LYMAN MAG 25 DIGITAL 115V CASTING FURNACE

Bought a Mag 25 pot in November, 2025. Have cast with it twice now. Here's the good, bad and ugly of it all.

Good - the PID temperature controller is excellent at controlling the pot temperature, usually +/- 2 degrees F unless adding more cold alloy chunks to the pot.

Bad - The pot and stand are poorly designed for general use, because the stand is too low and too narrow for all uses. The built in stand for the unit is so narrow, that a common muffin tray that is 2 cavities wide will not fit under the pour spout to empty pot. The stand is so low and the spout hidden under the front of unit, that the pot has to be placed on a work bench at mid chest level to see the pour spout. I will not cast sitting down, which it seems designed for user to do.

Not enough room on factory mold guide for NEI, NOE or Accurate molds. No bottom clearance for hollow point or hollow base molds with big pins in the bottom. Existing mold "support bolts" make it impossible to obtain enough room for removable pin molds.

Ugly - The pot has NO shutoff switch or power-on light, and no cooling cycle to keep the electronics protected if a user just "pulls the plug" on the pot when stopping casting. Several users report burning out the controller when they did. If you want to use this without worry, then you should do these steps in this order during shutdown.
1 - Drain pot of alloy.
2 - Set temp control to 100 F or lower.
3 - Leave power on pot and controller and controller fan until the pot cools to touch.
4 - Then you can pull the power cord without worrying you will burn the electronics.

Warning - Disassembly of the main melting section of the pot should not be attempted unless you are ready for a couple of hours of tedious work. Pot and pour spout mounting screws have non-captive nuts on them that drop loose and do not easily re-install.

This furnace is replacing a Lyman electric lead pot that I have been using since 1985.I have not cast any bullets with it yet. But I did use it to make 50# of wheel weights into #2 alloy. This furnace make that job fast and easy. It will melt 20# of W/W in 10 min., and it will maintain set temp. when slowly adding alloy metals. If it lasts as long as my first one did I am sure my grandsons will be using it one day.

I've cast bullets for many years and this furnace is great, far and above others I've used. The mold guide from NOE makes the unit complete. Graf has the best furnace price point as well...thanks!

This is replacing a 40 year old unit, I've only used it once but so far seems to be working flawlessly. the mold guide is a huge plus and eliminates spillage. Thermostat is very consistent and the flow control valve is perfect, ran about 15 pounds the first casting session and not a single drip!

I like this furnace. It heats up faster then the one it's replacing and keeps an even temp when you're pouring. The digital read out is great. The only thing I can say negative about this furnace is that the mold guide is only for Lyman size molds. But hey, it is a Lyman. That is also easy to fix by simply laying a larger channel shaped piece of metal over the factory guide and then using any size mold on it that you want. The mold guide adjusts to any height you may want to use for any brand mold made for bullets. I am completely happy with it.

The caster works great. My only complaint is the holder for the molds. It really only works well with Lyman molds. Do yourself a favor, when you buy this caster, go ahead and get the mold holder from NOE. It will save you allot of time. I really think that if you sell at product at this price point, it should come with a mold holder that would work for most molds.