Buyers Remorse

[Bill Fields]

The only thing worse than "Tool Envy" is the seething frustration that comes after you realize that you have bought some new tool and soon after the purchase you sadly admit that the tool you got is not really what you had in mind.

So, here are a FEW of mine--some are just poor quality, others poor choices:

-Clamps-Hardwood screw clamps-HF--nothing wrong w/clamps-good price-good quality-NEVER HAD AN APPLICATION

-Clamps-1/2 and 3/4 pipe clamps from HF copy of Pony--great price-poor quality. I'm odering 4 3/4 pipe clamps from HF that are good copies of the Rockler, but 1/2 price

-Router-C'sman-convertible plunge/fixed base-good price-vertical "screw up/down" adjustment poor design--difficult to use--I have 3 other routers, so this one hardly ever comes off the shelf.

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[Jim Becker]

-Clamps-Hardwood screw clamps-HF--nothing wrong w/clamps-good price-good quality-NEVER HAD AN APPLICATION
I have two and have actually used them from time to time, usually at the drill press. It was hard for them to screw these up! (pardon the expression...)


-Clamps-1/2 and 3/4 pipe clamps from HF copy of Pony--great price-poor quality.
I bought some of the 3/4" ones years ago...and got tired of having to use a hammer to "adjust" them. If I every buy any pipe clamps again, (I prefer parallel jaw clamps) they will be the new "footed" design that Irwin, Rockler and some others offer. Out of the dozen HF clamp sets I own, exactly two of them work "normally" and I keep them for when I need to make up a really long clamp or something like that.
----

Other regrets...my first power tool purchases before I knew better. Low-end stuff. (mostly Craftsman, but that really doesn't matter) That experience spawned something that I often say to people... "The most expensive tools are the ones you need to replace early and often."

[Bill Fields]

Tim gave me permission toswipe this from a recent post:


"I understand about the money thing. I've wasted too much $$$ on cheap tools....only to try and sell them for a loss or give them away and then spend the dinero on a high quality/high price tag tool. I'd probably be ahead a few thousand dollars if I'd just bucked up the big bucks right from the get-go!"

To Jim:

A recent post mentioned HF has a Rockler clone 3/4 pipe clamp now. Rockler top end clamps have been out there long enough for HF to copy them. They are 1/2 of the Rockler price. Of my 15 3/4 pipe clamps, 8 are Rockler and 7 are "old" HF. When I need more than the 8 Rockler clamps for a project, I reach for the HF. I'm ordering 4 "new" HF clamps, and then will sell or give away the "Old" HF clamps.

BILL

[Scott Coffelt]

I would say I follow that all too often, hope to get by and then wish i had ponied up the bucks. But sometimes its just the fact the tool is needed and the funds ain't available for the th ideal option.

Probably the one I am the most disappointed in is the PC Profile Sander, it just was not a good tool. Should have bought a Fein instead.

Sad but true is the fact I do have several tools that have never been through a test drive, they're there when I need them but haven't yet for one reason or another.

[Steve Clardy]

A few HF pipe clamps.
Craftsman routers.

[Tyler Howell]

Amen to that! When I see some of the old stuff I bought that never lived up to expectations, I chalk it up to the learning process:o.
I've gone the other way to over kill now.

[Jack Hogoboom]

Here are a few of mine:

B&D sander (vibrated like heck)
Ryobi 9V cordless drill (died too young)

I also built a clamp rack that is all but unusable....

Jack

[Doug Jones]

I never regret buying something. I use it more as a learning experience.
My buyers remorse is from a different type. The kind that when I buy something and then one month later (after the price match guarentee is expired), I see it cheaper at a different store or even the same store.

[Jason Sanko]

18V Rayobi cordless brad nailer staple gun. Won't drive staples near as well as my stanly hand powered jobber and definatly won't do brads. Leaves brads about half way not driven and can't even hammer them flush they bend over.