how young did your addiction start

[06wt]

Heres me at 2 learning to set the idle screw, as you can see my mower in the backround i think i fixed it as well.

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r198/thesecondfez1974/2yomech.jpg

[Deafautotech]

what about that i was born with wrench on my hand??

[olds88]

Probably when I was 8 and wanted (and got) the Snap-on ratcheting screwdriver for my birthday.


Of course, as a joke my dad got a pink one, but we traded it for a black one.

Should have kept the pink one, I could sell it on eBay and retire!

[franzdom]

I had a german shepherd at around age 6 she would bite the front tire of friend's bicycles, stopping them and puncturing the tires. I had to fix them. I was always fascinated with bikes, taking them apart & so on. At age 15 I got a job at a bike shop, was in that industry for about 20 years, moving from mechanic & pro wheel builder to road rep to inside sales then product manager.

[rjohnson]

When I was 8, I got a C-man mechanics set for my birthday and started screwing around with old engines.

[ephotrod]

16 years old when i got my first car and my father laughed at me because it didn't run.
Josh

[back2class]

Got a kids tool kt when I was 4. It was when kids tool kits came with real saws and I loved that present. Why I love quality tools today and lots of them is because in my teens working on dirt bikes I was never having the right tool. I dispise when I am really into woking one something and work stops because I do not have the right tool. I pretty much vow to never have that feeling of being unable to work on my dirtbike again as long as I live. True

[Griff93]

My dad started buying tools for me before I was born.

[wrenchr]

Since birth!! My Dad was always working on something and we would talk cars and work on them all the time!! As his health got worse he would instruct me from the porch on what to look for.

[rsanter]

by the age of 9 or 10 I was using much of the woodworking equipment in the garage. by about 13 or 14 I was starting to weld. at about 14-15 I was helping my dad build the house he currently lives in. by 17-18 I was starting to do precision machinework

has not stoped since

bob

[JWink]

At age 4 when my grandfather let me use any tool in his garage to tear apart the power wheels jeep he used to let me drive.

[fordbroncodave]

i started in kindergarden taking all my battery operated toys appart with a snap on phillips screw driver. to this day i still use it often at my desk.

50% of dads tools handed down to me and he replaced it all with craftsman.

[boro_boy70]

Heres my son when he was a couple of months old. The wife went out, so I dressed him in "work" clothes and took some pics. He's almost 5 now and loves to hang out in the garage and "fix" things.

[chrislehr]

i havent lived with my father in 20+ years now. for the first time in 10+ he is coming here from NY for xmas. I told him he can steal any tools he wanted, since I destroyed his collection.

[Tool Pants]

It was about 42 years ago I took my first lawn mower apart. The reel type with an engine sitting on top, and that thing was older than me back then. I think I got it back together. Whatever tools I had would have been a screwdriver and adjustable wrench.

My parents got divorced when I was 8 years old, so I really did not have a father around to show me how to do stuff. I learned on my own. Trial and error. But my father was good at fixing stuff. Must be in the genes.

1 1/2 years ago this modern lawn mover was left at the dumpster at work. Turned on the side and leaking oil. Would not start. I took it home and rebuilt it. It now works. I was looking for the points like the old days, but that is gone.

Funny thing is. I don't have a lawn. Took it to my neighbor to test it out and mowed his lawn.

[forceyoda]

I did not get started till I was in college and was working for a Sears call center. I was getting 20% off everything, including sales, so i started picking up some stuff for my bikes. Then I realized how much better the good stuff was and found this site and I have been a poorer man since.

I have a 4 year old son who picked up really fast though. I have a junk tool box with all my old TW stuff that he can loose or do what every he wants with but he always asks me is he can play with my "shiny tools".

[Rickster]

One of the earliest memories I have as a kid is when my Dad bought me a small kids toolbox. Now back in the early 60's there were no plastic tools, this was the real deal. I got the saw taken away shortly after receiving the toolkit because my Mom caught me sawing through the wooden leg of the couch. Luckily for me it was the front middle leg and I'd only gotten halfway through. My Dad took most of the heat for that one. Then I lost the rest of the toolkit when I disassembled the chain link fence in the yard. I took the pliers and the screwdriver and pulled apart the retaining bands that hold the chain link fence to the end post. It was a cool toolbox while it lasted. I think it had a red bottom with a white top with a center handle.

[BB26]

Very young; not sure the exact age. I spent a lot of time at my dad's transmission shop growing up and I just loved it. Even when I was really young (before I started school), my mom would take me there to hang out while she did the books. I can remember that I would go into my dad's toolbox and take my favorite tool, which were his 1/4'' Snap-on ratchets. After he replaced them two or three times, he figured out what I was doing. He let me keep one. I have about 100 ratchets now.

[Lookin4'67Galaxieconv]

1 1/2 years ago this modern lawn mover was left at the dumpster at work. Turned on the side and leaking oil. Would not start. I took it home and rebuilt it. It now works. I was looking for the points like the old days, but that is gone.

Funny thing is. I don't have a lawn. Took it to my neighbor to test it out and mowed his lawn.

That looks just like my lawnmower...'cept I have regular sized wheels all around.

For me, I caught the tool bug later than a lot of you guys...around 24-25 in terms of starting to buy stuff. Though I've always messed around with tools and building stuff.

[MotoDave]

When I was 16 and got my first car. My parents got me a Craftsman mecahnics tool set for Christmas that year. I used to spend my evenings taking stuff off the car, seeing how they worked, then putting it back together. After my senior year in high school I blew the enging, and spent all summer replacing it so that my brother could use the car for his last 2 years of high school. My parents joke that was the best education they ever paid for :)

10 years later, I'm still doing all my own maintenance with that same Craftsman Tool set. I've upgraded the ratchets to Snap-On, but the rest is still going strong!

[The Muffin Man]

It all started when I got my first lego set :).

[LGMechanical]

I was about 7 or 8 when I built my first fort/club house. It was somewhere around 8'x8' lol. I grew up in the country. We only had 2 channels there so watching tv was no fun. I was always out building stuff or fishing.

[arkangel06]

I started at 13 when I got my first job

[06wt]

It was about 42 years ago I took my first lawn mower apart. The reel type with an engine sitting on top, and that thing was older than me back then. I think I got it back together. Whatever tools I had would have been a screwdriver and adjustable wrench.

My parents got divorced when I was 8 years old, so I really did not have a father around to show me how to do stuff. I learned on my own. Trial and error. But my father was good at fixing stuff. Must be in the genes.

1 1/2 years ago this modern lawn mover was left at the dumpster at work. Turned on the side and leaking oil. Would not start. I took it home and rebuilt it. It now works. I was looking for the points like the old days, but that is gone.

Funny thing is. I don't have a lawn. Took it to my neighbor to test it out and mowed his lawn.

i know what ya mean tool pants, my parents divorced about a year after that pic in my first post was takin. since then all me and my dad have mostly done together is work. but im not complaining, ive learned more in 23 years then most most other carpenters my age. But as for the wreanching side of things, all self taught, my dad calls me with problems on cars

[jwitt]

I've always been wrenching on something as long as I can remember. I can remember standing on the bumper (back when you could stand on a bumper) and watch my dad work on those old cars.
I've always believed that mechanics are born (or cursed?). The specifics can be taught but you can't teach mechanical ability. My Dad was a mechanic, I've always been one and so has one of my brothers but my youngest brother didn't know which end of crescent wrench to use as a hammer but was a whiz at math

Jim