For infrequent tasks, I tend to rent/borrow specialty tools, or find a workaround to do the task a different way.

Sometimes it's cheaper to buy a tool and use it once or twice than to pay someone with the tool to do the job.

I have a tile saw that cuts marble tile to do a shower floor. I bought it used to do one job.

Bought a Dewalt Chop saw to build a deck, saved thousands.

Bought a cheap cable tester to redo jacks in a house.

I still have no idea what pattern the original tech followed, the jacks all work now.

To answer the question in your thread title, I can go either way. While I generally believe in the right tool for the job (and have purchased rarely used tools as a result), there are some cases wherein I go with the “any tool can be the right tool” adage, so it can be contextual for me.

To address your specific need, as long as you are looking for high quality (not simply continuity) CAT cable testing, but do not need to produce an actual qualification report, check this out:

Pocketethernet

We own and use a variety of qualifiers at work (including a Fluke) and the pocket ethernet matches them all for unofficial results, but for ~$300.00. One of my colleagues now uses it pretty exclusively, even when the others are available.

In my case there are a bunch of tools that while not expensive, are pretty much one time use tools.

Punch down tool $30 used once
Rotozip $75 used once to cut out holes in one PVC fence post, never used again
Fishtape well over $100. Had it for fifteen years, used two or three times
Leather punch set $20 used once to make a perfect hole in an expensive belt the wife has
Set of weird security bits $20 used once to remove a screw from a machine at work
$30 lock pick set. Used twice when off roading to get off a trail onto pavement. Same gate. Now I have a key. (Might use it again to see what APS has locked in the Eaton box on my solar system)
Teeter Hang Up. $400. Wife had to have one. She used it two or three times. We have had it for over ten years. This miserable piece if shit has been moved all over hell and back. She won’t let me get rid of it. Four houses, a cross country move, each time set up in an extra bedroom, taking up a ridiculous amount of space. Swears she will use it tomorrow. Just like Joe’s Crab Shack “Free Crab Tomorrow”.

Not necessarily a tool, but I spent around $700 to build a speedbag platform. It’s height adjustable and it doesn’t vibrate, at all. It’s beautiful and it functions perfectly. Best bag platform I have ever used. Broke my wrist and tore ligaments a month after completion hitting a heavy bag (completely different kind of bag and setup) without wrapping my wrists. I didn’t even mount it after I moved. Might give it to the local BJJ gym.

Buyer's Remorse? On specialized tools?

Must be a hypothetical question....

Like many of the previous members have stated I sometimes see a deal on a tool that I'm not even sure I'll need/use and I'll buy it.

I have a large Miller mig/tig welder that I have only used a handful of times.

I have spoken to my brother about putting together an "invitation only" group of people who we'd give access to our expensive toys if they'd reciprocate.

Maybe like the circle of friends we all probably have but expanded.

I have a set of snap on line wrenches that I paid a arm, a keg and one nut for and they are worth every penny when I use them every 3 years.

The only thing that comes to mind was the 3/4" drive 54mm socket for the flywheel bolt on a Mazda 13B engine.

Originally tried to do it with a 3/4 to 1/2 drive adapter & my 1/2" breaker bar, snapped the square bit off the breaker bar head.

Ordered a 3/4" breaker bar & it did the trick to break the 250ft lb bolt loose.

Then sold the engine to fund a running replacement.

Thanks for the votes and comments, everybody!

Looks like I'm far from alone in my tool acquisition habits

I don't wish to haul this thread off into a tool-specific direction. I was just using the immediate ponder as an example, but...

quote:

Originally posted by Thingol:
To address your specific need, as long as you are looking for high quality (not simply continuity) CAT cable testing, but do not need to produce an actual qualification report, check this out:

Pocketethernet

Your colleague's preferences noted, but reviews of the device are quite mixed. The TDR and fault-locating functionality stuff, in particular, don't seem to work particularly reliably.

The main reason I'm considering the stupidly-expensive Fluke device is precisely its ability to accurately and precisely diagnose cabling problems and where they are.

Besides: Not currently available due to chip shortage. Supposedly available 2Q 2022, but it is now 2Q 2022 and still unavailable.

When I was employed, using a Fluke DSP-100, we had cables that would fail for length (too long), but pass on everything else (impedance, cross-talk). Such cables would work just fine. We had others that would be within length spec, but fail on impedance or cross-talk (far end, usually), that would either not work at all or would work unreliably.

To explain to not-IT-savvy members how such a tool can save one a lot of time and grief: If a cable is marginal it may appear to be fine, but may result in an excess of corrupted network traffic, resulting in inexplicably sub-par performance, or a connection being inexplicably intermittent.

In either a case, or if the cable works not at all: Without a proper diagnostic tool you're left wondering: Is it the equipment or the cable? If it's the cable: Is it one of the terminations? Both terminations? Or is the cable, itself, faulty? (We had that happen--probably usually [?] due to poor cable-pulling technique.)

That's what I meant by "the trouble-shooting equivalent of throwing darts blind-folded."

To be honest, I would guess that 99 times out of 100 we have cable issues, they are located at one of the terminations, not in the middle of the run, so distance to fault accuracy has never been a great need beyond really close or really far (this end of the the cable, or the other end). Of course we pull all our own cable, so we always know the path and that it is contiguous.

That being said, as I noted above, it is not a replacement for a Fluke, but it really depends on how often you plan to use it versus the value (one would assume you are making compromises for 1/6th the cost, the question is whether they are worthwhile compromises, which is a more personal evaluation).

All things being equal I would take a Fluke any day as well, (which I actually do, I keep one on the truck), but I was just suggesting an alternative that may have value in some situations.

I still find myself buying Snap On tools when I know it doesn't make sense for the amount I use them. I also have a Fluke 87 when I know I could've gotten away with a much cheaper DVOM. Don't tell Mrs. Pal.

Jim

Only things I see here......

I bought 2 Faucet wrenches.

I bought a four post lift for the garage. I've used it a dozen times maybe. For now, my nephew's 57 Chevy is on it and I hope to have it out of my garage by end of May.

It does make oil changes very handy.

Most of the time the money spent on the tool is still far less than it would cost to hire someone with the tool to do it for you.

So yes, I have a Lycoming vacuum pump wrench should anyone need one!

quote:

Originally posted by Valpo Fz:
I have a set of snap on line wrenches that I paid a arm, a keg and one nut for and they are worth every penny when I use them every 3 years.

Tom Hulse, the Snap-on tool guy in Ventura years ago has a bumper sticker overhead at the top of the stairs when you walked on his truck. It read, “When you buy the best you only cry once.” My old boss laughed and said, “Until you get robbed.”
But damn they feel good in your hands, and their wrenches and sockets will react loose nuts that other stuff will happily round off.

Like my self defense firearms?

Training some, practice much, but actually "used" to solve the problem it was purchase for? Likely never.

quote:

Originally posted by whanson_wi:
Sometimes you have to buy a specialized tool because it's the only way to complete a particular job. Even if you never use that tool again, if it was a net savings in time/money on that one job, it was worth the cost.

Agree. There have been a few occasions where I had to buy a specialty tool to work on one of my vehicles, and it was still less expensive overall than having the dealer do it.

It kind of goes with the territory if you are a "tool guy", doesn't it?
I know I have a shitload of tools and of course some are under-utilized a lot and some just a little, and some I use the shit out of.
You never know.

Typically only for income, as in something I use professionally. So that doesn't count. I will also if it allows me to save on a task. For instance...back when I had an M5 clone (BMW 540i M-sport), it required several specialised tools for maintenance and repairs. Typically using the tool twice paid for it. When I sold the car, I gave them to my father who had a similar year dinan 5 that used the same tools.

Tools that I might use some day...like NVG's, and the rest of my EOW kit....that's just an investment into security.