You're betting your life on your brakes every time you make a stop. Is it worth the risk to pinch a few pennies and try to reuse a marginal part? On the same general subject, if you're willing to take a chance, how about the danger to the rest of the motoring public? If your shade tree brake job results in the injury or death of one of my family, you can run, but you can't hide! Where brakes, steering, or lights are concerned, 100% reliability is just barely good enough.
Jerry