My old Makita 4.5 inch finally seized up this morning. Smoke out of the vents, bearings shot. I've had that thing since 1998. Twenty-six years of abuse, welded it back together twice myself, and it outlived two cheap replacements I bought "as backups."

Went to order a new one and found myself staring at the same model, still in the lineup, sixty bucks. I closed the tab.

Not sure why. I can afford it. But there's something about buying a clone of the exact tool that just died for you. Feels like I'm pretending the old one never happened. Like I'm supposed to just slot a new one in and pretend nothing changed.

I'll probably cave by Friday when I need to cut steel and the hand grinder I've got left is a corded piece of junk that vibrates your wrists numb. But for now I'm just letting it sit. Anyone else ever got weird about retiring a tool that's still in production? Or is this just the sentiment of a man who's spent too many hours in a dusty room.