After years of reliable use, one day my Lee's pot finally gave me fits. I tried everything & nothing worked. Finally read to drill out the hole on a board - MISTAKE!
Bought a new Lee's pouring pot for sale and then read on some board that I can buy a new insert pot for Lees pourer for $8 from Lees. Did that, now I have two workable pour-able Lee's pots and one other that I'll explain below. On the old pourer with the new pot, I had to polish the plunger to get the pot to stop dripping. Still have one mold that gives me fits with incomplete pours (Hilts SLIDER), but a ladle does the job.
I use wheel weights for one reason - they were free - but a nasty dirty job melting down wheel weights. Another guy left his lee's pot outside and it rusted. He gave it to me. The heating element still worked, so I took the pouring mechanism off, and hit the inside with a brass wheel & cleaned it up. Then heated a batch of lead and the pour spout was rusted solid. I use the pot now only to 'clean' wheel weights. For safety, incase the pour spout decides to open back up, I always clean lead in an old cookie tray. Remove all the non-lead wheel weights (scratch with a nail, easy to find only the lead ones) then heat them up and pour into a muffin tin (note: very dangerous) carefully with welding gloves. I really should use a ladle, but it's easier to pour right from the pot if I take my time and go slowly. Then use the lead muffins in oneof the good lead pot, flux, clean off anything that floats to the surface & pour.
If I did this as a buiz, I'd get the RCBS pot, but since this is only a hobby, Lee's works well enough for me. Also, probably would buy clean lead if I poured allot.