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[Nas92]

So, I know where is the Magma Sea, the only big problem is discovering it. I tried digging thorough the warm stone which resulted in a magma flood and me using CTRL-Alt-Del to quit without having to save or abandon. I've tried using Up/Down stairways, but DF shows that the tile below is stone not magma. So, how to reveal the Magma Sea, and most importanly how do you make use of it?

[Ergosphere]

What i usually do is i dig a up/down stairway straight down until i hit a warm stone.

Usually the first warm stone layer is above the magma sea so you should go one further level then you get a message saying you discovered it.

Next what i do is i go above the warm stone layer above the sea then i channel ( you dont get tons of warm stone warnings when you channel into it )

Then you go to the level above the sea, channel hxxxhxxxhxxxhxxx and start building ur magma smelters and forges and whatever and get to work

[Nas92]

Okay, now I know how to discover it, I should have known that warm stone does not necessarily mean that there's magma right behind/below it. I guess I should use grates to keep out the beasts coming up using those channels, do the grates have to be magma-proof? And should I make the furnace opertators and smiths live down there? If so how do I keep them well-fed without them having to walk to my main food stockpile?

[JarinArenos]

If you wanted, you could put a small set of living quarters, with a dining room and food stockpile down there. Vertical space is the same for movement cost as horizontal, and you're only a couple hundred steps down at most, so your haulers shouldn't have trouble stocking what's needed and hauling out the bars.

[Vercingetorix]

What would a Red Wizard of Thay need with magma...

Seriously though, it's not a huge barrier if there's a significant distance between your forges and the rest of the fort.  A spacious up/down system can more than accommodate the legions of haulers running supplies, and the time needed for them to commute between eating/drinking/sleeping and working is fairly marginal (although it can be a pain if you've got a time crunch, e.g. equipping your military).  I personally prefer to keep the forges isolated if they're that close to the magma sea to avoid trouble from fire imps et al spreading to the rest of the fortress.  However, in a mature fort it makes sense to have a specialized dining/sleeping area because you've got the resources to keep their stockpiles full.

That being said, intrusions by those creatures have been quite rare due to the sheer size of the sea which means most of them are far away from where we're working.