Tool Shopping on a Deadline

Rob-Portrait351Last Saturday I found myself wandering the tool section of my local big box store … my old biscuit joiner had given up the ghost, and I needed a replacement. There were exactly two models to choose from. As it turned out, one of them was on my mental list of “acceptable” machines, but that was pure luck. And it got me to wondering. I probably would have bought just about any model I could find readily available on the shelf, because I wanted to finish my project on Saturday. (Never mind that I had known for weeks that I needed a new biscuit joiner and could have easily shopped on the Internet … that’s not important to my question.)

The question is, how many of you end up buying a tool other than the one that you had in mind, because you were on a schedule and a different model was available? Did you end up regretting that purchase, or did it work out OK? Did you pay more than you expected or less? Now, a biscuit joiner is one thing … but what about a table saw or its equivalent? Let me know. In the meantime, I’ll be wrapping up that project I didn’t quite get through last Saturday.

Sincerely,

– Rob Johnstone, Woodworker’s Journal

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