Just a thought that might or might not be relevant. When I was an apprentice one of the things we had to do was make our own hacksaw. We made every part except the blade and it took weeks of Wednesday afternoons. I think we all did a pretty good job and the hacksaws were nicely finished. Thing is a hacksaw of very similar design was about a fiver to buy. We didn't make them to save money, even at apprentice labour rates those were expensive hacksaws, we made them to develop skills and understanding. My current #1 hacksaw is a Swedish ergonomic model that is about the most expensive on the market. It's a tool, I look after it and don't deliberately abuse it, but it is just a tool. That old one I made hangs in my workshop and is never used, but it means much more to me.
I think there is a great misunderstanding that we are all just frauds who like to look richer than we are. I think that may be true for a lot of rep sales, but I think those who are active on the forums, for the most part, just have a gearhead mentality and get a kick out of understanding, overcoming problems and knowing they built a watch themselves. They may spend the kind of money that would buy them a nice genuine watch, but however nice it was, they just wouldn't have the same satisfaction from it or be personally investied in it, it would just be a watch, a tool, a lump of expensive metal