Bottling Bucket Leaks

Out the spigot...

The hole that you tighten the spigot had a few blimishes, and the washers are having a hard time keeping a good seal. It wasn't a major one, but by the time I bottled 50 beers, it had made a pretty big mess. Anyone have any easy solutions other than buying a new one. It was brand new.....

Use the bottling bucket to store your gear in, and use your siphon and bottling wand to bottle from a fermentation bucket/carboy.

I'm one of the few who could never get my bottling buckets to stop leaking.

I used an exacto knife to clean the burrs of the mounting hole. Also,don't tighten the spigot down too much. It'll squeeze the seals out from under the sealing surface on the spigot & leak. You have to get a feel for how much to snug it down to prevent leaks.
I also went to Petsmart & got a 3-piece set of aquarium lift tube brushes. They're great for cleaning short tubing,bottling wands,& spigots on the inside. I use'em with a little PBW soak in a coffee mug or other like sized vessel to clean them. Then rise,dunk in starsan,& re-install.

Are you putting the o-ring on the inside of the bucket?

I used to do that and it always leaked. I haven't lost a drop since I switched to the outside. This seems to be what Northern Brewer is recommending here:
http://www.northernbrewer.com/documentation/BeerBasic.pdf

Yeah,if you got one seal with your spigot,it works best on the outside. But you still have to get a feel for how snug to tighten it so it won't leak from under/over-tightening.

If you don't want to go the route of the siphon/bottling wand combo (works great as others mentioned), you could always use standard silicone to seal around the rubber seals that came on the bottling bucket. Just make sure you sanitize really well before each bottling (should go without saying even with properly functioning gear).

I never liked the idea of the solvents in the silicone from maybe leaching into the beer. I just make sure the spigot/seal is snugged down properly so no leaks. As I said,it's an aquired feel. Not hard to learn. You can practice with water or starsan.

Mine has two seals and I need to tighten it just hand tight. Any more and it'll drip.