Lyman bottom pour satisfaction?

[Jim Flinchbaugh]

I'm heavily considering the new Lyman Mag 25 pot with the built in PID control.
Overall, are folks satisfied with the Lyman pots as far as dripping, life expectancy etc?
I recently acquired an old Lee 10 pounder, with the angled valve rod, what a piece of feces that
thing is. I never know which way the stream is gonna squirt when I open the valve.

Thoughts on the new Lyman from a previous Lyman pot experience?

[Iowa Fox]

This is not meant as a negative toward the Lyman company as a whole. From my experience their product support on pots leaves a lot to be desired.

[Case Stuffer]

I have no idea what the Lyman cost but consider a RCBS Pro Melt. Mine is well over 30 years old thus newer ones may or may not be of same quality but zero issues with mine and many other post here sya they are extremly pleased with theirs'.

[Doc Highwall]

For the cost I would buy a LEE Pro-4 and a PID control from Frozone for less money. You could even buy a second LEE and have two different alloys in each pot, just buy another thermocouple for the second pot.

[cbrick]

There are several of us here waiting to hear some reports on the new Lyman pot. It should be getting close to coming out by now. If ya don't want to wait there is no way to go wrong with the RCBS pot, it won't come with the PID but one could be added. I think it is Frozone here that sells the PID's.

Though a Magma is my main pot now my RCBS has been running strong since the early 80's and never missed a beat. I can't speak of Lyman customer service, I've never needed it so don't know.

Rick

Edit to add: I do have an old Lyman 20 pound pot, I loaned it to a friend 6-7 years ago to get him casting and haven't seen it since but it is still limping along. That pot was probably made in the 70's.

[LWSTARKS]

Excuse my ignorance, Lyman 45, is that a 45 lb pot? Or is it just a model number? A 45lb pot sounds like a good idea.

[cbrick]

Actually it's Lyman Mag 25.

Lyman Casting (http://www.lymanproducts.com/lyman/bullet-casting/casting-furnaces.php)

Rick

[Calamity Jake]

I have 2 of the older Mag 20's (80's) both have been back for service, one just this past Dec. and I aquired it used 20+
yeare ago, so I've been very satisifed with mine.
Don't know about the new ones.

[Jim Flinchbaugh]

Excuse my ignorance, Lyman 45, is that a 45 lb pot? Or is it just a model number? A 45lb pot sounds like a good idea.

Miss type on my part it is a Mag 25, not 45

I found the Mag 25 for 220.00 + shipping, when they come available. I have no experience with bottom pours except for the old Lee I've been playing with.
At that price it's half of the RCBS and in my range while the RCBS is not. I do have a friend with the RCBS and he loves his.
Maybe I'll win the lottery :)

[JRLesan]

As far as the Lee pot squirting out every which way: that is caused by trash in the nozzle rather than a defect in the valving arrangement. I had the same trouble with my Lee pot back in the '80's when I was new to casting and long before information readily available via the internet. Devised several ways to overcome dripping and squirting out the side but finally went to ladle casting. Ran across that old Lee pot a month or so ago and sold it on flea bay for (probably) more than I originally paid.

[Doc Highwall]

The biggest mistake with any bottom pour pot is smelting raw lead in it. Having a separate pot/Dutch oven to smelt your raw lead in and fluxing a lot to get as much crud out will go a long way to keep your bottom pour pot working trouble free.

I smelt in a 14 Qt. Dutch oven and make 20 lb. ingots, then alloy in the 14 Qt. or 8 Qt. Dutch oven depending how much alloy I want to make and again flux the heck out of it. Now I pour it into 2, 2-1/2 Lb. ingots that fit into my LEE pot.

I am going to make a small modification to my LEE pot by adding a small weight on top of the threaded stopper rod that will allow me to give it a quick twist in case it starts to leak.

[PbHurler]

I'm still using my original Mag 20, '80's vintage (round pot like a Saeco). Run countless pounds through it & the only real drip problems I've had was from admittedly dirty WW's while smelting them down when I was just starting out.

Funny thing, I did buy a new Mag 20 from Graff's a few years ago, at what I thought was a great price, "just in case".

I didn't want to run the chance of being down and looking for a new pot. I may just have to unbox it & dirty it up someday, but my original still goes strong...28 years, go figure!

The new Lyman does have my interest as well.