Lyman Mag20?

[odinohi]

I bought a factory refurbished Mag20 from Lyman a couple of months ago. Today is the first chance I've had to try it out. The thing had some little specks of lead in the hopper and some hard lead pouring needle. I cleaned all that crap off. Put some ingots in and plugged in and turned on to a low setting. The light didnt come on. I had to turn it up all the way to get the light to come on. Tried to turn the dail down a few minutes later and no light. I turned it back up all the way and NO light! I turned it to the off position and unplugged it and came in here to get some advice from you guys that have operated on of these things. Is this how this thing is supposed to run? Do you have to have it turned up all the way until things are melted? I need some advice please. Thank you, Tom

[Calamity Jake]

The light should come on when you turn the dial and stay on until the lead has reached the temp you have set on the dial then go off, when the lead cooles a little and the thermastat
cycles on the light should come back on.
Anytime the unit is heating, the light should be on.

Sounds like it need a trip back to Lyman

[plumber]

Oh no!!! I just ordered one of those today. I'm taking it that you got a return that they didn't bother cleaning and make sure it works? I hope I have better luck, but I feel I should know better because Lyman's QC has been beyond lacking. I had 4 molds that had to get sent back twice! I had quite a battle over paying the shipping the second time. But, I couldn't turn down the $200 for a pot to upgrade my 10 lb lee, and a RCBS is not in the budget right now.

[anachronism]

What has probably happened is that whoever reassembled the pot last managed to get the probe for the thermostat too close to the heating element. If this happens, the pot will shut off as soon as the pot starts to heat. They're not difficult to figure out, you can remover the side screws & the knob & take a look inside if you're so inclined. It may just require a minor tweak. If you do this, make certain you get all the insulation back where it belongs.

[plumber]

How long did it take to receive the pot after you ordered it?

[Dennis Eugene]

I got a brand new one from my wife for Christmas and noted that it had remnants of lead in the pot. I thought "What the hell" then read where they melt lead in them to make sure they work before sending them out, had good luck with mine other than a drip that I hope to fix next time I drain it with valve grinding compound. Dennis

[odinohi]

How long did it take to receive the pot after you ordered it?
It took about 10 days to arrive at my door.

[plumber]

Well I got mine 10 days on the money.
Does anyone have any ideas on what and if the numbers on the dial relate to in temp?

[plumber]

How long does it take your pots to melt? Acording to lyman, these are supposed to heat up in 20 minutes.
I've had my pot on 10 for 40 minutes now and it's just about there. Is this normal? My old lee heats up quicker.

[GOPHER SLAYER]

When I retired in in 1993 I broke down and bought a Lyman Mag 20. Before I had a chance to use it, wouldn't you know I found a used Saeco at the big gun show in Pomona for 35 bucks, complete with ingot mold and dipper. I did plug in the Lyman briefly just to make sure it would work. The Mag 20 has been on the shelf as a spare ever since, just in case. The Saeco has only had one minor problem and I was able to repair it myself.

[20nickels]

How long does it take your pots to melt? Acording to lyman, these are supposed to heat up in 20 minutes.
I've had my pot on 10 for 40 minutes now and it's just about there. Is this normal? My old lee heats up quicker.

15 min. last I melted. About 80 degrees outside.

[plumber]

Great!! More outstanding QC from Lyman!!
Looks like I'm going to be out of a pot a few months, while Lyman looks it over.

[plumber]

Ok, I've had a few days to experiment. Just for control purposes, my casting area was kept at 65 degrees. I am using pure lead.

The lead will not melt unless I have the dial between 7 and 8.
Putting the dial at 9 it takes 35 minutes to get the lead to 630.

This does not seem normal, and my old lee heated up quicker.
I don't want to send this back to Lyman, they have had 4 of my molds for five month.

Is there anything I can do or look for myself?

[20nickels]

If it's hot enough to cast with at that point then I would just go with it. You could heat it from the top with a torch. I bought the Lyman because it had the highest wattage per $$ of them but I just ordered a Lee 10lb to piggyback on top of it because the .45 six holer drains it too fast and it can't keep up.

[odinohi]

3 weeks from the day I shipped it to them until I got it back. In the same crate that I built to protect it during shipment. They didnt reimburse me my shipping, but I will make a call to them to straighten that out. All in all, I'm pleased with thier support. Tom

[Bret4207]

Ok, I've had a few days to experiment. Just for control purposes, my casting area was kept at 65 degrees. I am using pure lead.

The lead will not melt unless I have the dial between 7 and 8.
Putting the dial at 9 it takes 35 minutes to get the lead to 630.

This does not seem normal, and my old lee heated up quicker.
I don't want to send this back to Lyman, they have had 4 of my molds for five month.

Is there anything I can do or look for myself?

I have a hot plate that will melt 30+ lbs lead in 20 minutes and take it upwards of 900 degrees. There's a problem with yours.

[walker77]

Ive had nothing but trouble with lyman. Especially with my mag 20. The heating element broke on it. The refused to sell me a new heating element. I said why, lee sells replacements for 10 bucks. Well we dont do it that way. Ok, how much will it cost to fix it? We cant give that information over the phone till we take a look at it. YOUVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!!!! You want me to ship this thing back to you which will probably run me 30 bucks. Then you look at it and tell me, yup its a broken heating element then gotta pay some idiot untold amount of money for labor and parts then probably 30 bucks to have it shipped back. What a rip off! So i told them what they can do with that idea. So i fixed it myself and works better than it did when it left their factory. Now im in a process of returning a new mold i bought last week that is dropping .002 under sized. Im going to start going to rcbs only. I have never had a single problem with their customer service.