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Are tools overpriced?


regopit

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I think in order to pass judgement on the tool brand you should really take the time to get the feel for one.

you are totally right Chris. My opinion is based on what I've heard and seen without having used it. I should have wrote that my opinion is useless until I try it out for myself.
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IMO buy once, cry once!!! Since I make my living off of my tools I want the best I can afford, if it makes my job easier it makes my life easier and is well worth the cash.

 

 

I agree 100% YP. I try to buy tools my grand kids will be using.

 

That's the way I feel about my tools then there are the times I buy tools then 6 months later I'm asking why did I buy this.

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Hi Ya'll:

 

It's been a while. And, yes! I do agree good quality tools have to be both engineered well and built well to perform well and last long enough to justify their cost especially to the home DIYer. In that regard I think it will be a long time before the names Festool or Harbor Freight cross my threshold. Most Harbor freight tools are simply junk made from junk. Festool may be the Swiss watch of power tools but It's rather difficult to justify their cost compared to either the competitive tools or to the price of the end product I could buy from Ethan Allen for far less than the price of one Festool.

 

In the Dec/Jan issue of WOOD Magazine, on page52, is a comparison of large (3 hp) routers. At MSRP you could buy three routers (the Makita RP2301FC for $320, the DeWalt DW625 for $300, and the Hitachi M12V2 for $230) for the price of the Festool OF2200EB for $850. Imagine - three tools simultaneously set up for three different tasks instead of all the eggs in one basket.  Just sayin'.  And with a bit of TLC my grandchildren can argue over three tools instead of one. 

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I buy the best version I can of my tools also. But all of my stuff goes " in my truck" because I work in people's homes. Approx 700 homes each year

I have tools I hope to pass to my grandson as well and am already teaching him to respect them

( he is only 5). He tells his dad the difference between tools and toys

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The only problem I find with having too many tools. ( I know, no such thing ) is that when you travel to jobs everything has to be in cases and portable so it is hard to have everything readily available. It is frustrating to know you own a tool perfectly suited to the job at hand and knowing you did not bring it along in an attempt to load the truck efficiently so I probably spend hundreds per year in extra gas hauling so many tools around

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But this thread is about tools being too expensive. In my opinion I have never bought a tool that was too expensive. Good tools don't cost money they make money. Although a good argument could be made against a 600 dollar titanium hammer when 90 percent of the nails I drive are from a Paslode!

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That's a fact. I wish I could (1) justify the purchase of say the combo Kapex and stand and then (2) AFFORD said purchase. Invariably (1) no. (2) no. But then again I can always wish. But then again if wishes were horses, I'd be eating steak right now!

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  • 2 weeks later...

In my shop-in-progress (mostly still in the design phase) I do have space constraints ~ roughly one third of a three car garage. I do have expansion capabilities by parking one or both cars outside but, eventually, all that stuff has to go back in one third of the garage. That's when the third factor, where the hell do I keep some new tool when I'm not using it?, kicks in. Its as though there is this committee in my mind trying to balance many factors for every purchase decision. It's like; is it needed for this project?, vs. how often would I use the tool vs. potential return on investment of the tool's cost, then there is the long term storage space issue, vs. how else might I do this job? By that time I'm headed for Office Depot to buy more erasers for project design changes.

 

I do envy those of you who have a Madison Square Garden size shop. But, as an older codger, I must admit that my projects list simply doesn't justify a full blown cottage industry setup.   

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In my shop-in-progress (mostly still in the design phase) I do have space constraints ~ roughly one third of a three car garage. I do have expansion capabilities by parking one or both cars outside but, eventually, all that stuff has to go back in one third of the garage. That's when the third factor, where the hell do I keep some new tool when I'm not using it?, kicks in. Its as though there is this committee in my mind trying to balance many factors for every purchase decision. It's like; is it needed for this project?, vs. how often would I use the tool vs. potential return on investment of the tool's cost, then there is the long term storage space issue, vs. how else might I do this job? By that time I'm headed for Office Depot to buy more erasers for project design changes.

 

I do envy those of you who have a Madison Square Garden size shop. But, as an older codger, I must admit that my projects list simply doesn't justify a full blown cottage industry setup.   

 

Check out guys wood shop. He has his shop in a two car garage. 

 

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  • 2 months later...

I do believe, if you use your tools for a living, those tools should be failsafe, durable, and 100% dependable. On the other hand, there was once a day when the DIYer could actually save a few bucks by DIYing.

 

No more. Those days are gone. The appeal of new technology has literally eradicated from modern society both our patience and subsequently our ability to work with hand tools. In the process most of us have also lost touch with how woodworking craftsmanship was once a very rewarding and even enviable skill.

 

Today the cost of keeping all that shop tool technology current in the DIY workshop has left the guy who wants to do it himself for the purpose of saving money coming up way short. Short of enough funds left to buy the materials, not to mention quality hardware, just to make the toilet seat he would have made by hand in years gone by.

 

My grandfather and his brother built a two story four bedroom brick home with electricity, indoor plumbing, a full basement, a full width covered front porch, a small covered back porch, an outdoor sleeping porch off the back of the second floor, and a three car detached garage with nothing more than hand tools and sweat. That was less than a hundred years ago. [That home, although rewired and replumbed years later, remains to this day an occupied residence in Delphos, Ohio.]   

 

I reckon, at this point, I've got to confess to being more like the rest of us than like my grandpa, bit I do still enjoy seeing a piece of wood change shape as I listen to a plane blade strip off curl after curl of wood as the edge of the work piece gets closer and closer to my pencil line. No shop full of sawdust, no earplugs, no cord, no batteries, just the 'sshheeeeeeek' sound of the blade revealing a whole new surface while releasing more aroma of the fresh cut wood. Nostalgic, therapeutic, somehow more wholesome, and certainly a whole lot less costly, in every imaginable way, than chasing todays technology.

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