I grind into a glass tumbler and have a wide canning funnel I put on basket when I pour into basket. I also use an 18g vst basket almost exclusively. Just need to spend some time in the trenches or stick to ristrettos

I am posting this as a warning or just a FYI.

So it turns out my bottomless that I have been using almost exclusively since September (when I bought the machine) was sliced super crooked and I never thought to look. So all my tamps were probably canted (i caught some as I usually feel around the portafilter when the tamper is seated). When i did catch one i'd mess it up because I would sometimes try to correct the tamp by doing it a second time to try and level it.

Anyways, how I got to checking for this is I bought one of the Cafelat E61 portafilters and I am getting purrfect pours with this (I also just got a cat from the shelter and had to try out a pun ).