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Re: "Good Enough" but Good Value

To: shop-talk@autox.team.net
Subject: Re: "Good Enough" but Good Value
From: Mark Andy <mark@sccaprepared.com>
Date: Mon, 24 Nov 2003 10:46:59 -0500 (EST)
Howdy,

On Sun, 23 Nov 2003, old dirtbeard wrote:
> Buy quality. Buy it once.  Enjoy it for life. You owe 
> it to yourself not to own shit tools.

I don't completely disagree with this attitude, but I also don't think its 
complete.  I run into some folks with this idea that have a few really 
good tools (set of snap-on phillips head or whatever), but _don't_ have 
the proper tool for the job... Because they can't afford to buy snap-on 
(or whatever) and so they don't get anything.

Like lots of things in life, I think you can take it too far.  And 
everyone's got a different income level, ability to deal with irritation 
level, ability to stop work to fix/replace the tool level, etc.

For me, I'll buy non-precision stuff like hammers, jackstands etc. from
Harbor Freight.  I'll also buy tools that are new to me from them, as I 
frequently think a tool looks interesting, but don't know how well it and 
I will work together in real life.  If it ends up being something I use a 
lot (or if I know ahead of time that I'll use it a lot), I typically buy a 
name US brand.

Airtools are a good example of this.  My die grinders are garbage, because 
I don't use them a ton.  My 1/2" impact is the venerable IR 231 because I 
do (btw, while I'm sure that powerful no-name impacts exist out there, 
I don't know how to tell them apart from the shit ones).  My battery 
powered 1/2" impact is Milwaukee, etc.

Not that name necessarily means a damn thing.  My cheapo Ryobi chop saw 
cuts better than my DeWalt (though the DeWalt has a better stop/guide 
adjusting system).

Before I adopted this approach, I did things like buy a high dollar CP 
3/8" butterfly impact.  I think I've used it three times.  That really 
should have been a $35 cheapo until I figured out if I liked using it.

The other nice thing with this approach is that if I use the tool a lot 
(and therefore replace it with a name one), I'll have a spare if one 
breaks.

But... To each his/her own.  This approach works for me.

Mark





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