Lyman mag25 arrived today

[LynC2]

Many excellent points have been put forward and I agree there are some problem areas that could develop. The fan I am installing is a stand alone 120V that will be plugged into an external power source. I never leave my casting pot alone until it has cooled off enough to solidify anyway and the external fan should accelerate the cool down also. I can also think of a lot of things that they could have done better; however it does seem to be a good pot at the price point. We will all just have to wait and see how it turns out. Maybe good or maybe not! If worse comes to worse I can re-do the whole thing; electronics and mechanical devices don't faze me in the least after working on them for decades.

[skeettx]

[Beagle333]

Well, congrats on your new pot anyway. I'll be watching to see how it works out. It looks pretty nice and neat. I see another pot of some sort in my future sometime next year..... mebbe one of these?
Happy Casting!

[dragon813gt]

It it was a Mag40 I would buy one and rewire it to make it simple. It's not like you get any warranty support from Lyman. And I want a larger pot.

[dikman]

This gets more and more intriguing . You're right about the white block, when I looked really close it looks like a heatsink (wonder what it's heatsinking?). The transformer looks like it gets its power from the PC board, so mains power must be running along a couple of copper tracks, from one end to the other. The black block on the right looks like a relay? Considering it's next to the incoming mains, and the feed to the pot disappears from the back of the block, it makes sense that it does run a relay, rather than an SSR. Nor do I see an on/off switch? The IC on the board could be a timer, but then how do you tell it to switch off the power to the pot but keep the fan running? If it's not a timer, I wonder what it does?

Construction-wise, it doesn't look too bad, and at least they used screws instead of bloody pop rivets!!!

Lyn, does the operators manual (?) give any help on how it operates?

A couple of hours later, and I just had a thought (!) - it would be nice to have some sort of thermometer in that cavity with the electronics, that would tell us once and for all if there's likely to be a heat problem.

[BigDanS]

Congrats on the new pot. One question you have not answered, how did it pour and perform? Have you cast anything and how did they come out? Did you use the mould pre heater? Were your bullets filled out well? Any production issues?

I own nothing yet. I just bought a smelting setup and now I need a pot and moulds... This is on the top of my list.

D

[LynC2]

This gets more and more intriguing . You're right about the white block, when I looked really close it looks like a heatsink (wonder what it's heatsinking?). The transformer looks like it gets its power from the PC board, so mains power must be running along a couple of copper tracks, from one end to the other. The black block on the right looks like a relay? Considering it's next to the incoming mains, and the feed to the pot disappears from the back of the block, it makes sense that it does run a relay, rather than an SSR. Nor do I see an on/off switch? The IC on the board could be a timer, but then how do you tell it to switch off the power to the pot but keep the fan running? If it's not a timer, I wonder what it does?
Construction-wise, it doesn't look too bad, and at least they used screws instead of bloody pop rivets!!!
Lyn, does the operators manual (?) give any help on how it operates?

A couple of hours later, and I just had a thought (!) - it would be nice to have some sort of thermometer in that cavity with the electronics, that would tell us once and for all if there's likely to be a heat problem.

1) Yes, the white block is a heat sink. It looks like a chip attached to the bottom, but I didn't remove the board to check it out.
2) The black box on the right is a fuse box.
3) No on/off switch. Plug it in for power or unplug it.
4) Operators manual, yes there is one if one wishes to call it that. Just bare operating essentials, no schematic.
It does utilize a 110V, 250mA transformer for the fan and ? Without pulling the board and checking it, I can't say how they have it laid out. Personally I would have just used a 110V fan, a SSR with the PID and forgot about the transformer, board and all of the other Cr*p. Well, a good example of Chinese engineering I guess.
5) I haven't used it for casting yet, but will report on it's performance in the future. I only ran up the temp to the desired point and ran a bit through the nozzle to check for flow and shut off which was fine.
6) I will also stick one of my AC thermometers inside the cabinet to monitor the temps run during normal operation.
7) Unless there are some major issues, at this time I am happy with my purchase at this price point. I'll give more feedback in a few days, meanwhile I have a cast bullet match to shoot tomorrow with Nobade (if the weather permits), a barrel to chamber and crown, a stock to bed and Christmas decorations to put up (or I might be sleeping with the dogs! ).

[dikman]

That means it must be using a relay inside the PID to switch the mains feed to the pot. From a manufacturing point-of-view it makes sense as it keeps parts to a minimum. Probably not the best from a longevity viewpoint, but then they wouldn't care about that as long as it outlasts the warranty period. I must admit I'm at a complete loss to understand why it has a PC board with a couple of IC's and a transistor on it (although the device with the heatsink could be a 12v regulator for the fan, I guess).

On the bright side, you've got a nice looking unit, and if the little PC board and its electronics decide to go belly up it would be pretty easy to rip it out and rewire it to a more conventional configuration, like you said. And it would cost very little to do that.

[sw282]

l saw this review on the Midway site,,

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/267...rnace-115-volt


not good.. not good

[LynC2]

l saw this review on the Midway site,,

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/267...rnace-115-volt



not good.. not good

His only complaint was the mold guide wouldn't accommodate some molds, just like I reported in my first post. A minor annoyance to be sure, but not difficult to fix. Yes it would have been better if the guide width were adjustable (it does adjust for vertical and angle) and I would have preferred a different PID relay setup along with a 110V fan. Given enough time and numbers in the field we should have a better idea of its performance and longevity.

[Beagle333]

'Still lookin' good... I don't own any 6-cav Lee's or 4 cav Saeco's.

[georgerkahn]

I'm happy for you to have gotten this tool! I had one on order/back-order for way too long at Buffalo Arms (best price!) until I got tired of waiting, and cancelled the order. (Bought an RCBS Pro-melt in its place (also from Buffalo)). I wish you the best with it; and, share with others my hopes you will post several "reviews" down the road as you use it. From the photos posted here above, it sure appears to be a good looking pot!
BEST!
georgerkahn

[dragon813gt]

l saw this review on the Midway site,,

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/267...rnace-115-volt


not good.. not good

While I agree that they should not advertise it as Universal if it's not adjustable in some fashion. His overall complaint that he has to ship it back is weak. He can't make a mold guide? I attempted to use the one on the Lee 4-20 once. When it didn't work w/ Cramer molds I didn't write a review and complain I had to ship it back. I cut pieces of plywood to make a fully supported ramp for the molds to sit on. Took longer to set the saw up then it did to cut the pieces. The advertisement of universal is wrong but make it work.

[Love Life]

While I agree that they should not advertise it as Universal if it's not adjustable in some fashion. His overall complaint that he has to ship it back is weak. He can't make a mold guide? I attempted to use the one on the Lee 4-20 once. When it didn't work w/ Cramer molds I didn't write a review and complain I had to ship it back. I cut pieces of plywood to make a fully supported ramp for the molds to sit on. Took longer to set the saw up then it did to cut the pieces. The advertisement of universal is wrong but make it work.

The world is awash with people of low intelligence.

[Digger]

The world is awash with people of low intelligence.

Yeah .... and the scary part is they are voting .
Sorry ... impulsive . . nothing to do with this thread...

[Fishman]

It appears to be the same mould guide that is on my older Lyman pot. I just move it out of the way but it could be modded pretty easy if one wanted to use it.

[GLL]

The poor mold guide is a non-issue since most mold guides do not work especially well ! I would guess we all modify the guides to fit our own needs anyway.

I look forward to hearing from LynC2 about casting operation and how the PID behaves!

Jerry

[dikman]

Yeah, I agree about that review. If that's all he's got to complain about......

[LynC2]

OK, a little update on the pots performance. I dropped another 10 lbs. of COWW in the pot (20 total), fired it up and set the temp for 710 F. I used my Ideal 311466 4 cavity mold as the test guinea pig. I ran through about 10 or 11 lbs of lead before I decided to shut it down. It was on for over an hour before I quit casting and it maintained +_3 degrees throughout the casting session. The exhaust temp out of the fan never ran over 80 F during the entire operation as verified by a thermometer. When I shut it down I inserted the thermometer into the electronics chamber through the fan and the temp ran up to 122 F before dropping after about 20 minutes when the lead started to solidify. This was done with an ambient of 60 F in the garage I was in for casting. No doubt in the summer time it would run higher.
The shut off valve worked well with no drips except for an occasional drop from the spout that was left hanging after I shut it off.
The guide worked well with the Lyman 4 cavity and my only complaint was about adjusting the guide stop. I had to use a pair of long nose vise grip type pliers to get enough leverage on it to get it tightened. Torx or allen head screws would have been easier to torque it down.
Overall I am still happy with it, but only time will tell.

[Beagle333]

So the fan doesn't keep running after the pot is turned off. Perhaps they insulated the wall between the pot and the electronics? Great report!!!