[Mike / Tx]

I'm using the Lee drip o matic myself. What I have found to work is to keep the alloy as clean as possible going into it, and also to give it a cleaning about every 6 or so sessions.

I use sawdust to flux at least two and usually three times depending on how much I am smelting in one batch in my big cast iron or smaller SS smelting pots.

I do not do any smelting in my Lee pot, learned that years ago. Sure does put a crimp on things to have it plug up with only about 1/2" of it gone and the rest full.

Once I have my ingots made up, I will then use the paraffin to flux the melted alloy once again in my Lee pot when I begin casting. This is simply more or less to give everything another good stir once up to temp, and get what ever might be trapped in on the sides of the pot up to the top where it belongs.

If I have to add in alloy other than cut sprues I will flux with a green pea sized chunk or so of paraffin once again, just to blend things together well.

Other than that, when I clean the pot, I bring it up to melt any remaining alloy, and using gloves, pick it up and pour that out into a pan. Once empty I cut the power and while it's hot I use one of the wooden handled SS brushes, that look like a tooth brush, to scrub the sides and all down really well. I usually do this with a fan blowing the dust away from me as well. Once I get the insides clean and the thing has cooled down, I pull the valve stem out and polish up the tip as well as the seat in the bottom of the pot using steel wool on the stem and seat. For the seat I just wrap a bit around the tip of a pencil so that it fits a bit better in the top of the hole.

For the hole I root around and find a drill that will just fit into it, and use it like a cleaning rod back and forth to remove anything stuck to the sides.

Once everything is cleaned up I put the stem back in place and heat up some alloy. Once it starts getting up to temp it will usually drip. I just take a small flat blade and holding pressure on it give it a few twist to mate the two again, and it's good.

One thing I DID do with the stem and seat years ago was to lap them together using Clover valve lapping compound. I used the fine grit, and just kept adding a little and turning, just like you would lap in a valve seat. Once I got them all polished up and fitting, most if not all the drips halted. I can usually tell when it's time to clean when it starts to drip.

Anyway hope this helps. I know a lot of folks throw rocks at the bottom pours, but I have a good relationship with mine. I have set up different thicknesses of square tubing and flat bar to give me the perfect height from spigot to mold on all I use. All it takes is simply sliding them in flat and raising the handle.