Anything Else Forum

Anything Else Forum

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DIYselfers: What is your philosophy when buying tools?

+4 HS
osu78's picture
June 23, 2017 at 10:50pm
96 Comments

Yes, it's the off season so I have time to indulge in my hobby's. I find working around the house and my car theraputic and do a bit of home DIY stuff: putting in wood floors, built in bookcase, replacing cheap stairs with real oak ones and wrought iron ballisters, finishing a basement bar and man cave (OSU themed of course), and have accumulated a varied tool collection. I am also a hack mechanic, having a dad who was a real mechanic. As a result, I follow his philosophy of "buy quality and buy once" most of the time. I've inherited his Snap-On, Sun  and Mac tools, as well have a lot of Craftsman I bought when they were still made in the USA. He viewed Craftsman as a fine tool at a good price, especially for a part time mechanic. 

Nowadays, Craftsman seems to mostly be made in China and the big box stores increasingly have gone to lower quality house brands. Some Chinese tools are good quality but a lot is made to a price point and quality suffers. For example, I still like Husky and Kobalt, and Ridgid, although not the same as from the old Ridgid Tools calendar days, but still, IMHO, a good value considering their warranty. Back when I worked in power plants Ridgid and Milwakee were often the power tools of choice. 

Recently I have bought some Harbor Freight tools for one use occasion, such as when I bought a nailer to nail fence boards when I built a fence around my yard. I wouldn't buy it if I made a living installing fences but it was cost less than the sales tax on a quality nailer. It's still going strong but even if it only lasted to build the fence I would have considered it a good purchase. I've decided for one time use the cost / quality trade off is worth it. I wouldn't buy a floor jack or jackstands from them because the price of failure is too high, however. 

So for those 11w's who do hobbyist work, what do you buy? For you pros, what do you buy and what would you recommend for the hobbyist?

 

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