Checking with ya Dalton(and all who may be have had similiar problem), did you ever get your Lyman MMXX up and going? About a month ago I finally installled the new thermostat I got from Kings Repair. Had to do some fabrication to get the new thermo to stay put. Involved making a metal holder, cutting some brass shims, drilling holes, different stove bolts to hold everything in place, attaching new wire ends, etc. Fired her up, threw in about 18#'s of lead and played with the termo to find desired temp settings(using Lyman lead thermometer). John at Kings had advised me that the new thermostat would allow more precise settings, he was right. At first I set it at around a 6 o'clock setting, that heated the lead to around 1000*F and going up, kept backing it off slightly noting the temp at each new setting. Found that a 3 o'clock setting put the temp at 700*F. Just turning the stud on the thermo slightly, I could adjust the pot temp with small plus/minus degress of temp. At that time I didn't have time to do any casting so I shut her down. Yesterday (July 3) I was going to head to my favorite shootin spot, taking along a couple of 44 cap and ballers. While gettin' everything in order to take along, I discovered that, horror of horrors, I only had enough .454 balls to shoot 38 rds with. I thought I had another container filled with em, only to discover that container "marked .454 cast round balls", was filled with cast .303 rifle bullets. The penalty for failure to remark a container. Thought I'd just shoot until they were gone, but didn't want to 'dirty' em up only shooting that few rds, thought I'd maybe just take some cartridge guns shooting instead, but I wanted to 'make my own fireworks' this weekend. The fact I would need some .454 balls anyway, prompted me to 'fire' up thee 'ol Lyman MMXX. Been doing all this rambling to report that in around four hrs of casting the 'pot' worked like a charm. Was able to keep the temp at approx 700*F which seemed to work best for the pure lead I was using. Was able to 'fine tune' any needed temp settings and didn't have any 'known' problems come up. After I shut 'her down', I had around 400+ .454 balls and approx 300 44 cal Mav Dutchman bullets. Was happy with the results. Glad to get back to bottom pouring vs. dippin' em out with a ladle. Hoping it continues to work , will find out today, plan to 'fire' her up later on today. Gotta head to church. Happy July 4th. Yers, Crow Choker