On Wed, 7 Dec 2016 21:35:23 -0000 (UTC), Leon Schneider
wrote:

Paul in Houston TX wrote on Wed, 07 Dec 2016 12:11:05 -0600:

If you're going to be doing tens, hundreds, or thousands of wheels then
get the best tool that you can afford. Usually that means the most expensive.

I appreciate the insight but you hit a sore point with me so please don't
take my diatribe below personally - but I've heard too many people say what
you just said, which I think is the wrong approach entirely.

You don't approach a tool from a cost perspective; you approach a tool from
the quality of results perspective.

I realize you said "usually", so, I agree that you're already on board,
when I say that choosing tool-quality by cost is entirely the wrong logic,
but the other half of what you said is the correct logic, which is to use
the best tool if you need it.

Whether or not it is expensive is completly meaningless (most people simply
*assume* expensive stuff is better becuase it's a simple number and they
can handle numbers but they can't handle myriad technical details when
comparing two different tools).

For example, a 100K dollar alignment system may not be any more accurate
than a $500 alignment system, but it does stuff that the shop needs, e.g.,
it allows dumber people to operate it and it allows hands-free measurements
and it allows cars to be easily ramped on and off and it allows printing of
the results, etc.

None of that has any bearing on the quality of the results and all of that
raises the expense of the machine such that the local morons down the
street think you have to buy an alignment tool for 100K dollars just to get
a "good" alignment.

You can get a good alignment for probably 100 dollars in tools, and
certainly for 500 dollars in tools; but it won't have all that time-saving
stuff (where for a mechanic, time is money).

In contrast to your point, it may very well be that a $100 cellphone gets
you as good an alignment as a $100K alignment tool.

The only thing that matters is the quality of the results.
The cost of the tool isn't a factor in the quality of the results.

To the point, I'm not positive yet because I haven't done it, but I would
bet that the quality of results from using a nail inside the tire valve
when seating it is as good as the quality of results from using that $25
grooved swivel-head lever tool just as the quality of results when removing
the valve with a utility knife is probably as good as the quality of
results when using that fancy tool.

PS: I didn't aim this *at* you, but at the team becuase too many people use
"cost" of things as a "quality" measurement - and it's never the case.
People just use "cost" because they don't understand quality but they
understand numbers such as numbers of dollars. But it's the wrong way of
looking at tools (it's a factor though).
I have long held to the position "never buy the cheapest or the most
expensive, because you will be overpaying for either one"