Tell us how you got into tools and such

Unlike virtually all of you here, I didn't get the mechanical gene from my father, or uncle.

It was my mother.

She grew up on a farm in upstate New York, and had the "fixit" mentality, which she got from her father, who like all farmers, had to do a lot of onsite repairs of farm equipment gone wrong. She apparently recognized a mechanical aptitude in me when I was very young-- or maybe just thought that her sons should be able to fix anything, like her father-- and made sure I had plenty of things to read like Mechanix Illustrated (remember Tom McCahill?), Popular Mechanics, the JC Whitney catalog (which at the time was actually well-written and illustrated) and a host of other sources.

My mom had a few tools, but mostly for household stuff, and I used them for working on bikes, and whatever else I could take apart. I was pretty good at taking things apart, but not so interested in putting them back together once I thought I understood how they worked!

When it came time to buy my first car (from savings while working at the local Burger Chef), I started accumulating Craftsman tools, and used them to slave over a '67 Volkswagen Type 1, and later, cars that my younger brothers got. I pretty much had to self-develop those skills since I was a typical dirt-poor kid, with more time than money. I couldn't afford to take the car to a real shop, so I fixed it in the family garage, displacing the parents cars from their rightful parking spaces, while I puttered, and eventually fixed, whatever was wrong with the car. Later, I wasted more time "upgrading" my car with stuff like a short shifter, disc brakes from a Ghia, a "3/4 race" cam, various suspension mods for autocross, etc, but always in the family garage, and usually working with my brothers.

In retrospect, I often wished that my father had had an interest in cars, tools, and things mechanical. But he didn't, and so we missed out on so many chances to bond. My mother tolerated us dominating the garage while we worked on our junk, but never really was into cars per se, so everything we learned was born of trial and error (a lot of error, actually!).

Maybe I was born with the car gene, as I often like to think. But I apparently got it from my mother's side of the family!

Stuff broke, need tools to fix.

This website.
Every time something needed to be fixed or I needed guidance I googled it and it would always pull up this website. Sure I tried to buy halfway decent tools and what not to do the jobs. But ever since joining I've thrown out the Husky tool set that had done me well for years for a USA set.

When I was 5 or 6 we were care takers for a cemetery and Dad taught me how to work on the mowers. He died when I was almost 11 and mom's first boyfriend worked a a stone quarry and he taught me to hard face weld and use air tools and torque extenders ( a pipe ) By the time I got to trade school simple jobs were a snap and big jobs didn't scare me. It's been a long journey and I'm about to retire to play, turning wrenches of course.

couldn't afford to fix the outer tie rod on a truck bought a crescent wrench to do the job, the rest is history

I was always fascinated by how things work and liked to take apart machines. My grandfather gave me an old lawnmower that I figured out how to disassemble and reassemble and make run. I figured out early on it was a good thing to be able to fix your own stuff. My parents bought me a simple tool set and it kept going on from there.

In HS, I had a couple of friends who had the coolest cars at school. They were the coolest because their parents paid for whatever they wanted to do to them. That wasn't going to happen for me, so I took lots of auto and metal shop to learn how to make and do for myself. Of course, all of that led to more and more tools along the way.

I don't think it stops. You get past a certain point and you just keep getting more tools to suit ever expanding skills/needs. I guess there are worse things one could spend their time and money on.

This is a good beginning point for me. The tools in the photos were my Uncle Ed Copeland's. These would have been in use between 1935 to 1950 approximately. I have restored them, and his handmade tool box. From there, it goes to my grandfather, who ran a painting and decorating business and my father who ran a garage in the 1950's to 70's. Uncle Ed would have come to your home and worked on about anything, from knob and tube electrical to hand pumped well pumps. He also ran Copeland Home and Hardware. I worked for grandfather and got a painter's card, and worked for dad and learned auto mechanics and general home repairs. What I remember about dad was every time we got ready to cut a line, he would back up two steps, slap his shirt pocket for a smoke, and say "This will either work or it won't". Funny it always did!
Dad was more into accounting and management than auto repairing. He had a couple of good mechanics working for him that taught me most of the things I know on vehicle maintenance. Today I am 68 and I can "saw a line" by eyeball, and "cut a line razor sharp" with a paint brush. I long ago gave up fixing cars. I had so many mentors I could not list them on a two page thread here.
I restored the tools and box in my memory of my Uncle Ed Copeland.

Simple for me: somebody had to fix ****.

I grew up on the border of poor & not poor. Plenty of broken stuff that wasn't getting replaced soon, so I kept it going as well as I could. I will always hate dishwashers & printers.

Some people are born with a silver spoon in their mouth, I was born with tools in my hands.

My Dad was a mechanic at the local Ford & Massey Ferguson dealership for many years before opening his own service staiton. I worked there pumping gas and tinkering on things after school and in the summers until i finished school and started my apprenticeship as a mechanic. He also did whatever repairs or construction that was needed at home. I recall a photo of me "helping" Dad when I was likely less than three years old. I also recall many hours spent working with Dad on building and woodworking projects as I grew up. I've carried on that self reliance with my own home, and though I no longer work as a mechanic, I do work on all things mechanical I own.

I know my Grandfather (Dad's dad) was an self reliant sort too, but I never had the opportunity to know him as he passed away long before my entry into this world. I would pressume that my dad learned a lot from him on the farm before that, so it is passed on knowledge in many ways, but also an innate sense of understanding things and how they work that those of us who work with tools possess.

My family assumed I had some facination with all this stuff. It never really had much to do with that. It was a production issue, cant use it broke, the maintenance dept can improve it as well as fix it. Build too. At our cost. When we want it.

I grew up watching my dad build decks, fix cars, repair plumbing, installing hardwood floors...on and on.
I would sneak into the basement to go through his toolboxes and crush toys in his bench vise.

Youngest of four sons to a Royal Navy Engineer, himself the son of an RAF/Fleet Air Arm Aircraft Engineer - had no choice really!

My Dad was a good mechanic although he did not turn wrenches for a living. He could fix anything. He was raised on a farm and his Dad taught him how to use tools. When Dad was drafted in WWII, the Army put him through a mechanics school in Flint MI. That knowledge he learned was handed down to me and my younger brothers. We grew up bonding with Dad in the driveway on Saturday mornings working on the family cars. That soon turned into me working on my friends cars. Our tools were just a mix-matched set that almost always got the job done. We would buy specialty tools if needed but could usually get by without them.

Jumping forward to 1973, I had gotten married and had just bought my house. It had a nice garage but I needed some tools. I went to the bank and on my signature alone borrowed $3,000. Let me tell you, $3,000 in 1973 bought a lot of really nice Craftsman tools. I still enjoy using those same tools today and for the most part they have held up nicely. Someday my grandson will probably get all my stuff. He is only 4 years old but shows a real interest in cars and tools.

my dad for sure,,,we still work in the shop on weekends. currently finishing up a tube chassis drag car.

I always wanted to be a mechanic, over the course of years on the job I acquired a lot of tools. Craftsman at first (I still have most of the starter set my father gave me) but as I started settling in to the job I started buying Snap on and Matco for the finish and feel. Then I got hooked on the looks and status among my peers. Now after a 40 year career just picking up and using those tools brings back a flood of memories of good friends and co-workers that have passed or I've lost track of.

I grew up on a farm. I learned to work on farm equipment and then cars.

I was born into the tool and garage world, My Father was a car / truck mechanic, and we had a workshop out the back, plus growing up with two older brothers in the trade as mechanics, so playing arround with nuts and bolts, spanners and sockets, even before I could walk,
Loved every minute of My childhood, had a roll cab and tool set before I was ten years old, always got stuck in, looking back now,I guess I most have got right in the way of the real work that was going on, learnt so much,
I can even remember being trusted enough to paint a lorry at the age of 9 years, Im 40 now and still going at it,
As for tools, love um, I have far too many and still buy more, I will never stop,lol.
My moto is, He who dies with the most tools, Wins,

"Very interesting", says "The Dirty Old Man(Arte Johnson from "Laugh In." See my welcome post please from yesterday to see my story, thnx!

Tools go back a long way for me also. I started taking things apart around age 6 and putting them back together working by 7 or 8. My mothers dad was a carpenter and so was his dad. He was in his late 80's by the time I was old enough to know him and had not done any woodworking for many years. He could still hand sharpen any kind of saw and I remember my dad always taking saws (crosscut) up for him to sharpen. I did inherit his tools and still cherish them. My dad was not handy with tools at all but did sell tools, SK and Proto. He started giving me SK tools about age 8 after he saw I took better care of them than he did. One of my uncles worked for my dad and had mechanical skills and kept the family cars and stepvans running. He would come over every Saturday to finish paperwork for the week and then would repair any thing that needed doing. Dad sold supplies and tools to service stations so we had one that my uncle could take the cars to and use a lift to do oil change and grease jobs on. Brake work/clutch/ujoint he usually did in the drive way.
I helped build a church camp in my early teens and learned carpentry, masonery, electrical wiring, roofing and plumbing even used a air jack hammer one time there. I owe that camp a lot of skills that I have used for the last 50 years. My first paying jobs were mowing neighbors yards after school using mowers that I repaired and reworked which eventually led to my first full time after school and weekend job as a mechanic at a lawn mower repair shop. Learned a lot there that still applies to lawnmowers 50 years later.
Went to college and worked as mechanic to help my way through school etc. Started big time collecting tools probably by age 14-15. Bought my first Ox/Ac out fit at age 17 that I still have. Got married and bought older fixer upper house and went into woodworking tools to build cabinets and remodel the house. Traded my first chain saw for my first table saw about then. Finally was able to build a dedicated shop about 20 years ago and now it is running over with tools and had to buy a box trailer to keep some of the overflow. Been married for 40 years to a woman that understands that good tools let me build good furniture, fix cars, appliances etc. I have done about 10 car rebuilds starting with a 56 Ford Station wagon, my first car, three pickup trucks, 67 Firebird, 70 Ford Station Wagon, Dodge van, Olds delta 88, Chevy 77 Caprice, 90 Buick Regal. 92 Buick LeSabre. Most of those were homestrip/ repaint jobs, engine/transmission rebuilds and interior upholstery replace . Drove most of the cars 100,000 miles or so after rebuilding them and now able to finally buy vehicle that didn't need rebuilding. Still have all the tools from those jobs including commercial sewing machines. Bought another fixer up home 35 years ago and have been adding on to it with some project about ever year or two, started with redoing the kitchen, (cheep way), pour basement floor, finish basement, add on 28x36 shop, 36x36 great room over head. About 100 yards or so of concrete and yard work required two bobcats and various Gravely Mowers to keep the yard up. I would guess about $250,000 in total tool investment since I was 8. But over the years I have only paid labor on concrete finishing, (don't have enough time to finish before it sets up) and roof replacement. (Did the first roof 20 years ago, but knees won't let me any more. ) I have paid labor for one transmission rebuild over the years but think that's all I have ever paid labor for on car repairs in the last 50 years. As soon as I get new knees I hope to get back in the shop and build a lot more stuff now that I have retired.
I worked as mechanic in college and with Firestone for 18 years (few years as Store manager) then for 20 years doing appliance repair for GE, so I learned A/C repair and have installed 5 furnace/A/C units in my houses over the years. I think I did pay someone one time to fix a TV but everything else that's been broken or replaced has been by me. Every tool up until the last couple of years has paid for itself several times in money saved on repairs or improvements on my home. Got into welding big time 5 years ago and bought enough steel for stairs-railings etc around the house for the steel supplier to put me on his holiday card list. (About 6 to 8 tons in 5 years.) Most expensive single tool would have to be an Edwards Ironworker. Every one of my tools are worth what I paid for them unless my wife sells them in an estate sale after I am gone.
No sons, but I do have a daughter that at age 16 in high school, came home from school, got my floor jack, star wrench, and hubcap hammer and took them over to a friends house and changed the flat on his car as he didn't know how to. She does most of her own repairs around the house and is not afraid to tackle about anything as long as she can facetime me for help.