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How I fixed my Lee Lead Pot and Now I No Longer Have a Love/Hate Relationship With it.


Sedalia Dave

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I fixed it by connecting it to a easy DIY PID temperature controller.

 

 

 

As anyone that has ever used one knows, owners of Lee lead pots have a love hate relationship with them. The original pots were hard to control the flow rate in and the ability to put up with a dripping spout was a definite requirement. Then Lee came out with the Pro 4 and the ability to control the volume of the lead being dispensed was easy. However it still dripped.

Both styles of pots didn't have the best temperature regulation either. Which made casting consistent quality bullets a challenge.

 

Lyman and RCBS make very nice lead pots with excellent temperature control. However, they cost 3 to 4 times what the Lee pot does. There are other differences but what sets the RCBS and Lyman head and shoulders above Lee is their temperature control. Building a PID controller from scratch is not all that hard. Programming it is a real PIA. One day I discovered that Amazon sold pre-built PID controllers with the ability to learn built right in. With that knowledge in had I set out to make one to control my Lee lead pot.

 

The controller I settled on was the Inkbird PID Temperature Controller ITC-106VH. The display is in Fahrenheit, Comes with a solid state relay, heat sink, and it has the ability to learn how to minimize temperature swings. It also came with a K-type temperature probe but it was only rated to 752 degrees F (400 C) so wasn't of much use. The Solid State Relay is rated for 40 amps which is overkill but it works. 

For the probe I chose a 4" long K-type probe with 6.5 feet of cable. There are several types of temperature probes out there buy the K-type is the best one for measuring the temperature of metals with melting points below 1800 deg F.

 

To house everything and prevent electrocution by accidentally touching an energized terminal I chose the Zulkit Rectangle Project Box. It measures 7.9" X 6.5" X 3.5" on the outside and was big enough to hold everything without being too cramped.

 

I didn't want the power cords or temp probe permanently connected so I picked up the following:

 

For the AC in I went with Parts Express IEC Power Jack Chassis Mount. This is the same type of receptacle that your PC power cord plugs into. I have lots of these cords lying around so it was the obvious choice.

 

For the AC out I choose a single outlet like the one pictured below. Picked it up at the local hardware store.. I cut the ears off just past the first threaded hole so that it took up less space on the back panel. Downside is that to get it to mount properly I had to put a washer between it and the back panel so that when I tightened down the screws it didn't deform the panel. Because the receptacle is round it was easy to cut a hole in the back panel with a step drill.

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I bought a K-type panel mount socket and mating plug. The panel mount part is not very robust so after getting it mounted I used a little JB Weld to reinforce it. 

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I cut all the remain holes in the box with my dremil tool. I cut them slightly undersized and then filed to fit.

 

Wiring is pretty much straight forward. The PID controller comes with a pin out of the terminals. The hardest part was connecting the K-type thermocouple up with the correct polarity. Like a lot of things there is a standard but in this case there are a lot of them and little to clue you as to which one to use.  Fortunately there is an easy way that just requires a small magnet.  Turns out that the wire used for the negative connection is slightly magnetic while the positive wire is not. Be sure to use thermocouple wide between the panel mount socket and the controller. If you use regular wire you will introduce 4 additional junctions into the circuit and this can effect the accuracy of the probe. In my case I had lots of cable on the probe so I cust cut off enough to reach from the controller to the panel mount. The insulation of the wire is very hard to strip as it appears to be made of kapton. I used a magnifier and a pair of super sharp toenail scissors to remove the insulation without nicking the wire. I didn't try to trim the metal braiding but rather just pushed it back enough to allow the connection. Note that the connector is polarized and the wires should be connected observing the correct polarity as the terminals are made of the same materials as their respective wires.    

 

Below are pictures of the box under construction and the finished product.

 

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Once I had everything hooked up I filled the pot with 20:1 alloy and powered it up.  Turned the lee pot controller to max and set the PID controller temp to 725 degrees and waited. As soon as the display read 725 degrees a i put the controller into learn mode and allowed it to complete a learning cycle. While it was doing this I preheated my mould. Once the learning cycle was complete I fluxed the lead and started to cast bullets. Right away I noticed that the pot was not dripping and the spout didn't clog. While casting I watched the temp and it never varied more than 5 degrees either way from the set point. When i cast I put the cut sprue back into the pot. I also put any deformed bullets I notice back into the pot.  After casting 540 bullets for my 56-50 Spencer I was sold on the PID controller. Never once did the spout leak or clog and all of the bullets came out nice and shiny. :)

 

Total cost for the controller was just over $100.00 with tax and shipping.

 

Once thing I need to do is starting from a cold pot is to measure the temp of the solid state relay as the post heats up. Once the pot is hot, the relay is only on for several seconds at a time. If the SSR is getting hot I'll add a small fan to the box for cooling. My gut tells me this is a non issue but I still want to verify.

 

Nice thing is I can add additional Lee pot for each alloy and reuse the controller with each pot. For the cost of one Lyman or RCBS pot I can have 3 Lee pots. Maybe even 4 if I catch one on sale. 

 

BTW Given the option the Lee Pro-4 is worth the extra money over the original Lee pot

 

 

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  • Sedalia Dave changed the title to How I fixed my Lee Lead Pot and No Longer Have a Love/Hate Relationship With it.
  • Sedalia Dave changed the title to How I fixed my Lee Lead Pot and Now I No Longer Have a Love/Hate Relationship With it.

Nice set up Dave, way above my pay grade. I've got a couple of Lee pots and I have never paid any  attention to the numbers on the thermostat, I use the ones you stick in the pot. I turn it all the way up, when it reach's 800* - 825* I start to pour, yes I like to start hot and fast especially the big lubes. I can keep it close to 770*-800* with 6 cavity molds by putting the sprue droppings back in the pot. The last pour I leave  the bullets in the mold. I preheat the molds on hot a plate so I can sprue plate lube the mold except for the pins, do those on the first pour . For smokeless I use a Master Caster at 740* Good Luke:)

 

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8 hours ago, Abilene, SASS # 27489 said:

Good job!  Also, thanks for reminding me why I buy my bullets.  :)

Thanks.

I buy all my pistol caliber bullets. I only cast 38-55, 56-50, and 45-70 as they are really expensive and between all three calibers, I don't shoot more a thousand in a year. 

Now that I have better temperature control I may try my hand at 30 cal bullets.

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I built a PID control for my Pro-Melt (1) mostly to enjoy the fun of building it.

 

Keeps the temp within 1° if I don't add lead back in.

 

My Lee's are for melting scrap into ingots--I have seen guys add weight to the top of the control to keep it seated.  

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Appears that it would be simple to swap the positions of the thermocouple coupler and the line power input socket to reduce wire run lengths for both of them, if you build another of these. 

 

good luck, GJ

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My wife saves the drips . . . 

But I'm sure a PID will be nice. I make ingots shaped like a candy bar. They span the pot and preheat well that way. Then they stand up in the melt without changing the melt temp much. 

I can make up alloys to order by the way. If any of you are running hot loads for other purposes I can mix to whatever BNH you want. 

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