I thought I would post on lead pot cleaning I have a bottom pour RCBS pro melt furnace. Lead is a dirty substance it holds grit and fine dust as you cast it sticks to the sides orifice and plunger it is good to disassemble it and use a wire brush and take off the crud use a wire or a torch tip cleaner to clean out the orifice I heat it with a peizo spark torch w/ 1 # propane bottles to loosen the grimes grip. 1 pound bottles are more stable than the slender bottles and if you know what your doing you can refill them with a 10 pound bottle. Safety first a fan to blow vapor away a hat, gloves and safety glasses, long sleeve shirt and pants pants, legs over boots no flip flops bare skin or liquid on the level of your casting station if your going to use water to cool do so under the bench so any splatter will not reach the pot one drop of sweat or water and the steam will evacuate the lead in a spray and you will look like the tin man and it won't feel good. Some of the tools I use are channel lock pliers to load lead ingots or pucks. a pair of electricians pliers to cut long wheel weights and grab the ingot mold when hot. wire brushes small stainless steel and a wire welding brush both are marked lead only. dental picks for odd jobs on the casting bench. Mold pliers for buckshot sprue cutting wood curtain rod for a mold mallet cotton rags for dropping freshly cast bullets or shot. chunk of pine knot to smoke my molds Brownell's Marvelux casting flux I like it better than anything else no smoke or smell. I use cupcake pans large for pure lead small for pistol alloy the lyman marked ingot mold for Linotype it is my way of identifying the different alloys I use or have. i have migrated most of my molds to Lee micro band grooved and I use Alox or generic Xlox bullet lube takes less to lube with and very little waste over wax lubes and using the Lee bullet sizer it is easy cheaper and fast over the luber sizers w/ top and bottom punch of the past. and you can gas check the bullets at the same time if you choose.
