Seconding this. Most of the issues I've had doing manual work has been a result of using cheap or inadequate tools. I don't often find myself thinking "that exp

Seconding this. Most of the issues I've had doing manual work has been a result of using cheap or inadequate tools. I don't often find myself thinking "that expensive set of pliers didn't do as good of a job as the cheap set at the dollar store." Whereas every time I buy a cheap tool to do the job it inevitably breaks or fucks up. For example, once I was trying to run some stainless steel wire to make a cheap curtain rod across some windows. I had assumed that the stainless steel crimp jackets could be crimped with some physical strength and a set of pliers. It was an absolute disaster and finally I broke down and bought a special set of pliers for crimping the stainless steel jackets. They were about 4x as much money as the pliers I was using but they did the job swiftly and efficiently without damaging anything. I often also see the most expensive tool doing the job more poorly, so I would revise the rule to "spend as much money on a tool as it takes to get the correct set of features and level of durability to do the job." For example, the $4.00 caulk gun does a better job than the $20.00 caulk gun because the $20.00 caulk gun doesn't come with a built-in cutter or a plug popper. So you're paying 4x as much for a tool that can't complete the entire caulking job. So buy the $4.00 caulk gun because the built-in cutter means you never have to risk cutting the caulk outlet wonky again, and the caulk job will be much easier.