Low Quality VS. High Quality Tools. Have We All Been Tricked?

can't help but wonder if starett received a lot of backlash when he invented the combo square in the eighteen hundreds what's going on guys I'm Jody this is inspired woodcraft I really just wanted to do today's video is more of like a discussion so I uploaded a video a few days ago showing you guys some woodpecker stuff that we brought into the shop and these tools were specifically picked for a reason a lot of these tools were meant to take a job that takes two or three tools typically and turn that into a job that maybe takes one or two tools and some of the tools were actually meant just to upgrade some of the stuff that I already had traditionally I've been using more box store Harbor Freight that kind of stuff a little bit lower end lower cost lower quality and the idea was to start bringing stuff into this shop to improve my accuracy and improve my workflow and my speed and everything else now for the most part that videos being received very well by people however there is some great discussion over there going on as far as the difference between low cost tools and high cost tools and who needs what and whether you should or whether you shouldn't there's there's a lot of opinions and I have a feeling that this debate has been going on for a long time so that's exactly what the topic today is have we been tricked into thinking that we need to buy these high end high dollar tools to do a good job or can we still use the lower end lower cost tools and do the same job and just save our money for materials or something like that so what I want to do is I want to go quickly over these two sets the next sort of main I have the same tools in each pile comparatively but I have the lower end stuff that I've had and I have some higher end stuff that I have now and I just wanted to take a quick minute to sort of walk through each one and you know sort of the pros and cons I think it kind of proves a point now it sounds funny but the first thing on the list is actually a mechanical pencil if you think about it and use pencil for most of the things you do in the shop from writing down notes to taking measurements and drawing the accurate layout lines that you need to do your task I used to use number-two pencils which are basically all the same so there's not really a comparison but I recently started using mechanical pencil so this mechanical pencil is a part of our low-end kit and it's just a cheapo probably fifty cents a piece it has a clicker it clicks out led you right with it I mean there's really really not much to talk about it's plastic it's cheap throwaway disposable however you want to look at now as I was researching mechanical pencils in the shop and the pros and cons to having them I started noticing people using more high in mechanical pencils and I thought that's really interesting how could a higher end or more higher quality pencil make a difference in the shop like what would be the advantage to that so after some research I bit the bullet and I bought this this is a graph gear 1000 I actually really like this thing the issue is this is like 10 or 12 bucks and like I said this was like 50 cents you could probably get these in packs of dozens and have them laying around the shop now what I really like about this pencil is really just the form factor to begin with when I hold it in my hand I feel like I'm holding something solid it's much heavier it's got a lot of metal and whatnot going on and I really like that the tip which I don't know if you guys are gonna be able to see this or not but the tip comes down to a really fine points where the lead comes out is actually a barrel that's almost just a little bit bigger than the lead itself and so when I'm especially in a hurry and I'm just trying to mark stuff out really fast I can get this into any hole any space any cavity I can get right up inside the tightest little spots very quickly and efficiently and I don't have to move my wrist around and everything that's kind of the thing with this well this doesn't have a really fat base to it it's just a standard mechanical pencil but I find that I have to really try to get into certain places or there's some things where I actually can't get the pencil in because it's just too tight of a spot where I can reach it with this the other thing and I thought this was kind of interesting is and I'll show you guys so I'm gonna zero these out so there's no lead sticking out right the lead is absolutely flush with the tip of the pencil I'm going to click both these the same amount of times I want to show you guys the difference in how much light comes out okay so that's 10 full clicks of the button and let's see if I could show you guys the difference I don't know if you guys can see that or not hopefully you guys can see that this fits outlet way faster than this one and it's because every time you click the button more lid comes out with one click in my opinion that's a severe disadvantage and I wondered why I was breaking so much even point-9 led these are both 0.89 when I first brought pencils out here I got 0.7 0.9 and I quickly discovered the point 7 was no good it was just too weak but yet I'd seen other people using point 7 with these pencils and not having any problem with it I've now discovered the reason is is because this one shoots out too at one time and so it breaks very quickly even with the point nine this one only gives you a small amount of lead with each click it's just enough to get you more lead which is pretty nice and I actually haven't broke lead with this one since I've had it the other kind of nice feature with this is that when you press on the pocket clip the tip actually retracts and so the lead goes with it if you don't have too much lead sticking out so if you keep this in your shirt pocket or if you keep it in an apron pocket or something you can just click that it retracts the whole tip so you're not stabbing yourself or poking your apron pocket or something like that now do I think that it's worth spending 10 or 12 dollars on this versus this well we'll go more into whether you should or you shouldn't I guess but for me in my shop yeah I do actually I really like this pencil I do I like the form factor I like the weight of it I like the quick easy use of it I like the extra features that it has that this one doesn't can I get by with this absolutely I could buy these like I say by the Dozen just throw them all over the shop if I step on them if they break they roll off the table I just throw it away I get a new one this one's not gonna break I don't think nearly as quick and it brings me more joy to use and because of that some of the little extra features yeah I think it's definitely worth bringing it into the shop so another part of these kits that I have are these f-style clamps we've all got em bucket loads of them probably and at first sight they're identical this one came from Harbor Freight this is a bessie which actually did come from big box store I got this at Home Depot in a set these are great you can get them for like three four bucks at Harbor Freight you just load up on them these when I got them or on a price drop so they're only about a dollar fifty or two dollars Bop more than these ones so I mean obviously at a couple bucks a pop depending on how many you're buying it's sort of a no-brainer so what's the difference they're both essentially the same you have this rail down here you have these two cast pieces here and you have a screw I mean it's really a simple tool what are the differences well these Harbor Freight ones are very inconsistent I can tell you that because I've been buying them for a long time even through all the model changes in different manufacturers that they've had this one is loose and this isn't an old clamp necessarily it's not brand new but it's not an old clamp this when I get it's about right here can you guys that shouldn't happen that it's not good so not only does it slip even when I tighten it up here you guys see that it's not even tightening up with these to push together we put nothing in here that should tighten up there cuz so it's finally tightening up that's not good that means that when I go to use this I need to baby set it and to hand it in order to get it to clamp now once you get it to clamp it clamps just fine the other thing is if we're noting actual differences the screw here is more like a regular nut and bolt thread you know just typical hardware where this one is more of an Acme threads so the threads are a little bit wider it has a little bit different pitch and the tops are what looked like sheared off I don't really know how to explain that but you get a really nice soft solid positive clamping feel when you actually use it the other thing is that this the fit and finish on these has never been great the quality control is just not there and sometimes this rod that goes up and down here can be bent right off the shelf brand-new from the store and what that means is that when you actually get these two together right here they don't line up very well and so you parts end up slipping and moving around don't have that problem at this one so is it worth the upgrade again it's up to you in my shop absolutely however these are great to have in bucket loads laying around because you have jobs sometimes that just require a ton of clamps and so it's nice to have these if you have the two hands to maybe you know finagle I mean and get them to actually work if you just need something that clamps two pieces together yeah they're fine I like these I like these in the shop and I plan on beating more down the road and upgrading these old ones and just kicking these to the side for in case of emergency this one isn't an absolute fair comparison but I think it's important recently I've been getting into hand tools and I've had these buck brothers chisels these are this is from our inexpensive set these you can get at like Home Depot you can probably get I don't know four or five of them for like 10 20 bucks and this is what I use to teach myself how to sharpen so once you get the back slapped and you actually get it sharp it'll be really sharp I can shave arm hair with this I can cut paper with this and more importantly I can work wood these really aren't designed for fine woodworking they're not designed for that all detail work that a lot of us might find ourselves doing they have sort of this Pauli handle with the metal cap on they're meant to you know take a beating and on a job site or something but you can tune these up and make them work in the shop the only issue really after that is that they're really taught that and so when you're trying to get into really intricate work you end up with some fatigue this is from from Wood River I got a set of these for a birthday present about a year ago now these are but chisels this is more of a bench chisel so it's not a hundred percent fair comparison but it's gonna get us close enough the tool steel on this is much harder once I lap these and sharpen them up this holds an edge way longer so I only have to keep a strop nearby and strop it once in a while I don't have to hit stones I could probably just use a strop on this for probably a month and get by just fine this one's a lot softer so while you can tune it up quicker and get it working for you you're gonna have to hit this on a stone a lot more often than you are with this one is it worth the upgrade yeah I believe so and even if this was a bench chisel where it was a bit longer had a longer handle I like the feel of this one I like its form factor a lot better and I like the fact that I can spend less time sharpening and more time working which is really a benefit all of its own so yeah I do think if for me personally I think that this is worth the upgrade can I do all the same work with this absolutely and I have been for a while but with the opportunity to upgrade spend a little bit of money and get a little bit better higher-quality tool for me yeah I totally think it's worth it so these squares here this is from our loan kit this is a Empire Square you guys that watch the other video already know what I'm going to talk about here so I'll try and keep it simple for you guys this has been a great square it's square one of the biggest arguments that actually came from that last video is if a square is square it doesn't matter if it costs you ninety dollars or nine dollars what's the difference just get the less expensive one that makes the most sense it doesn't really end there because a square or any other tool can be meant to have certain functions Allah the combination square so this square is true and does provide me with a 90 degree reference however because of this the design there's some flaws to this like increments not being on here consistent and this little notch right here which drives me nuts and what happens is when I put this down on my work it slides around and it moves and it's just I've always had to fight with it but if I can get it to hold still long enough it does give me a 90 degree line which yes that's what a traditional tri square is meant to do was one of the woodpecker's ones that we brought in this actually has this lip right here which provides two reference points to my material I have it on the face and on the edge which means every single time that I set this down it's just a positive registration every single time I also like the fact of course that this one doesn't have that 45-degree notch missing from it so it's not sliding around it's not tipping this way and I have increments all the way down to the base here zero through eight on this and then zero through eight on the same side so if I need to set this down to set a blade height or to measure something inside of a cabinet box or something I know that I can rely on this tool to do it every single time for this one I can't is it worth the upgrade again I believe that yes it is for me because while this does give me a 90 degree reference and provide what a square is meant to do this one does it so much better and so much more efficient I have had so many times where I've set this on material especially if I'm sort of in an awkward situation marks my material gone back to cut it and been wrong and had to cut it shorter or replace it completely or whatever the case might be I haven't had this for a really long time enough to do too many projects with it I just don't see it happening though all the times I have used this it's been a hundred percent just right every single time I've used it so for me yes 100% worth the upgrade now to be fair it doesn't have to be that particular tool it could be one with those features it is accurate that is less expensive I didn't find something like that so yes this is definitely worth the upgrade in my opinion now that's what I want to talk about combination squares because of course this is another tool that's found in basically every one shop in a lot of different industries in our least expensive kit we have this Empire again probably got it at Home Depot I think I looked last night you can get these for like ten bucks this is a 12-inch combination square aluminum had steel stamped steel blade and that's an important thing to note is the stamped part now I'm gonna do a whole video of going over a combination squares and how to tune these up because this one is not square and I'm gonna show you guys how to make them square in my next video I also have a six-inch one here that's all taken apart because it turns out the base of this is completely warped and so we're gonna straighten this back out and tune it up and the video is gonna be made basically to show how to use these less expensive tools tune them up so that we can use them like a high-end tool would come typically straight out of the box now because this is an aluminum head in a steel rule the steel being stronger than the aluminum every time you slide this in and out and put it in flip it around you know it wears out the paths that keep this true and square and so what happens is you have to check these quite a bit and if you don't you're gonna slowly end up being out of square but you'll never know it unless you actually check it the other thing is because these are actually stamped instead of machined they end up with a lot of imperfections that are along the edges here and especially at the ends and so again every time you even slide it back and forth you're wearing out that aluminum pad that's inside of there that keeps this thing square so it's it's really it really is an issue with lower quality lower end combination squares with the aluminum heads this is when I recently got from PC I haven't had a lot of time with it but I can tell you this is a cast iron head with a machined steel roll these two materials play much nicer together if I need to adjust this I'm probably gonna have to get a file but it doesn't matter if this was completely square right out of the box you know the other thing is when you buy a high-end tool sometimes is you have options where you don't have options with these if I decide down the road I need to get a longer ruler an 18 24 inch long ruler I can just get the ruler itself and put it in here and use it it'll work just fine the other thing is is I actually was able to get this in a four piece kit so I got a protractor and the center head both with this kit now here's what's really interesting I'm gonna go over more into this again in that next video now PC is depending on who you talk to pretty close or up there with the names of starett and in some of the top-level more expensive tools but I actually got this as a blemished tool so what that means is it might have a defect somewhere the defect is not one that affects the use of the tool and that's important to know it could just be the finish it could be that the paint didn't stick to this area it could be as in the case of mine it has you know what looks like little chips that came out during the casting or something they don't want to put this on the shelf as a full-priced tool so you can get these at a discount I'll gather all the information up and I'll let you guys know about where I got it and everything so maybe you guys can take advantage of that offer as well and I'll put that in that next video if you tally up the fact that if I didn't know how to tune this I'd be throwing this away you tally up this one you tally up the one that's already broken and the two rulers that I used to use in the shop all the time actually came from retired combination squares that bit the bullet you tally all that stuff up that's all over the last couple years at what point should I have just bought a high-end high quality and yes possibly more expensive tool instead of throwing all these ones away and getting new ones all the time so have we been tricked no I don't think that we have I really don't but I don't think that it's also a one-size-fits-all category there's certain tools that are meant to do multiple different jobs case in point I know that with a combination square and a marking knife I can layout mortise and Tenon's I also know that with a dual marking gauge I can layout mortise and Tenon's extremely accurate extremely quickly with a consistent knife line every single time on multiple pieces all day long I can set this leave it at the right setting I can move it in and out it's perfect yes I can use those other tool tools I can use you know what they use before this came out obviously it can be done but if a tool comes out that is more efficient and more accurate why shouldn't I upgrade to it if I find the need now another one would be these saddle t-scores we talked about in the last video this works amazing for doing what we typically did with a combination square but doing a hundred percent accurate every single time you don't have to set anything there's no sliding a ruler back and forth there's absolutely none of that and I can do it every single time with this and get a hundred percent accurate marks forever that's pretty cool and I can do that on each piece in the shop that I need to do it too all day long all year long all life long so no I don't think there's anything with upgrading to something that gives you that quality that you're looking for and repeatability I just don't think there's anything wrong with that now the question is of course who should be buying these tools who should be upgrading them and of course that's you know Who am I to decide who buys what I think when you're a new if you're just kidding into this hobby and you're on a budget like most people are I don't think there's anything wrong necessarily with getting the lower end kit however there's some kind of pros and cons that go along with that a lot of times with the lower end tools end up struggling a lot and since you're learning you don't know if it's you or if it's the tool and a lot of times when you're first starting now you can't imagine that it's the tools fault and so you think man I really just can't get my stuff together I keep messing this up I keep doing this come to find out a lot of that could be the tools that you're using and that could be wire struggling now that struggle also adds a lot of value to your new craft though because you learn how to fix mistakes you can learn how to how to work around certain situations you learn what the tools are meant to do what you can get them to do and you learn features and stuff that you might want to upgrade to later on and that's really really important there's a lot of lessons that can be learned from buying meringues inexpensive tools at the same time if you were to spend the money and get more high-quality tools not necessarily expensive but high quality tools you may not struggle and fight with that stuff as much and you might actually enjoy your new craft or or your new hobby that much more now if you're a DIY type person some of these more expensive tools may not appeal to you at all just based on price and that's because maybe all you're doing is you know making a fence or a planter box or fixing something making a simple shelf you don't need absolute precision you may not know about things being an absolute precision and so typically the stuff sold the box stores like Home Depot and stuff are sold there for those people for tradesmen for DIY or stuff like that and that's totally fine now if you do this for a living and especially if you don't have employees that are gonna treat your tools not that great I really do think it's worth looking at some higher end stuff because it's gonna make you produce things in a manner that actually provides you value you're gonna be able to turn stuff out quicker they're gonna have to sharpen your tools less or you're going to have to you know not screw up layout lines and stuff because you were fighting with this other thing and I really do think it's worth that but at that point you're actually making an investment for something that is going to in turn give you a profit and of course that comes down to a business decision so no I personally don't think we've been tricked I don't think that you need to go out and buy all this high-end stuff but at the same time everybody has their own good going on for me personally I'm at a point where I'm tired of fighting with the lower-end stuff I'm still gonna have some of it around gonna be very selective on what I actually spend my money on and upgrade to that I've done this long enough that I know where I can strengthen stuff up that and if there's tools available on the market and I feel that I can afford it to upgrade to some of these tools that maybe produce something better than what I've been producing I think it's worth it and like I've said a million times before if your tools are providing you with the level of work that you feel confident putting your name on your tools are good it doesn't matter what anyone else has it doesn't matter what new tool hits the market your tools are working for you you're good to go what I'd like to do is open this up for conversation down in the comments and if we could keep a kind that would be awesome there's always so much fighting and bickering that happens in the comment section but would be really nice is if you guys are tradesmen or DIY heirs or professional woodworkers it'd be nice to kind of get your guys's feedback on how you feel about the whole situation what kind of tools do you use what have you been using what tools have you held onto for your whole life did you get them passed down to you or did you buy them all new back in the day and they're still ticking away and what's been your experiences those are the kinds of things that I thought would be cool to kind of have a community discussion with this video so if you guys could do that that would be super awesome but like I say it's just keep it kind be nice to each other I think it's a really fun topic anyways thanks so much for listening to me yak for the last half hour I will see you guys in the next video

Channel: Inspire Woodcraft

Views: 881,313

Rating: 4.7916503 out of 5

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Id: vVeqY0LI5Dc

Length: 21min 32sec (1292 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 27 2020