if I'm buying a tool that I know I will only use once or twice, I buy the harbor freight stuff, some of which is actually half-way decent stuff...but if it's something I know that I may or may not use often but want good quality then I buy Craftsman..

was up in the mountains about 15 years ago, my buddy couldn't get his truck started because his battery cable clamp had worked loose on the post, and for whatever stupid reason he didnt have any tools with him...you ever see those aluminum bottle opener key-chains? it was if it was made to tighten that nut on that clamp, tightened it up and away we went...I think I mentioned my coors light cardboard 12-pack thermostat housing gasket before..
I bent a few wrenches to custom fit an application here and there, like attempting to tighten the alternator belt on my mom's 80 sumthing plymouth reliant wagon...after about 45 minutes of grunting sweating cursing and knuckle busting I decided to RTFM and I learned that if you simply remove the right front tire, you will have very easy access to the alternator tensioning bracket adjustment bolt...it's because of that day that I usually do rtfm whenever I buy anything..
I also remember a time that I fabricated a custom deluxe tool at work, but it wasn't for doing my job, which at that time was pressure treating wood, the place is sadly an EPA superfund site now, but that was due to the way they did things way before the time that I worked there, anyway......we had to wear gas station guy uniforms because of the chemicals, which was great because we didnt have to ruin our own clothes, there was a decent locker room, private showers, etc...we all had 3-4 lockers for all of our stuff...kenny had one below one of mine and I knew that all he had in there was his rain gear..........
I didn't even remember what he did that made me decide to jam his rain gear locker full of hangers but I kept doing it anyway...I would get to work, change into my uniform and jam the 2 hangers, (1-pants + 1shirt) into his locker, as well as any other hangers that were laying around on the counter tops or benches, but not the ones that were on the hanger rack where they were supposed to go...it got to where there were so many in there that I couldn't fit anymore in there with just my bare hands, so I went over to the shop and got a piece of probably 1/8 thick x 1 inch wide x however long, piece of steel and I don't honestly remember how I made it but it fit into the palm of my hand on one end and the other was just right for jamming hangers down into the locker......and jam hangers into his locker I did...all summer long
was probably mid september when I was working swing shift, it started raining around 10am and I started chuckling, and it rained alot, and I couldn't stop laughing all the way to work...got to work at a quarter to three and didn't see any sign of kenny...went into the locker room to change and there was a solitary hanger wound very tightly around the padlock on my locker, I was laughing so hard I didn't hear kenny come in, I turned and saw him standing there dripping wet and I laughed even more...he. was. pissed. went on and on about how he had to change a cylinder and do this and do that out in the tank farm and wah wah wha how wet he was, and what I motherfucker I was for doing that etc...hell I don't know maybe ya had to be there, or know kenny, old codger with good sense of humor...he got over it all pretty quick...actually it was right after that, he sprayed foaming aerosol glass cleaner at me, but instead of shooting out foam, it shot a stream, right into my eye....fuck that hurt...eye wash fountain was literally right behind me so I just spun around and rinsed my eyeball off and everything was fine...good times...sure do miss that place...