rebuilding a Lee 4-20 melter

[Kevin Stenberg]

I have to rebuild my old 4-20 melter.
An i was wondering if it would be help full. If i got a new spout and shutoff rod and had someone make the mating surfaces uniform to each other. To keep the leakage at a minimum?

 

[Ian]

Just put a spot of coarse valve lapping compound on the contact points and spin, lift, spin, lift with a drill motor.

 

[dannyd]

Do the above

 

[Tomme boy]

Add a little weight to the top and it won't drip at all.

 

[Kevin Stenberg]

I did the valve lapping stem spin which worked really well for the life of the pot. It had very few drips. I didn't know if a custom trim job on both parts would be better.
My present 4-20 has not needed any work to eliminate leaks. My newest pot is Lee's updated version of the original 4-20

 

[Missionary]

We bought two new Lee 4-20 pot about 10 years ago. One was dedicated to 40-1. The other to what ever other mix needed cooked.
One was a a very good none dripper from the start. But I still added a caliber .72 round ball (40-1) to the handle. The other pot was a superb dripper from first fire up. All sort of interesting sculptures ran out forming on the base plate. So we lapped the spout... It helped but gave it another lapping down to extra fine goop just to be sure. Still had a minor drip. So added first one .72 RB... then another and finally with 3 .72 RB's on the handle it has never dripped again.

 

[358156 hp]

I've also seen guys clamp a small pair of Vise-Grips to the wire handle to add weight. I thought it was a bit unsightly, but it did work for them.

 

[Missionary]

That would be very simple !!!
We have a 10 pounder up there bought used that only slowly developed the drip. Took two .72 RB's to stop it. Then finally had to lap latter on.

 

[popper]

Put a cheap tap handle on the stem and remove the adjusting screw. You can spin the handle to stop any drip while waiting for the sprue to cool. Adjust the tap handle position to limit max flow and when cleaning the pot, stem is removeable.

 

[Brad]

Get a ladle. Mine never drips.

 

[dannyd]

Get a ladle. Mine never drips.

hard to cast 200,000 bullets with a ladle

 

[Ian]

hard to cast 200,000 bullets with a ladle

Get a 2# Rowel ladle.

 

[S Mac]

hard to cast 200,000 bullets with a ladle

Casting 200,000 would be a chore any method!

 

[dannyd]

Casting 200,000 would be a chore any method!

Passed that couple years ago.

 

[dannyd]

Get a 2# Rowel ladle.

Used one, For me never as fast as a bottom pour. Have a Mag25, Pro Melt 2 and two or three Lee 4-20's. And yes I have 3 ladles

 

[S Mac]

Passed that couple years ago.

I thought you meant in one session, I've cast a few myself over the years, a dedicated ladle caster here.

 

[dannyd]

I thought you meant in one session, I've cast a few myself over the years, a dedicated ladle caster here.

On no that's over 32 years. Used a ladle till I could get a Lee 10 bottom pour them moved up from their. You must be one of those low mountain hillbilly's. I from Western Virginia now we are high mountain hillbilly's.

 

[RBHarter]

How the heck do you get that many moulds lined up ?
I have my sights on a 420 220 as soon as I get a few more bugs swatted .

 

[Petrol & Powder]

For the OP, the prior advice is good advice.
Lap the nozzle and rod. I see no benefit to new parts useless the old ones are unserviceable. The "valve" is nothing more than a rod and a seat and lapping the parts so that they fit together is enough to make the "valve" work. After lapping the parts I no longer needed to add weight to stop the "drip-O-matic" from dripping.

I complain about the Lee 4-20 a lot because Lee cut a few corners to make a price point. Most of the places where Lee went cheap can be repaired or up-graded, so it's still a useful bottom pour pot for the money. It is a fairly simple device and easy to maintain.