New Guy With Pouring Questions

[Michael Atkinson]

I’m new to lead pouring and having some issues.

First issue
I’m having to clean the nozzle of my Lee pot every pour with a paperclip.  I can understand having to do this for the pour of the day / initial heat up.  I ran all my lead through furnace one time using candle wax to clean it, poured it into a muffin pan to make small ingots.  Now I’m using these ingots to pour jig heads.

Second issue
I’m getting incomplete pours in the 3/8 oz. Poison Tail cavity?  The shirt / bait keeper barbs are not complete?  My 1/4 oz. jigs are look good?

Thanks for any advice!

[Denny Welch]

It could be that your lead isn't hot enough or it could be that some foreign material has gotten into the nozzle.  Try turning the screw on top of the pot several times and see if that helps.  I'm not much of an expert on muffin pans (or anything else for that matter), but maybe some of it's metal made it into your lead pot.

Hold your open mold over a lit candle until the cavities have developed a layer of soot.  That should fix the incomplete filling problem.

[Bucko]

Sounds like a temp issue.  Is your lead fluxed?

[Kasilofchrisn]

Heat your paperclip then rub your paperclip in wax.
Then use it to clean the spout. It will help flux and clean around the spout.
Then put a small pea or sugarcube size chunk of wax into your pot.
If it doesn't ignight then light it and let it burn whilst you stir the pot being sure to scrape the bottom and sides.
Then skim the dross off.
You will get more dross out that way.
Rather than smoking your mold try a light spray of drop out mold release.
It will last many pours and definetly helps the mold fill out.
All my molds get a light coat of drop out in them.
Don't forget to pre warm your hooks. This always helps fill in the small nooks and crannies around the hook shank.
If that doesn't work then come back and let us know.
I bet these ideas fix your issues.

[Lamar]

To me it sounds like your using hard lead. Where did you get your lead from ? The poison tail jig has some small details and needs to be poured with soft lead.

[2XL]

It could be any of the problems mentioned above but if you're having to clean your nozzle with every pour then a weak stream of lead may be the main problem. What do you have the heat set at?  What do your jigs look like = wrinkled , smooth and shiny ?   Like Lamar said, soft lead is the way to go.

[Kasilofchrisn]

Another question. Is your pot full?
It helps to keep a full pot of lead. The weight helps it shoot better.

[Michael Atkinson]

To answer a few questions

Lead is defiantly soft.  I purchased the material at a local scrap yard, it was 1/8" lead shielding from an x ray room.  I cut it with a pair of scissors.

The amount of lead in the pot could be the problem, I only have about half of the pot full.  I will try to add more material.

I heat the material to the level 7 setting.

I will defiantly try your suggestions.

[Michael Atkinson]

[Michael Atkinson]

[Michael Atkinson]

[Carl]

Not sure about the pouring but love that jig.

[billygee]

Carl

Used to have a similar issue "turns out the mold was not hot enough", until I placed it on top of the POT to really get it hot, which seemed to stabilize the needed temp for the correct flow, if it started to show poor shoots I'd repeat the POT Heating Procedure.   

(worked for me)  

billygee   

[Justin9j]

Smoke the cav with a candle

[2XL]

I place my mold/molds on top of my pot while it's warming up. After the lead is hot, I always run 3 or 4 heads without the hook to see what they look like/make sure the mold is nice and warm. You could try holding your mold closer to the spout too. If that doesn't work then you probably have some crud in your spout you'll need to clean out.

Your lead is good, I use the same thing. Your heat is plenty good too. I used to run my old pot between 6 and 7 but with my new pot I have the temp set between 5 and 6.