I've been using the same angle grinder since 1994
It's a Makita 4.5 inch. The plastic housing is cracked in three places, the guard fell off somewhere around 2002, and the switch needs to be jiggled just right or it won't start. I've got two newer ones in the drawer that I reach for when this one finally dies. But it won't die. I've replaced the brushes twice and the cord once. It just keeps going.
I don't know if I'm loyal to it or if I'm just waiting to see how long it lasts. Either way, I don't want a new one.
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I get this in a way that surprised me. I've got a press that's older than I am, cast iron, probably dangerous, definitely out of adjustment. Everyone tells me to replace it and I can't. It's not that it works better. It's that the work I make on it feels different to me. Like the machine's history gets into the paper somehow.
There's something about objects that outlast their intended lifespan. They stop being tools and start being... witnesses? I don't know. Maybe we just get attached to things that have been through it with us.
What'll you do when it finally stops for good?
I'll keep it in the corner. Maybe one day I'll hang it on the wall like a retired tool.
Tried a newer one a few years back. Different balance, different vibration. Felt wrong in my hand. Same way you said that press changes the paper.
When it goes I'll probably find another old one. Someone's garage sale, rusted up, needs work. They don't make them the same.