--- Steve from Missouri ---
Whenever this is not the case...that's when I get a better tool!
I feel the same way, but when one is just starting out they might not have the experience to know whether it's them or the tool. And it's no fun fighting balky tools. I had a 12" Delta bandsaw for years - and I built a boat with it. But a few times the workpiece was heavy and awkward enough to stall the motor and push the saw over. I "graduated" to an industrial machine with 24"wheels and a weight of close to 1k pounds. Guess what? Never again had to worry about pushing it over, even when cutting 4"- 5" thick oak. Same story with the table saw.
Sort of the same story with cameras IMHO.
I've got rid of all but my good tools. I can still screw up, and no tool is perfect. But I won't use anything like a router or jointer or power saw when I'm tired and stupid. Sanding is OK. Nor will I handle irreplaceable glass like my registration equipment uses if I'm too tired. I once dropped a Kern Dagor lens when I was tired with sweaty hands. The front coating got scratched. Luckily, these lenses had cult status by then, and I actually sold it damaged for more than I originally paid for it new.
I do agree that the best tool that one can acquire will be better to work with than inferior ones but I think that using the right tool for the task is just as important if not more so. As a woodworker and machinist I sometimes use tools that are not tier one by any means but they are the right tool for the job and work far better than some of the high dollar tools that I do own that don't fit the need as well. As someone mentioned, I have less guilt about making non-reversible modifications to some less expensive tools than I would to my top grade ones. That includes photo equipment too.
"A Vice-Grip is not the right tool for anything at all, but it is the best wrong tool for thousands of tasks."
Always go with the best you can afford, always. Otherwise, you end up upgrading and crying twice. Buy once, cry once.
Yes, and the many variations of Vise Grip specific to welding.
Which are perhaps emulations of DIY Vise Grip modifications.
Stick Arc Welding is as fun as LF, if you don't have to make a living at it.
Tin Can
I have at times bought the cheapest just because I knew before I would alter it to do the job I wanted to do. I do not care taking up an angle grinder to a cheap tool if I know I will be able to have it do the job I want to do.
You never can have enough vise grips and hammers.
Expert in non-working solutions.
I have a set of ultra-cheap Chinese brad point bits that I picked up from a big lots store a few years back...which I have grown to consider irreplaceable - for the very fact that most of these bits are off measure by very small fractions...which is often exactly what I need for that "just a wee bit bigger" hole. Just sayin!
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