OK, as long a we are doing anecdotes, back during the summer I graduated high school, I got a job as a machinist (yup, that shop stuff actually came in handy - as did the technical drawing a few months later when I got a part-time job as a graphic artist while in college). On my first day, the foreman called me into his office. He opened a drawer and handed me a blueprint describing a bearing. He asked if I could get him one by noon. OK, easy peesy. It took me an hour or two (as I was trying to get the sizes accurate to the thousandth of an inch to show off).

I proudly brought it into the foreman's office. He opened a drawer and took out an identical on. He put his micrometer on mine and compared it to his. "Pretty good", he said. "But next time use your brain!". It turned out that the blueprint's title box showed that it describe a bearing made by the company next door to our shop. He opened their catalog and showed me it cost something like $2.13 and obviously it would have made sense to simply buy one instead of wasting a couple of hours.

I've never forgotten the lesson - sometimes spending money saves money.

Jeff