JSC Posted December 27, 2007 Report Share Posted December 27, 2007 I have searched and cannot find any one ever bring up maybe drilling the pour spout on a Lee Plastic Pour Pot. Before I tried it would like to know if anyone has tried it and if they had any success .. Would like to improve the pour for glitter and as well as the last plastisol left in the pot. It can really get slow at the end of a pot. JSC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bassman843 Posted December 27, 2007 Report Share Posted December 27, 2007 why would you need to I have two of them and pour everything just fine with it.if its clogging up its because you need a mixer in it to keep your salt and flake off of the bottom if your salt and flake sits on the bottom of your pot your plastic will burn easier not letting you to be able to turn up the heat and this will cause the plastic to clump up in the tip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
COBRA Posted December 27, 2007 Report Share Posted December 27, 2007 i know the exact problem you are talking about. the pots really do stink in terms of physics. heat rises and the coil is above the spout first of all. second is the amount the pintle valve actually opens when you move the rod up. here is how i modified mine: i took a piece of ceramic material and cut a whole on the bandsaw for the spout. its basically a circle with a hole cut to fit the spout through. it fits under the the main body and inside the sheet metal. what this does is when the coil heats the pot, the ceramic heats up as well and holds heat around the spout so the plastic doesnt lose heat through thermal transfer. the second thing i did was simply bend the handle to open the valve. the way they come from the factory isnt the largest opening. from a mchining standpoint, i dont see why you couldnt drill the pot. i would say you would have to clamp it in a vise on an angle and use a snug fit dowl to align the spout to the drill chuck. the next issue is to watch out for the weld on the inside of the pot, i havent really looked closely in years at one but it may not be a problem, i wouldnt over drill to much, a little would do it i am sure. the third issue would end up once drilled, you have to make sure the seat of the pintle still fits snugly, maybe have to turn a new one on the lathe. hope this sheds some light. the ceramic piece and the rod bending worked much better for me, i mainly use pyrex and the microwave. and yes, you have to keep stirring to keep materials from settling. cobra Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rxfish Posted December 27, 2007 Report Share Posted December 27, 2007 I have drilled these pots but more just to clean up the opening. There is a certain amount of buildup in the hole that slows things down and running a drill thru will clean that stuff off. Whatever I took off in metal would have to be measured with a micrometer or something. I have had all my pots apart and really didn't pay to much attention to how much metal in thickness makes up a spout. At times I have touble with the jumbo flake and another product called whiskers which is a long thin flake. Frequent stirring is the key. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSC Posted December 27, 2007 Author Report Share Posted December 27, 2007 Thanks Bassman .. I have tried various temp settings with out additives, a lot of stirring and have trouble with the flow especialy when you get a smaller amount in the pot and do not have the extra weight to force the flow. I have 2 pots and they both pour different .. mainly temp control problems. JSC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSC Posted December 27, 2007 Author Report Share Posted December 27, 2007 Thanks Cobra for the good instructions. I think that the bending of wire stop to allow the rod to open up more should help a lot as the rod is taking heat from the plastic and causing it to give you the faster cooling at the spout as well. I see I have my work cut out for me. The old Sta Warm Wax Droppers years ago spoiled me as you could drain the last drop out of them. JSC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSC Posted December 27, 2007 Author Report Share Posted December 27, 2007 Thanx RXfish I have been cleaning with small circular brush like a gun bore cleaner .. but being so small it has not been that good mostly "punching" the "Gook" out. I will be real careful if I drill it. JSC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
waterweasle Posted December 27, 2007 Report Share Posted December 27, 2007 I took flat alum bar stock and made a new handle and valve controler for my pot, I also drilled two matching holes( one on top and on on the bottom) for a threaded rod covered by a thin brass tube for the new handle and valve assemply to ride on, now it not only pours faster( since it opens the gate more) it also comes apart easier for cleaning purposes, I'll try and get some pics of it this weekend to show you exactly what I did Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSC Posted December 27, 2007 Author Report Share Posted December 27, 2007 Thanx Waterweasel Would appreciate some pix of what you did so that this old man can get a more exact how you did it. You guys are all a lot of help. JSC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSC Posted December 27, 2007 Author Report Share Posted December 27, 2007 Update. I drilled the pour hole just slightly. Bent the stop arm back a little and now it is working more like I expect it to. I did it on the pot that has given me the most problem on controling the heat . Now I will have to ream the pour hole on the other pot as I have all ready bent the stop arm back. I belive the bending of the stop arm helps as much as anything. Incidently I used some plastisol that was over 30 years old. I had some hidden away in a 5 gal pail .. a little less than a gallon ... with a lot of stirring and sweat I got it mixed. It is what we called a "Grub" mixture and had gotten it from Southern Plastic .. Really surprized to find that and a full 5 gal bucket as well. Fingers crosed as how it will all turn out. Thanks all for the help and will let you know of further developments. JSC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
COBRA Posted December 28, 2007 Report Share Posted December 28, 2007 best thing i do for mixing plastic, even off the subject but since you said it, is i made a small hole in the top of a 5 gallon and got a homedepot metal paint mixer. it always stays on the drill with the lid on the rod. this mixer is about 3 feet long and has a 6" round metal piece with a few blades on it. i pour my plastic into an empty 5 gal and use a paint scraper to get the thick stuff totally out. then i pour that into the plastic, press the top on, and drill the bucket with an up and down motion for a few minutes. it really mixes the plastic extremely well without the sweat! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSC Posted December 28, 2007 Author Report Share Posted December 28, 2007 Sounds great. I am in the process of getting everything back together again and setting up an electric mixer is one of them. Thanx JSC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
waterweasle Posted December 29, 2007 Report Share Posted December 29, 2007 hey JSC heres some pics I promised ya, the first and second ones basically just show the top/sideview and bottom sideview, and the 3rd pic shows more of a topview. in all three pics you see the brass tube that goes through a small hole drilled on the top and bottom side of the edges of the pot, NOT in the pot itself, in the tube is a threaded rod, that I can take out with just taking the nut off the bottom and the entire rod pulls out, in the third pic you see the threaded rod/brass tube assembly, then you see a small hex head screw to the right, that hex scrwe is the original mounting place of the handle, not its mounted solid and doesent have to be pulled apart to clean, as per the removal of the threaded rod as I sated earlier hope this all makes sense, let me know, it sure pours faster than the original opening that was there cause I was able to raise the rod higher in the hole Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSC Posted December 29, 2007 Author Report Share Posted December 29, 2007 Thanks Waterweasel, Give me a little while to get my mind wrapped around it. Is that the large Lee Pot?? all I have are 2 of the small ones. Man if you could make up a kit to modify with would be great ... figure how much it would be. Mean time I am going to study this some more. Again Thanks A Lot JSC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
waterweasle Posted December 30, 2007 Report Share Posted December 30, 2007 yeah its the large pot, cost, more in time cutting the pieces than anything, prolly less than 10 bucks for the bar stock, threaded rod, brass tube and nuts. its just a matter of making the control arm a little longer to allow for the gate to be opened more when its lifted. dunno about the small pots though Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSC Posted December 30, 2007 Author Report Share Posted December 30, 2007 I printed out the Pixes and information and will give them a good going over and see if I can figure out how it might be done on a small pot. Looks really good and am sure it works great. Thanx JSC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
