TOOLS AND THE SHOP > GENERAL TOOL AND MACHINE DISCUSSION

What Got you into Tools

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J.A.F.E.:
What got you into using (and collecting) tools?

As a kid I wanted to know how things worked and so I took them apart. My earliest ventures involved bashing things apart but I soon learned I could take them apart and put them back together with the right tools. I was taken with cars and wanted to know how they worked and to take them apart and between an old car my mother had and one a neighbor had I got started early. That of course meant I had to buy tools the tools I had access to were limited - started with a ratchet and three sockets 7/16, 1/2 and 9/16.

At about 12 or 13 I got an after school job with a local mechanic and learned what I'd need and what worked well. That's when my ideas of what I needed in a tool set really started taking shape and I started to build it. Most of those tools were stolen a few years later and so what I have now is built on the ashes of those.

Some years back I decided for some reason I no longer recall to collect one of each ratchet Snap-on made. At the time I had no idea just how many that was and how daunting a task that would be I thought it would be maybe a couple dozen. But regardless of how naive I was it got me into the collecting end as well.

Papaw:
I have been a tool freak since 1966 when I had terrible experiences with an old Triumph motorcycle. Certain tools were required to work on that bike and others like it.

Later I began to repair motorcycles for others and had to accumulate many tools. My father was a builder and his carpentry tools were fascinating in their functionality and usage. I was always curious about vintage and antique tools, especially odd ones, so I began accumulating, collecting, and selling them. I am also interested in old cameras, scales, fans, almost anything old and unusual, so you never know what I might have.

coolmercury:
As a kid I played with my grandfather's tools and often got whipped for it if I left them laying around.  I bought my first socket set in 1949 when I was 15, it was a Craftsman 1/2 inch drive.  At the same time I bought a set of DBE's and DOE's in the metal racks.  I needed these tools to work on my 1936 Dodge that I was rebuilding.  In 1950 my grandfather died and I got all his tools.

By 1985 I had a lot of tools as I was restoring mainly 1959 Ford retracts (steel top convertibles), that is until all the tools were stolen along with my jacks, air compressor etc.  However, insurance replaced most of them although instead of =v= Craftsman it was all -G- Craftsman witch I still have in my tool box.

When I retired in 1996 from my job of 34 years I started collecting tools and now have too many but keep collecting.

goodfellow:
I learned to appreciate and work with tools from my dad and my grandfather. They were very close. My dad and grandpa were into fixing and restoring cars. I guess they were an early version of car flippers who chased down good cars, fixed them up and finally sold them (mostly) to folks in the neighborhood who needed a reliable car (or a second car for mom and/or the teenage kids), and couldn't afford new. My dad and grandpa did a lot of free work for people in the neighborhood who went through hard times. They often got paid in fresh veggies, baked goods, yard work, and quite often a lot of hugs.

jabberwoki:
My friend Tony at a Portland swap meet. He asked me to keep an eye out for Plvmb tools and it`s been down hill from then on.

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