I've often heard this advice, and while I acknowledge the financial sense it makes, it also puts the new user into a hard place.
Here's the problem: the advantages of "good" tools disproportionately impact the new user. A crusty machinist with decades of experience can make high tolerance parts on a clapped out Bridgeport, because she knows all the subtle ways things can go wrong and doesn't need to rely on the tool handling those things for her.
The new user? No idea what he's doing, and if you throw cheap/poor quality tooling into the mix, now it's just that much harder to figure out if what's going wrong is the user or the tool.
None of this is to suggest that everyone should toss out their home gamer woodworking tools and replace it all with Festool, but there are some pretty serious advantages to having trustworthy tools to help you learn.
Here's the problem: the advantages of "good" tools disproportionately impact the new user. A crusty machinist with decades of experience can make high tolerance parts on a clapped out Bridgeport, because she knows all the subtle ways things can go wrong and doesn't need to rely on the tool handling those things for her.
The new user? No idea what he's doing, and if you throw cheap/poor quality tooling into the mix, now it's just that much harder to figure out if what's going wrong is the user or the tool.
None of this is to suggest that everyone should toss out their home gamer woodworking tools and replace it all with Festool, but there are some pretty serious advantages to having trustworthy tools to help you learn.