Serious question, am I wrong for hating on power hammers now?
I always looked down on power hammers... thought they were cheating and took the skill out of the work. But after hurting my shoulder from overworking, I had to use one for a big commission. The consistency it gave on the heavy strikes was something I just couldn't match by hand. Now I see it as a tool, not a crutch... it lets me focus on the finer details without wearing myself out. I guess I was just being stubborn about the 'old ways'.
Guess I've been that guy who thought manual labor was the only honest work until my back staged a protest. Reading @the_elliot's story about his buddy's shed drama sure sounds familiar, doesn't it? Turns out sometimes the right tool just saves you from yourself.
My buddy insisted on building a shed using only hand tools last year. He called it getting back to basics or something. A week in, his shoulder was so bad he slept sitting up. His wife finally made him rent a pneumatic nail gun. The whole thing was done in a day, and his respect for power tools went way up. Sometimes your body just votes against your pride.
But what if the problem was rushing it? A shed built over weeks with hand tools lets you check every nail and feel the wood. Maybe his shoulder hurt because he tried to do a month's careful work in a few hard days.