Factories buy the best available, I mean in an Engineering/specs way, not hype.
Ends up being the cheapest option.
A Hobby tool cost, spread over, say, 10 projects, is expensive; at a Factory a highest quality one, 10X the Hobby cost but spread over 10000 sold products is **cheap**
And stopping 10 times along that 10000 product history because a tool is bad and needs to be replaced is more expensive than buying the good one from the beginning.
Agree that SMT technology is making hand assembly tools less important, although still needed.
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Yes you are 100% right, but the price is not due to it being the “right” brand, i.e.in clothes brands Lacoste, Armani, Gucci or something like that, where the price has nearly nothing to do with quality. The price arrives alone by the real lifetime guaranty, the selected metal, the huge amount of recharge and so on. Because, there are no time for bull! 
Also jewelry tools. Not wedding rings but "hand craft", gold-tone wire wrapping polished stones for pendants, bracelets, earrings.
Tools & Jewelry Making Supplies | Rings & Things
tool kits
Tools & Jewelry Making Supplies | Rings & Things
tool kits
The most common tool in DIY electronics is the wire cutter. The Radio Shack Cheap Snips were $3 and just-acceptable. They lasted a lot longer than say 10 projects. In a career in installation and repair I may have owned four, still have one, lost another. Even taking your $3/10, 30 cents per job is small compared to $3 of resistors, $13 of chips, and the value of my time/labor.
Yes, you can do worse. I paid $70 for a thermal stripper I used about once for no good reason. Maybe it is waiting for its moment to shine?
I do know what REAL work is. A friend did piece-work assembly of TV tuners. Even though low pay, the company supplied pretty good tools, and sometimes I got the "worn" ones.
The 10 project estimate is that, an estimate on the average number of projects assembled by the average hobbyist (including DIY Audio members of course), and is not based on the tool breaking, wearing or losing sharpness or alignment but simply Hobbyist/Diyer getting bored, fed up, disillusioned, or simply getting another Hobby or activity.
Or simply realizing that it´s cheaper/faster or more fulfilling just buying the d*mn Music gear he he, and plain listening.
Yes, there´s a small dedicated hardcore hobbyists/builders bunch, you and me included, who will build tons of stuff ... the average being well balanced down by people who build 1 or 2 projects and then keep on buying and at most, ,lightly tweaking.
A Million of the former will absorb, if averaged, 100 or 200 of the others.
Or simply realizing that it´s cheaper/faster or more fulfilling just buying the d*mn Music gear he he, and plain listening.
Yes, there´s a small dedicated hardcore hobbyists/builders bunch, you and me included, who will build tons of stuff ... the average being well balanced down by people who build 1 or 2 projects and then keep on buying and at most, ,lightly tweaking.
A Million of the former will absorb, if averaged, 100 or 200 of the others.
Oh wait until you need to make up a dozen 40 channel snakes for a customer, all of a sudden the sheer speed of throughput will make it a wonder.
Years ago I was pretty good with a basic Waldom stripper. Had a feel for it, cut through the insulation but not nicking the copper. Then I bought an expensive Paladin stripper and never looked back. Worth every penny.
I have a pair of small dikes from Utica tools. I have used them almost 70 years now, and they were my dad's before me. I treat them well, but admit I abused them when I was a kid. But the joint is still tight, the edges still cut. Tool is in great shape and a joy to use.
Enzo, it's the sad thing about nearly everything. My mother got annoyed because her only 35 yo vacuum cleaner already got broken, and her washing machine was near it's end, after only washing every day in over 20 years.
Today shall you be amazed if something is useable after 2-5 years. Almost all the great brands, you did know would survive, even when your grand children gets old, are now 4 x the prize but made to the lowest prize possible! Just like Bahco hand tools, you knew that if you bought a plier from them, could you hammer on it for 20 years and still be able to use it next time, now do I call them disposable gold. About same price and strength as gold!
Today shall you be amazed if something is useable after 2-5 years. Almost all the great brands, you did know would survive, even when your grand children gets old, are now 4 x the prize but made to the lowest prize possible! Just like Bahco hand tools, you knew that if you bought a plier from them, could you hammer on it for 20 years and still be able to use it next time, now do I call them disposable gold. About same price and strength as gold!
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I have side cutter from Facom without any defect since 50 years. Last screwdriver had plastic handles break down into dust. I often use Bahco metal files but last screwdrivers loose head. Same for Dewalt, 5 years old battery hammer drill, allowed complete house restauration. Last purchase a saw, cut less then a first priced.
Brands are not a garantee today. Now I use feedbacks to choose
a simple low cost product that I use since two years without marks on the cut profil
Brands are not a garantee today. Now I use feedbacks to choose
a simple low cost product that I use since two years without marks on the cut profil
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