Ditto. Melting your lead down in a different pot and making "ingots" for your bottom pour pot helps keep the impurities out of the ingots hence out of your bottom pour pot. Another poster mentioned the bottom pour pot pours better more full than empty which is true. Plus I never pour all of the lead out of my Lee pot because dirt floats in melted lead and if you run the lead low that puts any dirt closer to the the spout. When I pour it down to about 1/3 full I add more ingots. Finally, even using the ingot trick every time I fire up the Lee some dirt will float on top and I scim it off and put it into an aluminum can that I cut the top off. I have had to clear out my spout with a spinner bait wire before but if you keep the dirt away from the spout you rarely have to do it.

kc