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[Brent Not Broken]

Rhymes with "zagma zee".

Recently had a fort dig down that far for the first time, and realized I had no idea how to actually tap that delicious marinara sauce. Digging around in the Z-level directly above the magma (to find a suitable location) was disrupted by seemingly random warm stone alerts (is the top magma layer not uniformly flat, or something?), and it was just generally difficult to see what I was doing (since stairs and ramps down into the magma layer don't illuminate much). I've poked around on the wiki, but there seems to be little to address the practical issues I'm having problems with; I'd love to build a giant pump stack, but I can't figure out the best way to get it started.

Any choice tips for sailing the (molten) seas?

[Flare]

Magma seas often have an uneven surface due to the randomness of the rock capping it. Tanks to the lack of natural magma pressure, tapping the base of a large magma pipe won't flood the mines completely. Trying channelling on the warm tiles and see what you get.

I personally shorn off magma pumps for the same reason of that of traditional pumps. Specifically the problem of getting a consistent magma stream that doesn't depend on magma slowly swishing around onto the spot where the pumps drag out the magma. After reading several threads about the capabilities of putting pump stacks into magma pipes and, I have thus concluded that building an artificial magma pipe would be the next best thing if you don't have one lying around naturally.
It's more or less just the series of pumps like that of a normal pump stack with the three sides excluding the one giving access dug out. Filling this magma pipe will take a bit of time seeing as the source of magma does still slowly trickle onto the pumped tile, but given that you're not opening fire with the magma cannon ever single month, there should be ample time to wait until the pipe fills up.

Basically it's an artificial magma pipe that can potentially become an artificial volcano, but rest assured the magma is 100% Natural.

[Girlinhat]

Channel into hot stone or dig a down stairway, to reveal the sea and open magma to the caves.  This lets you build magma forges and smelters most easily.  However, due to the issues involved, many players like to make a pump or two and bring magma into an artificial cistern, which they then build their forges atop.

And no, it's not flat.  In many places it's not even solid, there can be pillars of stone (pretty massive pillars) going from floor to ceiling.

[obeliab]

Just to add, a number of tiles above even the top layer of magma may be "warm" and cancel your designations, even though there is no real danger in mining those tiles.  Temperature stuff.  Be careful, though.  It's the same sort of thing like when you know there's no water behind a tile, but because there's water on the z-level above that tile, you get the damp stone warning.

[Cotes]

Yeah, don't dig into warm walls, but feel free to channel downward. The magma isn't pressurized, so it's pretty much perfectly safe. That'll also reveal the sea the same way you reveal caverns, so you'll be able to tell how the thing is shaped.

[Girlinhat]

DO Notice, that magma crabs will come up through holes in the floor or stairs, so it's generally safer to dig out a single tile then place a workshop over it, such as the upper center tile of a smelter or kiln, where you place the un-walkable tile over the hole, or the center left and center right tiles of a magma forge.

[Funburns]

DO Notice, that magma crabs will come up through holes in the floor or stairs, so it's generally safer to dig out a single tile then place a workshop over it, such as the upper center tile of a smelter or kiln, where you place the un-walkable tile over the hole, or the center left and center right tiles of a magma forge.

I remember reading that a pump will draw through a floor grate. This, combined with buildingdestroyers' inability to remove constructions across z-levels, should allow you to make an ultrasafe magma sea pump zone. Haven't remembered to make this setup yet or I'd be able to say for sure.