Lyman Mag 25 mold guide

[AbitNutz]

I just received my new Lyman Mag 25...a couple of things:

It's definitely cool. The 20+ year old RCBS Pro-Melt I have has a stainless steel pot. Am I going to miss that? I'm not sure what this one is made of. It has some sort of black finish. Looking at the Mag 25 and comparing its features, it's hard to understand how the Pro-Melt can sell for over a $150.00 more. Perhaps time will reveal why but not at first look over.

As has been written in this forum, the mold guide is too narrow for most of my molds. It's such a nice mold guide too.

Has anyone decided to make a mold guide to fix this? Can I pay one of you metal educated machinist type folks to either modify this one or make a cool to cooler, new one?

I'm not sure that this one can be modified to work well. It may be too thin to thin out more. Maybe just cutting one edge off? Not sure I'm safe around aluminum with a sabre saw.

Any ideas or fixes will be happily entertained.

[zomby woof]

I had the guide on mine machined out so my LEE six cavity would fit. IIRC the LEE was 1.510" wide. I had the guide rails machined to 1.540"

[AbitNutz]

I have so many different brands and ages of molds that I really should measure for the widest and see if that will work.

What I would really like is to have an adjustable fence...or I guess it would be two adjustable fences so the mold could be centered. I'm probably over thinking this but this mold guide, unlike most others, looks like it may be an asset and not an after thought.

[wv109323]

I took the mold guide channel off the adjustable base and turned it over with the flat side up.I had to drill to accept a countersink screw and a pop river as I recall. It was not a major job and has worked well for 5+ years. The flat surface will accept any mold. I have a couple of H&G 6 cavities that are real wide.
I assume that you could make a piece of metal/aluminum and fill the U-channel(with the channel top side) till it is flat on top and accomplish the same thing.
I adjust the height so there is little distance between the spout and mold. Alignment is no problem.

[AbitNutz]

Now that's a good idea. I just wish Lyman had been a bit more forward thinking about it. I mean, the mold guide they made is really nice. It's a pity to have to modify it for something that could have been worked out in design so easily. Makes me wonder what they did, pick up the closest Lyman 2 cavity mold and send it along to China?

[Lloyd Smale]

what works real good for me is an upside down bread pan. I shim it up to the height I want and like it better then the mold guides. As a matter of fact I took them off my rcbs pots.

[wv109323]

My thoughts are Lyman made the channel to fit their molds. This may cause more Lyman molds to be sold for the non-thinkers.
A fixed rest can be used but I like to get the mold close to the spout so the lead will not cool before getting in the mold. A shimmed rest would work but the adjustments are not a hassle to me. There is a lot of difference between a H&G mold versus a Lee in height.

[AbitNutz]

The mold guide table and guide are many ways adjustable. I don't see height being an issue. The mold guide itself pivots to right to left and the table it sits on can be raised, lowered or angled forward to back. The only adjustment they don't have is for the with of the darn mold.

I just spent an hour or with a couple of high end files attacking the mold guide aluminum walls. I've thinned it down enough to fit the NOE molds I have. I'm not comfortable making it any thinner. Now all I have to do is dress it up a little and make it pretty. It was a fair mount of material to remove with a hand file but you work with what you got.