Finally Made It!

[weldtoride]

Welcome, Keith.

As far as affordability of tools, for power tools the interweb is my friend, I use it for reviews first to make what I call "shopping choices", next I go searching for that manufacturer/model # and do my "price shopping".

There is an amazing wealth of budget-wise tool knowledge here. Explore this site in depth as it is full of owner-made tools, from simple slappers to complex machines. A lot of clever re-purposing of tools here as well. The more you make the more you save, but also the more you learn. There are other forums out there as well, I suspect that many here are either members or lurkers at multiple other forums, I know I am.

Don't know how many yard, church, estate sales, etc. you have in your neck of the woods, but there are treasures waiting to be discovered.
Familiarize yourself with what the various hand and bench tools look like from some of the albums here and keep your eyes open.

I am midway between Chicago and Milwaukee, so there are multiple Craigslists for me to search, great finds there occasionally, but you gotta be ready to pounce quickly. Think about it for a day and its usually gone.

Personally, as far as eBay, it seems the whole damn wide web world has more money than I, as I am always getting outbid. I do occasionally use it to sell tool finds I run across and don't need but just can't pass up because of the price.

Good luck, and enjoy.