Nah man, hairline cracks in bucket mud are almost always from bad prep or putting it on too thick. That stuff needs to dry, not cure like a setting compound. If you have a deep hole, you gotta fill it in layers with drying time between each. Those surface cracks just mean the top skin dried faster than the stuff underneath. For a real structural fix over big gaps, yeah, you want the powder stuff that sets hard.

It's crazy how just watching where someone hangs their tongs can give you a whole new layout idea for your own forge. You come home and suddenly your whole workflow feels different.