Bought a $40 pocket hole jig 2 years ago and it's still the best money I ever spent on tools
I was building shop cabinets in my garage in Phoenix and my dad said just screw them from the side, but that jig made every joint tight and square on the first try. What's the one cheap tool that ended up doing way more work than you expected?
Read somewhere that a cheap 6 inch steel ruler ends up being the most used thing in a lot of shops, which tracks with my own bench. Mine cost about three bucks and gets grabbed for marking, checking gaps, scraping glue, even prying a stuck lid. Price tag has nothing to do with how much work a tool does.