[pianotech] Tools rush in...

Ron Nossaman rnossaman at cox.net
Wed Aug 12 11:35:17 MDT 2009


Jon Page wrote:
> Soap Box:
> Let's go for quality first and not just price. 

Absolutely - once you KNOW what you WANT. If, that is, you can 
determine a functional definition for "quality" other than by 
high price. Case in point: when I had used a cheap drill motor 
long enough to understand what I wanted from a good one, I 
bought two Milwaukees, a 3/8 VSR, and a 1/2" hole shooter that 
has the power to spin pianos if you can hold on. But when I 
wanted a drill press, I didn't get the most expensive one on 
the market. I got the one that had the capabilities and 
versatility I was looking for in a drill press. So I paid less 
for my old Rockwell radial drill press than I did for the 1/2" 
hole shooter. Both have proven to have been good choices for 
30 years of shop use, and the drill press gets ten times the 
use of the hole shooter. Oh yea, I also have a 1/2" VSR hammer 
drill from Milwaukee, because it does what I need better, and 
for more years, than the cheaper options.

So you see a tool that makes you warm all under, but you 
aren't sure if it's a real perceived need, or passing 
glandular effects. You either plunk down your $333.99 and take 
the chance on whether you'll actually get that use out of it, 
or you buy a $40 knock off as a means of finding out what you 
SHOULD have done. If the $40 knock off never wears out, or you 
don't find the uses for it you imagined, it was the right 
choice. If you break it right away, or find plenty of uses for 
it, if it only had more power, weight, or whatever, it's a 
cheaper education than buying the wrong $300 tool first.

My perspective,
Ron N


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