Originally Posted by
Bill in VA
On tools, I go by the old saying, you can "pay me now or pay me later." A good cheap tool may last for 'enough' jobs, OR it may damage what you are working on with poor specs or manufacturing on the first job (usually the one you really bought it for).
I learned this from cars and bikes.
Or, as Sutherland's put in their
Handbook for Bicycle Mechanics, "cheap tools are an extravagance no bicycle shop can afford."