Just for fun, if you are of a certain age- do you still have any of your first tools?

[David Jackson]

Just for fun; if you are of a certain age (I am over 70) do you still have any of the first tools you ever bought?
Some of my first tools were in a boxed Globemaster set and I still have most of that set. Hey I know Globemaster is considered junk but hey; what did I know?
Anyone have the missing pieces from my set by chance?

I also have a partial set of Challenger open/box wrenches; will post later.

 

[wyo george]

I'm only half your age at thirty five, but I still have my first set of SK 1/4" ratchets my Dad gave me for Christmas when I was five. I'm missing a few pieces here and there, but I still use the nut driver almost daily; it's one of my favorite tools.

 

[MrJason]

I'm only 35, but my adopted grandpa left me his tool collection when he passed away.

It's a cornucopia, that's for sure. I have several Bradley wonder wrenches, which I have a feeling were the HF wrench of their day. They look cheap, and rough in cast.

I have a set of Challenger wrenches too, from my dad's collecting days.

My estate, when that day comes. . Will make people scratch their heads, asking, "Why?"

 

[Ponchoguy]

Yes. I'm in my 40's and I have my Dad's, Uncle's, Grandfather's and next door neighbors (all are passed away...RIP) tools, as well as my own that I bought.

Still have the receipt for my first Sears Craftsman tool set from August 1990, and the tool set is 95% original and I still have it. Ditto my first Craftsman metric wrench set. I have all subsequent receipts for what I bought.

So yes, I still have my first tools and then some .

 

[ryanl925]

The only thing I still have is my first set of craftsman rp metric wrenches. i gave all my other first stuff to my cousin so he could maintain his dirtbike. I have a bunch of older stuff than I started out with now. i was?using that set to do a timing belt on his car. My stuff is only 15 years old but never broke anything but screwdrivers and a 1/4 rp ratchet. The 1/2 rp has seen 10ft pipes and still ticking

 

[oldldh]

My first tools were a rock and a club...

Worn out they were...

I enter my eighth decade next year...

Now that's a frightening thought...

 

[930dreamer]

I'm 50, I have most of my first tools. The Craftsman grinder still has the original grinding wheel from 1981. I still have my first Snap On box and the receipts.

 

[CJM8515]

Yep, still have quite a few of them actually. My first real hammer dad bought Ive since refinished the handle but its still going strong.

 

[Imcrazy]

My parents bought me a carpenter tool set as a six year old. I still have the hand saw, hammer and hand drill. Somewhere the coping saw and small square went missing in the intervening 60 years.

 

[ArtDeco]

I lost my first Bench Top? set when I loaned my tool box to my buddy - I'd of gotten rid of them myself by now, had I not trusted him. No sentimental value.

 

[Flattie]

I am creeping up on 40. The summer right after 8th grade my Dad bought me a set of SAE Blackhawk wrenches. And a 1/4 - 3/8 drive Craftsman socket set. I am proud to say they have been worked very hard and I still have every single tool. I learned from here how to rebuild the round head 3/8 ratchet. He told me back then to try hard to buy a tool forever, and to pick USA tools to keep folks in this country working hard. I guess that is why I am so angry with Sears... But that's another story. I love my satin finish Blackhawk wrenches!

 

[TDLMOMOWERS]

I'm 59 years old. I have my first 3/8 drive socket set. It is a Fleet set and has sockets from 3/8 through 3/4, a ratchet, short extension, 13/16 spark plug socket and a universal joint. I got the set by saving, Top Value stamps. The set is probably about 43 years old and still works great.

 

[ssentt]

51 and still have majority of my first tools.....sockets, ratchets, wrenches. Also still have some of my fathers tools. Might not mean much to some but I like keeping around the hand tools that were my fathers. Some I still use, some I've put up for safe keeping. When I'm dead and gone I'm sure they will be sold.....till then they're mine and the memories they bring.

Didn't really have my own tools till early twenties when I moved out. Dad was a machinist, we had a garage full of tools with over flow into the basement....just no need for my own till then.

 

[Jagmandave]

65 and I absolutely have almost every tool I've ever owned......

Plus I have my great grandfather's tool box and tools, he was a carpenter and built homes in the 1800's and early 1900's.....

 

[farmall57]

I'm 57 and have a Craftsman 1/2 drive socket set my uncle found beside the road when I was about 14. He had no use for it and gave it to me. It is the only 1/2 drive set I have used extensively. The ratchet has been rebuilt once and I broke the 13/16 socket, rest of it is as it was. I've used it so much that an other than Craftsman ratchet and socket still just doesn't feel right.

 

[metalhead212121]

Im 34. I started buying tools at 17. Still have my first tool box. (It sits in my bottom KRL). Still have my craftsman toolbox my grandfather used. Think he passed away in '84. Still have my bottom, middle and top craftsman tool box. It holds a lot of misc junk. I HAD one other tool box that I regret selling. Didn't have the room but wish I sold it to somebody else. Here's a pic for reference.

 

[Cato]

My first tools were a rock and a club...

I don't think I even bought any tools until I was 30yo. I literally used a rock as a hammer and swiss army knife as a screwdriver all through my 20s. I lived in apartments back then and took my car to Jiffy Lube to change the oil. A lot has changed.

 

[A_Pmech]

Plus I have my great grandfather's tool box and tools, he was a carpenter and built homes in the 1800's and early 1900's.....

This we need to see Jagman!

 

[powerwagon63]

I'm 50 and still have the Craftsman set my Dad bought in 1980 when I got my first car. I also have a Starrett combo square I bought at a garage sale at age 13. I've always loved tools and when co-workers went out to drink their paycheck I would go buy tools.

Marc

 

[colin39]

Im 44 I still have my 1st snappy 3/8th and 1/4 socket sets and my 4mm to 19mm spanner set, that the owner of the business bought me when I started my apprenticeship. As well as the stanley pliers and knipex
side cutters they all serve me well on a day to day basis.

 

[colin39]

I'm 50, I have most of my first tools. The Craftsman grinder still has the original grinding wheel from 1981. I still have my first Snap On box and the receipts.

I still have my original receipts too and my original ra and ec cards lol and the red snappy plastic and yellow mac folders.

 

[DWise]

I'll be 69 this month and still have the Craftsman raised panels and sockets and Sears metric boxed end wrenches I got when I got out of the Air Force in 1967. I bought my first car a 1960 Austin Healey with a burnt piston and needed them all.

 

[bobcatdan]

At 31, I don't know where most of first tools really ended up. I didn't really loose them, but as my set evolved over the years. I just don't know where a lot of stuff ended up. I started buying tools when I was 12. Not having a sears near by, I bought Stanley. Of what I bought, I still have a 25' tape measure. I still have most of the ratchets and sockets from phase 2 when I was getting a lot of used tools my dad was buying. I started in the dealership when I was 16 and owed SO money since. I have 99% of what I bought when I was 16 on up.

 

[ddawg16]

I still have the Blackhawk screw driver set me dad gave me when I was 16.

No Bull, you can't have it.

 

[PCO6]

I'm 62 and still have most of the first "mechanics" set that I bought at Canadian Tire in my early teens. It was one of those 249 piece sets that included "every thing a mechanic would ever need" for only $24.95.

The tool box was packed so tightly that you could never put everything back into it after the first time you took the tools out. I think that was the plan. They wanted your next purchase to be a larger tool box ... and it worked.

 

[Pumpman1968]

I'm 46 and I bought a Craftsman 1/4" 3/8" socket set in '83-'84. I've had to replace the plastic carrying case, upgraded the ratchets and added 1/2" drive but, I still have almost all the original sockets as part of my road box and use them VERY often.

 

[WWIIjeep]

Just for fun; if you are of a certain age (I am over 70) do you still have any of the first tools you ever bought?
Some of my first tools were in a boxed Globemaster set and I still have most of that set. Hey I know Globemaster is considered junk but hey; what did I know?

Some of the older Globemaster, and the Globemaster stuff that was made in Spain and Italy isn't really bad quality. It isn't really good either but it's not the typical junk that later Globemaster and other dime store tools were.

I'm just 39, and have been for almost as long as Jack Benny was, so I've got a few Globemaster tools too--couple of open end wrenches and a tap wrench. I guess it goes with the territory of you buy what you can afford at the time, and back then, a few pennies made a big difference.

Also a small hip-roof tool box and a keyhole saw that came from the 88-cent Bonanza store, and a set of Oxwall 1/4" sockets from Fingerhut. If you remember clear vinyl car seat covers from Fingerhut, you might be almost as old as I am.

 

[jeffmoss26]

I'm 27, still have and use a pair of Channellock 420s and 10" Crescent wrench that my dad's mechanic gave me when I was four.

 

[NUTTSGT]

When I got to my first duty station, 29 Palms, Ca.in 1988, I went to the PX and bought $40 worth of Alltrade tools and keep them in a .50 cal ammo can. I still have a couple of the screwdrivers, sockets and wrenches. A few of the wrenches have been modified for specialty use.

 

[kythri]

I'm 36.

Christmas of my 12th or 13th year, I got my first "officially mine" tools.

They were a 40pc socket set like this (only in a blue metal case):

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DHHPJAE/?tag=atomicindus08-20

A set of 8 or 10 screwdrivers that had a blue rubber handle deal that would slide off, kinda like how Klein drivers do.

A 3pc set of NAPA Silverline pliers (slip-joint, dikes and needle-nose).

The pliers are in my road box today, I've still got 3-4 of the screwdrivers kicking around. The ratchet in that socket set broke when I tried to seriously use it a couple years later.

The rest of the sockets and stuff have been given away as I replaced them with better stuff.

Dad smartly bought me inexpensive stuff as my first set, because he knew I'd lose stuff. When I bought my own stuff, I made sure to take care of it, so that a tool I needed wasn't missing when I needed it.

 

[Heavy Metal Doctor]

Mid 40's and yes I have some of the tools Dad gave me at 15. I lost a lot in a tool box that went missing from the bed of my pickup tuck about 18 years ago, though.

I only really cherish the adjustable wrench Dad got me for Machine shop class in high school - the single very first tool. I Also am very attached to some of my very first tools I bought in early 20's for my own wrenching career....worn the chrome off some of them and still use 'em everyday.

 

[lilredex]

Of a similar age......

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=159622 Post #4

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=38320

 

[cgv69]

Mid 40's here. I don't have any of my very first tools I bought when I was 16-18 (mostly Stanley and Craftsman) but the only one I wish I still had was my Craftsman toolbox. It was nothing special, just one of the standard silver carry boxes with the red tray's. The thing that bothers me about it most is, I have no idea what happen to it? I don't recall selling it or giving it away and I know it wasn't stolen but it is gone none the less. I wish I still had it as it had a fuuny story behind it and a lot or memories associated with it.

I do still have all of the tools I bought over 20 years ago when I used them professionally but due to a combination of having an adult son who has a need/desire for his own tools and finding this site, I have been doing a lot of upgrading over the last couple of years and a lot of my original tools have been either gone to my son's toolbox or my road\spares kit.

 

[ecotec]

I am 40. I did not have any of my own tools until I was over 18. I did not know how hot do ANYTHING with tools. I bought my first tools to maintain the series of crappy cars I had when I was young. If I did not have it, and I needed it, I went and bought it to finish the job (Craftsman, Great Neck… Nothing high end). I was figuring it out as I went. I remember doing brake jobs in my apartment complex with my spare tire jack, no jack stands and the most minimal of tools. I did oil changes, brake jobs, changed an alternator… I still have all those tools.

I started as an electrician at 20. I was green as green. I did not even know how to swing a hammer. I remember my journeyman yelling "hit it with your purse". I bought a lot of tools for that job. I have most of those tools. Everything that did not get lost, stolen. or damaged so bad as to be useless. I have been an electrician for 20 years. I still use a Craftsman RP ratchet, Craftsman sockets, and RP combos for work.

 

[Boilerhouse]

Almost 60 and still have all my first tools. The first set was bought from Sears (and made in Japan) at the age of 13 to keep my bicycle going. That same set has been in every vehicle I have owned since I stopped biking and started driving.

 

[lotsoftools]

I'm 41 and still have most of the first Craftsman set my grandpa gave me in the late 80's.

 

[t4runner]

I have a set of Bonney wrenches (the polished set) from 3/8 to 1,1/4 I bought them new in 1976. They still are my favorite wrench to go to.

 

[mickeyone]

Have a great neck 1/2 inch drive set I bought in 81 to maintain my dodge van that was repurposed phone truck ,also have gedore India nesting set of open end wrenches and fuller adjustable from 70s.

 

[IOWNJUNK]

When I moved to the ghetto known as military housing I had about 15 years of accumulated tools disappear. I have only had 3 break-ins in my life, all 3 in the year I lived there. So I guess my answer is "none".

 

[crewchief888]

ive been buying tools since '76 when i started my machinist apprenticship, add in over 30 years wrenching on cost eq.

i can count on 1 hand the number of tools i've sold in all those years.

altho, i've lost a few over the years.