During my first ever casting session I had good, but not great, results with my Lee pot. The temperatrure seemed to vary a lot.
I realized that I had a PID temperature controller that I was using on my smoker. I bought a new thermocouple and dropped it in the pot. I adjusted the Lee control to 8 and then let the PID do the rest. When I was pouring and not adding cold ingots it would hold the temp within 5 degrees either way of set point.
I started at 650f (with Lyman#2) and moved up 50 degrees at a time. At 800 I was getting very good results both with my Lee and Saeco molds. At 850 the results were still good but I was then able to see the parting lines on the Saeco bullets. I don't know if this is a sign of the alloy being too hot or if you should see the parting lines. I did not have any frosting.
The tip of the thermocouple was resting on the bottom of the pot so I don't know if the alloy was actually at that temperature or it was the bottom of the pot but in any case I have a way to get repeatable results.
This seems like an easy upgrade to a lead melter that gives great results. It also minimizes one variable for a newbie like me.
Jeff