My personal experience, in no particular order:
Six cavity aluminum molds are very handy, but you have to do your part. Cast with the lead in the mid 600's (degrees Fahrenheit) and the aluminum mold in the mid to upper 500's. Hold the handles closed tightly - really tight! Use a bottom pour pot, not a ladle - this will help fill every cavity consistently without a divot in the base. Keep the aluminum clean, lube the pins but never lube the cavities, and smoke the cavities.
Lee liquid alox is a good lube, but a better liquid lube that's a LOT cleaner is Rooster Jacket. Hold the bullet by the nose with tweezers or something that won't scratch the lead, dip the base up to the shoulder, set on wire mesh hardware cloth (or even burlap or thick denim) blow dry with a fan overnight.
Every liquid lube stays a bit sticky, but Rooster is 10 times dryer than Lee. By drying on mesh instead of wax paper, you don't get the 'ring' of lube around the base that gets shaved off during bullet seating and messes up your seating die badly. And by lubricating the base only, you don't get lube on the nose that messes up your feed ramp, your magazine, your fingers, your ammo boxes, and your seater stem.
Lee tumble lube bullets are every bit as accurate as single-groove, and they generally drop at a consistent size. If yours do not drop round, use a sizing die. Cheap Lee sizing dies are good for the purpose.
I also use tumble lube bullets in the Lyman lube-sizer with conventional wax lube (Thompson's) and it works well, even though folks say you can't do it. No extra barrel leading compared to single groove bullets with the same lube in my ParaOrdnance barrel.
For taking temperature of lead and mold during casting, consider using an infrared pyrometer. It doesn't even touch the hot material because there is no probe. I got one at Harbor Freight for 15 bucks. Extremely fast readings, extremely handy, and you can measure mold temperature on top, bottom and each end if you want. I also have a digital probe-type pyrometer and the two give exactly the same readings, so I know the infrared is accurate.
I use wheel weights, dropped on a cloth. Others drop in water to try to get extra hardness, but I don't find that I need it for standard pistol loads.
This is my experience, everyone else's experience may vary.