Nothing is forever on this earth.

Red Bear

Red Bear

Member
i have a pot just like that. i only use it to melt scrap. but worked great for many years. have a couple 10 pound lymans. one for ww other for my casting alloys. they have been modified with lee heater elements and switches.but work great. i for one really like lee products.
 
smokeywolf

smokeywolf

Well-Known Member
Pretty sure the only Lee products I have are a couple of sizing die sets for 303 British and 8mm Mauser that were part of a box of 303, 8mm and 348 Winchester components given to me by a friend for whom I'd done a favor in the past.
 
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Petrol & Powder

Well-Known Member
L Ross said:
Between electrical issues and oil leaks I always wondered how they built serviceable aircraft in WWII.
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Well, there's the reality that the aircraft didn't have a life expectancy beyond the end of the war or until it was destroyed - whichever came first.
 
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STIHL

Well-Known Member
I’ve got a spare bottom pour at home that’s stil in the box. It’s sitting there waiting on me to order the parts to make a PID setup for it. At the rate I’m going it will be sitting there 10 years before I get around to that.

Either way 13 years of service out of that pot would be what I call a great life.
 
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Petrol & Powder

Well-Known Member
Some items are just too large or expensive to have another one sitting around but when you can have a spare - it sure is nice.

My father worked with a guy that had three of just about everything: One to use, one in case the first one broke and one to loan out. The item he didn't have a spare for was his airplane - he only had one Piper Super Cub.

I can't afford to have 3 of everything but I do like to keep replacements on hand when possible. When my coffee marker died, I purchased the exact same model. Now I have a spare carafe, lid & basket.
I have a couple of hand priming tools for when I'm working with a single stage press. But I keep a RCBS ram prime on the shelf as a backup.
I've thinned the herd of single stage presses over the years but still keep one spare on the shelf. It is highly unlikely I will ever need it but there it sits.

When I travel, I am an absolute minimalist - Less is more. The less gear I can get away with the happier I am.
At home - having a spare "whatever" is the rule.
 
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Jeff H

NW Ohio
Ian said:
I'm waiting for the Lee haters to come along with suggestions regarding how that ceremony would best commence. I'd put $10 worth of parts in it and set it back for a spare 'cuz you'll need it again in 13 years.
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Many years ago, I replaced my 10# bottom-pour Lee pot with another identical one.

I used that one for maybe twenty years and started having issues with the "new" one too, and decided I needed another - until I saw the price.

I dug the old one out to see if I could make one good one from two "bad" ones, but the old one looked fine and I coiuldn't remember what was wrong with it, so I plugged it in and filled it up. It worked just like the "new" one I'd just worn out. Same problem, both pots. I'd eventually worn the pour orifice slightly larger over time and they both let too much lead flow and my medium/smaller bullets came out looking horrific. I need to find the photo and post it some time.

Tried LEE CS to get parts and got an engineer with a snotty attitude. I"ve worked with customers and vendors in business and engineering for way too long, being way too nice to others (yes, me) to tolerate that, so I just fill each of the two pots only half full to reduce head-pressure and they cast just fine.

It would be nice to have a new pot, and maybe if the price pressure wanes a bit, I might buy me a new Lee 20# bottom pour.

Keeping old stuff is a double-edged sword, but done selectively, it can get one out of a jam now and then, in spite of a little extra clutter. Something like a Lee pot - I'd put a "worn out" one back for just-in-case. Often, I've drug out something I'd retired and found it BETTER than the next previous one I needed to replace. This has happened with boots, coats, car parts, a Lyman 45 lubrisizer...
 
Brad

Brad

Benevolent Overlord and site owner
Staff member
I have too many pots.
2 10# Lee bottompour
1 RCBS 22# bottom pour
1 Lee 20# ladle only
1 40# Magma
1 Lyman 4# dipper pot

the RCBS is over 30 years old and works like always. The Magma is the only one in current use. I doubt I will ever need to replace it.
 
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Jeff H

NW Ohio
fiver said:
i was gonna say it's probably just the points need cleaned... that saved mine the last go round.
the time before that i had to re-wire/solder one of the wires to the heating element.
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Regardless of the brand or reputation, an electric lead pot is no more complex than a toaster - like you put bread in. Design and "build quality" are almost difficult to mess up. The rest is quality of components and actual assembly. Hard to mess up too badly on assembly on something so simple. Yes, it can and does happen.

As components go, the element and the control means are the main components which can (and WILL, eventually) go wrong, and are good candidates for spare-parts purchases when the unit is bought new. These parts will not degreade with age - only with use, so there is no worry that they will "go bad" sitting in a drawer for thirteen years. They will be a lot cheaper now than in thirtten years, AND will be immediately available when you need them - on that cold, rainy day you decide is a good day to cast, but your pot says otherwise.

Terminations and wire insulation can degrade with time because of the heat. If the designer does not select and use appropriately temperature-rated components, that can be an issue too, but I've not seen it personally in the two Lee Pots I've owned. I looked.

If a fella decides to go the PID route, the mechanical temp controller can be eliminated completely.

As @fiver indicates, sometimes just cleaning the contacts is necessary. Sometimes a wire eventually becomes brittle and you get an open. These are legitimate, easy, no-cash fixes to keep you going - not just Bubba patch-jobs.

Then, along the lines of how @Ben solved this problem, Lee pots have always been priced comparatively low, having a complete spare unit ready to go is not unrealistic either. All the same, I'd keep the old one too. Never know how desperate things can get. Right now, a fella could buy a thousand primers for what a Lee pot would set him back. To some, or any of us at one time or another, it may make more sense to patch up an old pot and reserve the cash for commodities.

Let the "Lee-haters" hate, @Ian . I know you know this, but...

;)

I did a lot of casting and hand-loading over the years because I could afford to - because of Lee. I once bought a used Lee Turret press and a bunch of turrets for $15 at a show, because the guy selling it was embarrassed to have it one his table. He had actually hidden it UNDER his table. I saw it and offered $20. He laughed and said "how 'bout FIFTEEN?" I've also bought a lot of one of my favorite revolvers cheap because of Charter Arms-haters.

I don't mean to disparage anyone else's choices on lead pots, even indirectly, but when you boil it down, think about how simple these appliances really are and consider the actual use you get out of one, I see better money being spent on Lee pots. Unless someone is making an industrial model I can put on a bench, over the long haul, I've spent less on two Lee pots (both still working) over thirty-plus years now, that I'm still money ahead. Lee's replacement parts prices are pretty reasonable to boot.
 
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Petrol & Powder

Well-Known Member
Jeff H said:
......As components go, the element and the control means are the main components which can (and WILL, eventually) go wrong, and are good candidates for spare-parts purchases when the unit is bought new. These parts will not degreade with age - only with use, so there is no worry that they will "go bad" sitting in a drawer for thirteen years. They will be a lot cheaper now than in thirtten years, AND will be immediately available when you need them - on that cold, rainy day you decide is a good day to cast, but your pot says otherwise.
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/\ And that sums up why we maintain spares. /\ And spares for things more important than a casting pot.

If something is going to break, rest assured, it will not break at 09:00 on a summer Tuesday morning. It will break at 4:50 p.m. on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.
It will break at 7:15 p.m. on December 23 in the middle of a blizzard. It will break on the Saturday before Labor day with hurricane due to land in 24 hours......
 
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Jeff H

NW Ohio
Yes.

One reason I've standardized on the Contender Carbine for my settled, 'once and for all" personal battery. I've not only got backup spare parts, I can swap a whole action until I have time and find parts to repair one if ever I should need to. I once used the same logic (rationalization?) regarding my 98 Mausers. Both my vehicles are virtually identical and take 98% the same parts, so only one spare covers both vehicles for a given malady. Maybe I'm just overboard on the concept, but it's gotten me out of a lot of pinches.
 
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