You ever had a friend who buys the absolute cheapest version of everything? My buddy Mike got one of those scooter lift things off Amazon, said it could handle 15% grades. Tried it on his driveway which is barely a hill and it just sat there beeping at him. @davis.gavin you're right, the marketing is always way better than the real deal.

Did your pan happen to have a weird little pour spout on one side? My buddy found one at a garage sale in Portland that looked like it survived a fire or something, black and crumbly. He spent a whole Sunday scrubbing it with salt and a potato, then reseasoned it with bacon fat... now he swears it makes the best cornbread he's ever had. The funny part is he keeps it on his stove and won't let anyone else touch it, like it's his baby or something.

Learned that lesson the hard way myself, now my home button works as a volume control.

Wait, you actually need arm stamina for that? I used to think it was just about the recipe but now I see the real struggle.

...and honestly, I'm still not totally convinced it's that serious. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad it worked for you and @ruby_murphy's buddy, but I've seen plenty of old timers run great castings with nothing but their hands and years of experience. The hand test is a skill, you have to develop the feel for it, just like knowing when soup is done by looking at it instead of using a thermometer. I think sometimes we rush to buy a tool because someone at a conference told us to, when really the problem might be something else entirely, like a bad binder ratio or inconsistent mulling time.