That's the approach I have taken, not knowing the diff. of course.  But
then, I'm kinda tight with most expenses unless it IS tools!  I love 'em,
still look at all the stuff when I visit Sears with my wife.  Whatever I
needed to make work easier, I either bought or else I made them--esp. things
like slide hammers for axle pulling, dent pullers for body work; 2 tow
bars(1 for me and 1 for my buddy who helped me build them); steering wheel
puller with split-ring depressor for GM st. wheels; several lengths of
cutoff bolts with holes center-drilled completely thru them, head-to-tip to
place inside engine-block-voids where starter bolts were rung off up inside
the bolt-holes--providing me with a guide to center-drill the rung-off end
to install easeouts to remove ends AFTER heating the adjacent metal cherry
red; building hydraulic press which included homemade adapters to break
tires as well as bearings; silver-soldering several pairs of stock-length
drill bits to make a set of longer ones, using angle-steel to keep them
centered(we knew nothing about availability of store-bought longer length
ones in our 1-horse rural  SC town); engine stands and cherry-pickers and
tranny jacks; engine test stands complete with oil & temp. gauges and
flexible heavy rubber-like exhaust pipes run out into the yard; first a
generator and then added a regulator, and later an alternator with reg. both
run w/washing mach. motors to make battery chargers--quickly learned I still
needed the generator one when batt's were completely discharged!; and an ac
vacuum pump from an old refrig. compressor with a proper fitting soldered on
a copper tube into the vacuum side--let it run all nite to really pull the
system down while working on something else--wasn't fast, but then we
weren't in a particular hurry down there; all sorts of rigs to replace valve
springs/seals ranging from simple leaf-spring-levers from leaf-sections
w/holes drilled to fit over rocker studs to pipe-adapter bars to lay
along/bolt to rocker stands on 318 Chryslers to provide pivot points for
levers--and using old spark plugs with the glass removed and air fittings
soldered in place for the air hose to fit while pumping up cylinder
pressure.
   Man, what days those were!  And it still amazes me how well some of it
worked with such a small sum invested.  That tiny sum was a necessity, as
none of us had $, but could trade peas, corn, and tomatoes for
expertise-work in various trades.  Still wonder how the home-made
driveshafts didn't vibrate w/our having no way to center the 2 pieces exc.
laying them in an angle-iron section & bolting them down w/c-clamps while
welding.  Never any trouble to shorten, but to lengthen them???  And the
adapter/pattern made from a used 400 Turbo-flywheel to drill new holes and
fit the smaller 350-Turbo flywheels to the big 400 torq. convertors to allow
installing 400 Turbos in '63 Chevy-ll's.  Soon after that adaptation, with
several running around town, Popular Hot Rodding replied to a technical
querie in their Q & A-section, that "Sorry, but there is no way to install
the 400 TH into a '63 Chevy-ll due to the 400's much larger t-convertor and
prohibitively larger flywheel"!
   Did anyone tell you that on evenings after earlier receiving doc's
treatment for fibro-myalgia and spinal stenosis makes a sufferer want to
talk while he still feels good? Knowing that when the spinal lumbar and
cervical steroid injections wear off, he will be right back into bed and
straight-jacketed with braces and collars and tractions and electrical
impulses lighting him up!  But, 'tis nice that you can "plonk" us as soon as
enough "s*it has been s*ot"!
   Have a wonderful evening, Silver Surfer.  And, hope you have many years
left to enjoy spinning those wrenches.  There's nothing more rewarding than
conducting a (mechanical) job well done.  Doc says I wore myself out
prematurely--but I have NO regrets.  Twenty years of immeasurable
satisfaction surpass by far longer periods of less-satisfying work,
regardless of any monetary rewards so long as ends were met and all family
members could proudly look at any neighbor eye-to-eye. And as Red Skelton
ended his tv shows, "May God Bless!" s