tired of dealing with warranties

Put in the new parts and fire her up!

A propane torch should melt the lead enough to remove it from the pot.

You may have to do it in stages. Melt some and ladle it out, then melt some more and so forth.

It may take a while and several iterations. Propane torches are plenty hot enough but it depends on how much BTU’s you lose to the atmosphere. If you can get some help with a second torch, things wii go quicker.

For most people, Propane torch=blow torch. Tip the pot to ~45* down angle and go to town with the propane. The lead will run right out.

Here is a youtube video that will at least show you how to take this apart and install the new parts. Personally I wouldn't bother with emptying the pot as the pot will come out even with it full of lead..

Big Bore 44 said:

For most people, Propane torch=blow torch. Tip the pot to ~45* down angle and go to town with the propane. The lead will run right out.

Click to expand...

My thoughts exactly. Tilt it down and get a river of lead trickling into an ingot mold or some other pot. Saves you from ladling it all out and should go fairly quickly.

Excellent video, thanks for the detail...

Yeah I would put the new parts in and get melting.

Lay the thing on it's side in a cake pan and have at it with the propane torch. Shim the pan 1/4 inch or more so it drains away from the furnace. I'd have them do the parts replacement just in case it happens again and then you can blame them and they won't blame you. You might be interested to know I've been buying from Lee for over 30 years and they are a very good company to work with.

Turn the pot over and give it a rap on the bench, the lead will pop right out. I've done it many times.

My Lee pot is out in the shop so I can't look at it. Can you disassemble and replace parts without emptying the pot?

mdi said:

Can you disassemble and replace parts without emptying the pot?

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Why not. it's not connected to anything.

I'm curious on which of the two.parts actually failed. The coil or the controller. Based on their experience it's most likely cheaper to mail you both and close the case. Is the high failure part known.

A resistance check of both parts should tell you minimizing your tear down requirements. The numbers should compare to the new parts. The zero or infanite reading is the the dead part.

From my mechanical experience working production maintenance for a food company my guess is the loud pop would be the heating coil. The rheostat controller normally don't give any indication they failed.

Last year about this time I had a 20 lb melting pot fry 2 controllers before I found the element went bad.

I had melted 1 pot for trial. Poured some ingots. Second time using it, I heard a loud pop, and the breaker kicked out in the panel. Took to controller box apart and found the controller fried. The element gave me a good ohm reading, so I ordered one controller off Lee's site, paying only shipping. I didn't bother contacting them, just wanted to get it back to running.

With new controller installed, I plugged the pot in, heard a slight buzzing, then a faint pop. Controller fried again, this time no ohm reading from the element. Contacted Lee, after some emails, they shipped a relabeled box, I sent it in, and got it back within a 10-12 day window.

Since then, the pot have melted well over 1000 lb of lead and alloys with no incidence.

kcofohio said:

Last year about this time I had a 20 lb melting pot fry 2 controllers before I found the element went bad.

I had melted 1 pot for trial. Poured some ingots. Second time using it, I heard a loud pop, and the breaker kicked out in the panel. Took to controller box apart and found the controller fried. The coil gave me a good ohm reading, so I ordered one controller off Lee's site, paying only shipping. I didn't bother contacting them, just wanted to get it back to running.

With new controller installed, I plugged the pot in, heard a slight buzzing, then a faint pop. Controller fried again, this time no ohm reading from the element. Contacted Lee, after some emails, they shipped a relabeled box, I sent it in, and got it back within a 10-12 day window.

Since then, the pot have melted well over 1000 lb of lead and alloys with no incidence.

Click to expand...

Intermittent or changing indications is any technicians worst case scenario. Power supplies are my.least favorite thing to figure
Out.

AJC1 said:

Intermittent or changing indications is any technicians worst case scenario. Power supplies are my.least favorite thing to figure
Out.

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Yeah, in hind sight if I had jumped the power wires I would have found it sooner. In the first controller I seen that the contact point was burnt, and a good element ohm reading, I assumed that was the issue.

kmw1954 said:

From my mechanical experience working production maintenance for a food company my guess is the loud pop would be the heating coil. The rheostat controller normally don't give any indication they failed.

Click to expand...

My experience is in tooling, with minimal electrical background, mostly hobby.

Fishingted said:

seeing as I have both parts I will replace both of them.

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In a scenario such as this again my experience has shown that when something like this happens both parts are stressed and when one fails the other has been weakened. Heat does strange things to electrical parts.