curtisb Posted January 31, 2012 Report Share Posted January 31, 2012 Need a new one. Was reading the fine print in Doit catalouge last night it read that the Lee produdtion IV pot 10lb capacity was good for smaller jigs under a 1/2 oz. I will be pouring at least up to 3/4 oz on some football jigs. Also some spinner and buzz baits which I would have to use a ladle I think. Is this pot enough for what I am wanting to do? If not some recomemdations please. I had my mind made up until I read this. As alway thanks to the experts that always are so willing to lead us rookies down the right path. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cadman Posted January 31, 2012 Report Share Posted January 31, 2012 Curtis, I pour baits up to 1-1/2 oz with my Lee IV bottom pour pot with no problem. I have been doing this going on 8 years and it has served me well. I have 3 Lee iV's. So in my opinion it would be a good choice. As far as pouring spinnerbaits and buzz baits I am also able to use this pot as well. On the spinnerbaits and buzz baits it's a little bit more clumsy with the wire sticking out but once you figure out on how to hold it you will get good pours. One thing I will advise you to get is a small 1 oz ladle. It is about $4.00 and has a wooden handle . This will come in very handy on those days when things just don't want to pour with the pot. Just heat up your pot as normal and put your ladle in the top and pour with your ladle. Finally get yourself some mold release and you will be all set. This is a good starting point in my opinion on getting good pours. The rest is practice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jig Man Posted January 31, 2012 Report Share Posted January 31, 2012 That is also the pot I have. Mine has been used for so many years that the inside got so bad I couldn't use it. For a few bucks I bought replacement parts and fixed it up just like new. That was 7 years ago and it is still going strong. I pour from 1/16 to 1 oz jigs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EironBreaker Posted January 31, 2012 Report Share Posted January 31, 2012 I might be the only crazy one around here but I just don't like a bottom pour. I have one and grew tired of fighting it. Keeping the tip cleaned out is what drove me crazy. I learned to pour with a small hot pot with coils in it and still do to this day. I pour some monster jigs up to 1 1/2 oz from time to time. Works just fine. Spinnerbaits or buzzbaits, not problem. I just use the big pot to clean my lead and pour into bricks if I know I'm going to pour a bunch at once. I have to add lead more often to the small pot but it works for me. I like being able to see what I'm doing and be able to change the pour speed or angle of pour into a mold depending on what works best. Like Cadman has said many times, each mold has it's own personality. But if it works for you, run with it. Just my preference. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smalljaw Posted January 31, 2012 Report Share Posted January 31, 2012 Curtis, I pour baits up to 1-1/2 oz with my Lee IV bottom pour pot with no problem. I have been doing this going on 8 years and it has served me well. I have 3 Lee iV's. So in my opinion it would be a good choice. As far as pouring spinnerbaits and buzz baits I am also able to use this pot as well. On the spinnerbaits and buzz baits it's a little bit more clumsy with the wire sticking out but once you figure out on how to hold it you will get good pours. One thing I will advise you to get is a small 1 oz ladle. It is about $4.00 and has a wooden handle . This will come in very handy on those days when things just don't want to pour with the pot. Just heat up your pot as normal and put your ladle in the top and pour with your ladle. Finally get yourself some mold release and you will be all set. This is a good starting point in my opinion on getting good pours. The rest is practice. I had a hot pot 2 for ladle pouring and then got a lee precision melter for ladle work, it was only 4lbs of lead but I had sticks of plumbers lead that were 2 lbs each. When the pot was down to half I just put the lead stick in and a minute later I was scooping off the slag and still pouring. I have a lee bottom pour but as cadman said, sometimes you come across a mold that just works well with the ladle, for me it is my ultra minnow spinnerbait mold, I can "dump" the lead in the cavity faster than I can pour with the bottom pour pot and I've done it enough that when I'm making spinnerbaits I just use the ladle. So if you're doing jigs up to 3/4oz I'd say get the bottom pour but as cadman said, get a small ladle and you can use that for stuff the bottom pour isn't working for. If I had got a bottom pour right from the start I would have never got the precision melter as you can ladle pour out of the bottom pour but I've come to like the little prcision melter as it is very open and easy to work from. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cadman Posted January 31, 2012 Report Share Posted January 31, 2012 "sometimes you come across a mold that just works well with the ladle, for me it is my ultra minnow spinnerbait mold, I can "dump" the lead in the cavity faster than I can pour with the bottom pour pot and I've done it enough that when I'm making spinnerbaits I just use the ladle." X2 on that comment Smalljaw. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
