plugged melter

[Bucho]

Hi!

I just got started on my fisrt major commercial melting, and now that thing only drips. Just emptied it, there`s a lot of crap down there, thought that would float up?!

do you guys have any idea how that had happend and how I can clean it? Its a Lee IV 220V I know nothing about maintaining theses BTW.

Thanks!l

 

[Bucko]

I have a lee pro 4 20 that is doing the same thing. it is still under warranty but I have way too many orders and cant afford to send it out. it still pours but drips when not pouring. like water drips slowly from a faucet.

 

[Bucho]

I first found nice that the dripping had endet all of a sudden, but then the pouring got ever slower until the casts got spoiled and I had to do something. Again, there´s a lot of stuff down there that I had no idea would accumulate.

 

[CrappieHappy]

make sure you are fluxing your lead with candle wax etc. in a different pot than your pouring pot. I typically flux the lead in another melter, get it as clean as i can, then ladle into muffin tins for later use. When i use my bottom pour, i add some of the muffin sized lead, and i flux a little more, stir, and remove the slag etc. I have a pot under my bottom pour, and if/when it starts acting up, I empty it, then use a drill bit as a reamer from the bottom to clean the spout out well. I have even removed the plunger to clean up the area well. Be very careful, it get extremely hot, i was using my welding gloves, and it was still hard to manage....

 

[Bucko]

I never had to flux before with this batch. it is very soft, bhn of 7-8.5. I dont have seperate pot but may have to. I never use wheel weight lead as I hear that will destroy a bottom pourer.

 

[CrappieHappy]

98% of my lead is xray room lead, I still flux, I do toss in small % of wheel weights every now and them. I have never measured the BHN of my lead. too try to fix the drip, rotate the plunger with a pair of pliers and see if it stops. you can use a drill bit, from the bottom with try and clear any debris, but be very, very careful. I have used a drill bit locked in vise grips, and pushed up through the spout to clear it.

 

[Bucho]

I used to through all sorts of scrap lead into that poo(u)r thing, guess that wasn´t the brightest thing to do. Thought that whatever dirt was in it would be lighter than lead and float up. Geek mistake.

We´ll see if I can get that cleaned, thanks for sharing that drill-bit procedure in particular. Think I got the bigger picture now, but how exactly does this "flux" process work and what on earth has candle wax got to do with it? Doesn´t quite translate to me. I better mold my lead in another pot to free it from dirt amd get it out as clean as I can, that much I understood.

 

[CrappieHappy]

check out the lead pouring section, I bleive we have a couple posts about fluxing:

http://www.jigcraft.com/jigcraft/forumdisplay.php?fid=6

 

[AtticaFish]

I do not pour myself, but have often wondered what wax does to lead to clean it.... never understood that myself. Does anyone know the 'science' behind why/how it would work to clean molten metal?

...but how exactly does this "flux" process work and what on earth has candle wax got to do with it? Doesn´t quite translate to me...

 

[redear]

I had the same problem, and yes crud builds up in the pouring spout. I bought a palmer hot pot for cleaning my lead, this is a hand held melting pot, and it seems to get hotter than my lee pot, and I have gone to using powdered fluxing material, this stuff looks like powdered soap and comes in a plastic screw top container, aboat a pint, it is far superior to any candle wax etc. for fluxing. It doesn't flash and flame up, and doesn't stink and smoke up my shop, my container says brownells on it, but frankford puts it out too, it looks like the same can just different label. I use a tiny allen wrench held by ice grips for unplugging a lee pot spout, but if it is plugging up this means your lead is not clean enough and the unplugging won't last long. I almost prefer ladle pouring out of my hot pot because of this, I get a superior cast too as the lead gets hotter in the hot pot.

 

[Bucho]

Just went after it with a brass brush, a fly-tying needle and a can of pressurized air for de-dusting. You want to use goggles, gloves and a dusk mask with that, I can tell you! Exactly the kind of work my father tried to spare me by sending me to college - I love it!

Put in some fresh clean lead and got that thing pouring again alright, with even less dripping, all good. Had already ordered a smaller, simple extra melter for back-up, gonna use that one on the flux topic.

Thanks for the help! :icon14:

 

[JSC]

It pays to flux as much in your pouring pot as it does in melting the dirty stuff in another pot. Flux== Burn - Stir - Scrape and drag it to top and Skim ... It can make a big difference when ladel pouring as well .. ever notice the build up of crud you get on the pouring lip of the ladel ... this is what you want to get rid of..
I keep the skimmings in a metal container and when I melt down a fresh batch in the big pot I will also during the process take and empty the "Skimmings " in .. and recover some of the lead that would have been thrown out