RCBS bottom pour spout rod

[Nick Quick]

Last time I cleaned my first gen RCBS bottom pour I realized the spout is conical but the rod that stops the alloy flow is just a regular bar with a flat base. I was wondering if anyone machined that rod to be also conical and close the spout better.
One of my first gen RCBS is very old and it won't close that good anymore. It drips especially when the temperature is on the high side.
Just looking to see if others have done such thing or I'm thinking to far.

[Winger Ed.]

The rod on my old Pro-Melt is sort of rounded on the end.

I haven't taken it apart and cleaned it in several years.
Ya do have to poke around up in the hole every so often with a piece of steel wire to keep it from dripping when hot.
Wear a big heavy welding glove, open the handle, poke around until it flows well, then it should seal back up.
It's seems to be the nature of the beast. I flux & stir like it owes me money, but it still does that.

If the temp. isn't very hot, sometimes you have to wave a propane torch around the exit nozzle to 'unfreeze' it
to get it flowing fully.

[Nick Quick]

I follow the exact same procedure. I have a wire bent so I can wiggle it inside spout and with the thermal glove I work it well to remove the whatever impurities might get stuck in there. I also flux and scrape the walls even though I emptied the pot and did a proper clean up. I'm very happy with the old RCBS except the dripping when I crank up the temperature.
I do have a brand new unfired RCBS first gen but I keep it for when this one will crap on me.
I'm not sure making the rod end conical will be better. I'm afraid it will get stuck against the spout walls and I won't be able to lift it with the handle.
My post was intended to see if anyone did it before me so I won't run into troubles trying to reinvent the wheel.

[Walter Laich]

being fancy I pushed a small Allen wrench into short section of dowel rod for my "tool"
still wear heavy gloves.

agree with a quick application of a torch to unfreeze the spout as needed

did convert it to 'pull-down' to open--easier on my twice cut-on shoulder

wish I could find another one of these

[Mk42gunner]

I don't remember ever seeing the lower end of the valve rod in my first gen Promelt. It came to me with lead in it and I promptly put it to work.

I did lap the valve rod and seat in the brand new Lee 4-20 that I had purchased prior to finding the Promelt. It drips a bit but no deluges, unlike the Lee ten pounder.

Since you have a new one, I would compare the ends of the rods and decide what to do from there.

Robert

[Rapier]

When the Pro Melt starts leaking it is really time to clean the pot and disassemble and clean the pour valve parts. The shoulder and stem for the gravity seal gets crud on them and they need to be cleaned. I just do all at one time, plus reset and adjust the mould block holder bar.

The old Pro Melt stem bar has a screw head style screwdriver notch you can try turning back and forth, to do a quick fix, mid session, but, the cleaning is never far behind.

[jsizemore]

I tried improving the shape of the end and it didn't have enough length to close. You can get the lead so hot it will run into the vent lines and start fining on the parting line.

[rcslotcar]

If my old Ohio / RCBS pro melt starts to have a drip, I'll heat the pour spout with a torch and tap the top of the rod lightly. This has always worked for me.

[jsizemore]

This is more about fluxing than the rod shape but it does have to do with the drip on my RCBS pots. Might get some folks upset (seems I do that to some) but it works for me. I used to use a heart pine stick in the casting pot to stir and scrape and flux in the casting pot. It was also good for reducing the oxides since it was packed with resin. After a bunch of problems with the spout plugging and dripping I started to not use the stick but spent plenty of time stirring and scraping after the stick with a spoon and cake serving knife. I finally started paying attention to the experienced casters and they said you only flux in the smelting pot. All the bad stuff is removed there and all your doing is reducing the oxides in the casting pot. Seems the carbon I produced with the stick was trapped on the bottom and it was going to do it's thing even at the bottom of the pot even if it had nothing to bond to but the tin and antimony and lead around it at the bottom since all dross was removed in the smelt. Of course it would make it's way into the spout and cling to the rod seat too. Drip and plug and poke out with a #4 common finish nail held with some needle nose pliers. After dumping the lead in ingot molds and cleaning the rod, spout and pot I'd put the alloy back and do the same thing again. After breaking the crud apart I found it loaded with carbon. I saved the crud and on the next pot I put the crud on top and after it got heated up I used my spoon to mash the crud into the side of the pot. The crud went into solution and the carbon stayed on the surface. I spooned it into the dross can and looked at my reflection in the melt.

It was hard to give up the stick but 10 years later I haven't had to unplug the spout or get burns from splattered drips. I load the pot with the same weight of bullets I cast last time, melt, stir and scrape with the straight stainless cake icing spatula (the curve of the knife bottom edge matches the RCBS pot liner bottom curve just right) reduce my oxides with candle wax, mash the accumulated crud against the pot liner and spoon the carbon into the dross can. I turn the hot plate off cuz the mold has hit 375-400degF and cast for the next hour and a half with NO drips or plugged spout. PID tends to the alloy temp and I only need to adjust the flow rate as I cast. Watch the clock for casting pace and check the sprue cut to figure if I need to adjust my casting pace/time. Easy.

Maybe this will help. Maybe not. Stock pot parts and they work as they should. Only mod is the PID.