Dad's tool, I own, remembering him

[andyvh1959]

My dad passed away in 2002. Over the years more and more of his tools made it to my shop. My dad was a mechanic/welder/machinist/journeyman trained in Holland. He LOVED to fix things, keep things working, and did all he could for minimal cost, even if it meant making his own tools.

I was reminded of that again, today as I fitted a new handle to my sledge hammer. Well, actually, the sledge hammer I got from his tool stash. As I prepped the head for the new handle, after driving out the old wedge and cleaning out the bore, I noticed a weld up one side of the head. I chuckled to myself, thinking dad must have found a sledge hammer head in the trash at Miller where he worked. Rather than see it thrown out, he took it home, ground out the crack, vee'd it out for a weld, I'm guessing heated it up to at least 400 degrees and then welded it up from the bottom up. The weld at the top is nearly an inch wide, and it looks perfect. If I only knew half of what he knew I'd be satisfied.

 

[The Cobbler]

Nice memories to have. My dad was very similar , a machinist too. we never go t anything new, it was always fixed ! LOL

 

[theoldwizard1]

Not many memories of working with my Dad. Started passing wrenches to him under the care somewhere around 10 yo. By the time I was 15, I was doing all the oil changes and tune ups of our fleet of 4 cars !

I did not get hardly any of my Dad's tools as they were "picked through" by neighbors and I had bought pretty much everything I needed by then. I did grab a pair of Dunlop pliers with red plastic grips and a push drill (it fascinated me as a kid).

 

[Zmann]

I never really saw my dad wrench on anything ,, and the car was always at the mechanics

sometimes you just can' hide the fact your adopted lol

but he was a heck of an Architect
good topic !

 

[Kev442]

My Dad didn't invest in quality tools with the exception of his Williams 3/8 and SK 1/2 sets. He gifted me the SK several years ago, just used it today.
I found the Williams sitting way up on a shelf when adapting a bed assist for him just before hospice this Spring. Turns out the ratchet was skipping, so he stopped using it. I took it home and all it needed was lubing to move out the old grease. He went downhill so fast I never got to return it and show him. I use it often now.
Everything else is still there so I can fix things for Mom. I was just eyeballing the sledge the other day, decided to leave it there for now.

 

[BlakeTheCarGuy]

Nice I will get all of my dads tools when he is gone. Regardless of what I already have I am keeping all of them for the memories and sentimental attachment it has to me.


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[ducksface]

My grandpa's tool box.
Now a porch light sconce.

 

[rlwhitetr3b]

My dad died while I was a freshman in college, 1970. I have a Ward's hammer and some old Craftsman power tools. I have use the hammer whenever I feel uncertain with what I'm about to do. I have used the jigsaw on the pocket doors I just finished. Using tools that I remember from over 60 years ago is unreal.

 

[Sevenhills1952]

I have Dad's Craftsman tools, he worked for Sears. Amazing what he (grew up during depression) and Grandad (born late 1800s) could do with so little and I learned a lot.

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[Bill Wright]

Craftsman 1/4” drive socket set. I think dad got it for Christmas.. He was a mechanical engineer. I have his wood lathe and table saw, a 1930’s craftsman 1/2” drive set but that little set means the world to me and I use it very frequently.

 

[Zmann]

I probably have 80k-100k in tools and equipment

my kids will want nothing to do with them when I am gone lol
it will be a dream come true for many garage sale
craftsman lathes, mills, drills, welders,

 

[23ford]

Dad is in assisted living, got some of his tools. They bring back good memories and make me wish I had learned more when he could work.............But have the memories ...

 

[jmiller_2308]

Dad had cheap tools made worse by several sons leaving them out in the rain after working on a bicycle. When we cleaned out the house I brought a stationary sander home to fix and upon inspection realized it wasn't worth fixing so ended up tossing it.

On the other hand, there was an old wooden level and two man saw that must have come from my grandparents or earlier. I hadn't seen them growing up as they weren't tools any of us used but they are now happily hanging as art in the wood area of my shop.

More useful to me was when an older brother left the state to live in FL. He had been a millwright in the mines and also a mechanic in the cities so he had collected a wide variety of hand tools. He didn't want to move them all to FL with him so I got a huge stash of hand tools to complement what i had but also a bunch of tools that I wouldn't have normally acquired. Whenever I take out the HUGE hammer, small orifice cleaning files, extra wrench sizes that I didn't have, etc. I think fondly of him and his gifts to me.

 

[RoscoTom]

I was lucky enough to get all of my Dad's garage stuff.
Almost too lucky. His stuff + mine is a lot.

Lots of Craftsman stuff, almost every piece, even sockets, have his initials on them.
He got an engraver in the 80's, he really went town with it.

 

[Bill Bowman]

I don't have many of my dad's tools, but the few I do have are wonderful. One homemade flat iron bar, gets put to use many times a week. Each time I grab it, I think of him.

 

[Rabbit929]

I wish I had a heartfelt story of my dad but he was/is an *******. (In a roundabout good way)
Everything he gives(sells) me he screws me on. And I have to fix it.
He can be the smartest man I know, but it seems he likes watching me struggle. But at the same time, he has taught me more life lessons in a short time through blood and sweat than anyone could ever dream to.
Any inch I would give him financially, he would screw me on. By the time I was 16 I was VERY familiar with the buy and sell market, and how not to get screwed. The one time I didn’t take his advice, I took an out of state check and it bounced, I loses $2000 worth of motorcycle and nothing I could do about it.
He made me learn everything the hard way, and when I did finally enter the real world as an adult, I did great. Because I already knew how terrible people can be/are, and how to go about your life while being honest but without being taken advantage of.
I’m really proud to see how proud (and less of an *******) he’s become seeing what I’ve become.
But now he’s mad at me because I won’t work with him without a motorized contract. ��

 

[DeeDubz]

My dad passed away in 2017. I was really close to my dad he was my hero. Tuff dude who wasn't always the best teacher but taught me a lot. I wish he had taught me more. When he passed I got most of his tools. He was a master mechanic for a pipe line company then moved on to owner of a trucking company. He spent a lot of money on tools over the years. Some of the CP air tools are older than me an still work not to mention work wayyyy better than the newer stuff.
I started out buying what I could afford which was craftsman or harbor freight stuff. I didnt really understand the difference between the value of tools until i started using snap on, sk or mac. When he passed I built a shop in my back yard and most of his tools were given a new home.
This thread made me smile hearing some of the stories. There are countless stories of me helping my dad work on his truck. Holding things in place to be welded, fetching tools.. ect.

 

[Bruce 993 SEA]

I have a select number of my dad's tools...mostly breaker bars in 1/2 in and ratchets and sockets. They are all WWII stuff that he bought in a surplus auction in Los Angeles after the war to start his collection.

He was in the Pacific and then discharged in LA. Went on to mechanics school and was a mechanic for United Air Lines for 35+ years.

We always wrenched together on cars etc. It feels good to use these tools on my projects. S&K, Plomb and Snap On. Sometimes I just take them out of the top of the toolbox and admire them and have good memories...

Cheers!

 

[Jagmandave]

My son is only 20 years younger than I am, and by the time I give him my stuff he may be too old to use it anymore!

Besides, he has his own shop and it's already full of tools.

One of my grandsons may inherit the rest if he wants it, all the rest of the grandkids are girls and really don't seem to care about tools.

 

[WisJim]

My ancestors were more carpenter types than mechanics, but I do have planes, saws, levels, drills,etc, from my father, grandfather and great-grandfather (who was a carpenter in coal mines in Pennsylvania). Getting some of those old tools and related catalogs got me started on tool collecting.

 

[isb cornbinder]

Dad left his tools to me and I trucked them from Calgary to the West Coast in 1989 after the funeral. I have very few of his tools left, today. I keep the memories.

 

[All Thumbs]

RE: Grandfather's toolbox as light sconce:
What a cool idea, and a sentimental memory you get to see everyday! I hope you "greet" him as you enter, and tip your hat.

 

[ducksface]

RE: Grandfather's toolbox as light sconce:
What a cool idea, and a sentimental memory you get to see everyday! I hope you "greet" him as you enter, and tip your hat.

Lord help someone uninitiated who asks about it.
I say:
'Now you've done it. Sit down, this'll take about five minutes, but you're hearing a grandpa story.'
Now those initiated tell newcomers:
'Hey Jimmy, ask duck about that light!'

Welcome to The forum

 

[ProfessionalAmateur]

I probably have 80k-100k in tools and equipment

my kids will want nothing to do with them when I am gone lol
it will be a dream come true for many garage sale
craftsman lathes, mills, drills, welders,

That’s too bad. You might consider what you’d like to have done with them when you die. Donate them to a charity or school or something. Give them to people who would get use out of them. Just my thoughts.

Nice I will get all of my dads tools when he is gone. Regardless of what I already have I am keeping all of them for the memories and sentimental attachment it has to me.


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That’s the plan in my dad’s will as well. My sister gets his guitars except one I get and I get his tools. Some will be duplicates of what I already have and probably double or triple duplicates. He’s not especially organized and when he can’t find something he buys another.

And shortly thereafter finds the original. LOL

He’s on the far side of 80 and this Covid mess has me nervous. He’s in one of those areas where everyone thinks it’s a load of rubbish, no masks, blah blah and he’s had a couple strokes. We chat every weekend and visit a couple times a year—Covid excepted.

I’ve got an old toolbox (hand-carry, big lunchbox sized) that was my grandfather’s. It’s beaten up and falling apart, but it reminds me of him. None of the tools in it are any good for me. They have fractions on them, ya know. Nothing metric. But I’m happy to have it.

My ancestors were more carpenter types than mechanics, but I do have planes, saws, levels, drills,etc, from my father, grandfather and great-grandfather (who was a carpenter in coal mines in Pennsylvania). Getting some of those old tools and related catalogs got me started on tool collecting.

I love old hand tools. Had to do some projects where power tools were the better solution, but every time I use a router or random orbital sander or radial arm saw I’m reminded of why I like my planes, hand saws, etc. I think Paul Sellers has the right idea. A bandsaw is handy to have, but most other power tools are pretty much optional.

I want to build a Roubo frame saw, as much for intellectual curiosity as anything.

Good topic, OP. Not sure how many more years I have with my dad and I’m really going to miss him when he’s gone.

 

[turbowoodworker]

I have all my dads stuff. He passed in 1978. Mostly Craftsman, but somehow, whenever I reach in the tool box, I pull out his Proto wood handled Phillips, or his really worn and discolored Vlchek DBE 1/2 and 9/16.

 

[Rabbit929]

I actually came across our old fencing sledge at the farm, when I was a kid my dad would make me hold the post while he tomahawks it with this old 20lb sledge, (because a slide hammer requires buying one �&#56834
I’d have to close my eyes so I don’t flinch and make him miss. Thats a lot of trust till you hear the air swing. “PING. ... PING ... swoosh”
Nope. Nope. Nope. I’m out all trust is out the window.

 

[BlakeTheCarGuy]

That’s too bad. You might consider what you’d like to have done with them when you die. Donate them to a charity or school or something. Give them to people who would get use out of them. Just my thoughts.







That’s the plan in my dad’s will as well. My sister gets his guitars except one I get and I get his tools. Some will be duplicates of what I already have and probably double or triple duplicates. He’s not especially organized and when he can’t find something he buys another.



And shortly thereafter finds the original. LOL



He’s on the far side of 80 and this Covid mess has me nervous. He’s in one of those areas where everyone thinks it’s a load of rubbish, no masks, blah blah and he’s had a couple strokes. We chat every weekend and visit a couple times a year—Covid excepted.



I’ve got an old toolbox (hand-carry, big lunchbox sized) that was my grandfather’s. It’s beaten up and falling apart, but it reminds me of him. None of the tools in it are any good for me. They have fractions on them, ya know. Nothing metric. But I’m happy to have it.







I love old hand tools. Had to do some projects where power tools were the better solution, but every time I use a router or random orbital sander or radial arm saw I’m reminded of why I like my planes, hand saws, etc. I think Paul Sellers has the right idea. A bandsaw is handy to have, but most other power tools are pretty much optional.



I want to build a Roubo frame saw, as much for intellectual curiosity as anything.



Good topic, OP. Not sure how many more years I have with my dad and I’m really going to miss him when he’s gone.

Well that’s good I’m glad you have some of his things. And your grandfather’s as well. For the most part my dad keeps his stuff organized his toolbox hasn’t been opened in years lol ever since I became a mechanic. He is 60 has a bunch of Craftsman from the 80s most of my tools are older than that lol but some are newer.


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[nadogail]

I'm looking at my kid who says he has no interest in my tools or using them. He makes his living as a Human Resources professional and has said that many of those tools scare him, and my helper who has been paying attention and learning from me.

I have talked to my son and said we need to make a plan for when I can no longer use my tools. His response has been to refuse to discuss the issue. I have told him that if we can't make a plan, I will have to do it myself without his help.

I am 81, and still relatively healthy but I know that eventually the time will come and I don't want my stuff to be unappreciated.

 

[ducksface]

I'm looking at my kid who says he has no interest in my tools or using them. He makes his living as a Human Resources professional and has said that many of those tools scare him, and my helper who has been paying attention and learning from me.

I have talked to my son and said we need to make a plan for when I can no longer use my tools. His response has been to refuse to discuss the issue. I have told him that if we can't make a plan, I will have to do it myself without his help.

I am 81, and still relatively healthy but I know that eventually the time will come and I don't want my stuff to be unappreciated.

Find a nephew or grand nephew.
I am the surrogate keeper of a few peoples memory.
People I haven't met.
A beauty queens picture album of her from baby through beauty queen, through weather girl. I've never met her.
A Canadian soldier of ww2 who's family tossed his memory out like a bread wrapper. I have his wallet and script from every campaign he served. It's prominently on my wall. Never met him.
A proud woman's photo album of a trip back to Appalachia to visit the kin. Kin now won't care. She was so proud of getting out of the holler and so proud to come back. Never met her.
A secret service agent who was at the Nixon inaugural. His family is still mad because he committed suicide instead of putting them through his miserable cancer death. He's on the wall. I've never met him. I'll honor him. He didn't hurt my feelings. Never met him.
A few others.
That grandpa's tool box thats a sconce? I'm the only one who even remembers his name. I also have his ccc footlocker. His REAL family didn't want it, no one mad, just all too caught up in life. I'm just a step kid who loved that old man. My other step grandpa? His ww2 medals and his burial flag and his civilian photo is hanging on my wall. No one cares but me. Best. Grandpa. Ever.
Those folks all die with me.

I load up the one worthwhile nephew every chance I get with some tool, some story. He's not related. He's the wife's nephew.
Find one of yours to start a legacy through.

I've said it here before and was ridiculed by truly truly stupid people :
You earn a spot in this family. Blood means nothing unless you need an organ Transplant.
Find someone. Pass it on.

You ever see the old movie Enemy Mine?
At the end, when he honored the family tree... It made me see.

Today I helped a neighbor with a flagpole. He's telling me of another person we both know, that this other person's son is a cop of some sort in Texas. Something about can't get on the sniper team because he doesn't have an adequate weapon of his own.
Flag pole guy is gifting someone he doesn't know with a 308 and all the trimmings. Jeff does nothing halfway, it's an easy $5,000 chunk of kit.

We're all getting old, we all have something to give and we don't always have a kid who cares.
You Might change someones life path and you'll live long after you don't, just through a gift of tools, well placed.

 

[andyvh1959]

I came to the US from Holland in 59 with my sister, mom and dad. Dad had crated all his hand tools in a big wooden box to put on the the ship (yes I literally did come over from the old country on a ship). I have a lot of his wrenches that were common in Holland but not common here, including some Whitworth wrenches he used for Brit bikes.

I have the band saw he bought from Menards. It was a single speed unit and he wanted a multi-speed control for it. Dad also had a control console from a old washing machine, good motor controller in that. So now to cut wood I set it on '"spin", for metal the setting is "delicates".

 

[steel 35]

My dads wash machine motor ran his lathe both directions! I just cut the belt about a week ago. He piled up some stuff in 95 years

 

[AZ Pete]

My Dad died in '09, but gave his shop tools to my brother a few years earlier. That is OK, as I had better quality wood working tools, and had been the only mechanically inclined member of the family (self taught by maintaining my first car).

I do have a Craftsman single bit ax that he bought in 1953 though. None of my in-laws or brother wanted it so I brought it home when he moved into assisted living, put a new handle on it, gave the head a coat of paint, sharpened it and put it in our travel trailer. It has cut and split firewood ever since. I used it to teach my grandson how to safely cut and split wood. Nice to remember Dad when camping, he really loved hunting and fishing.

 

[Slednut]

Some nice stories, my dad and I were really close. He was a mechanic at a Ford dealership for 45 years. He only bought Snapon but in 1986 the shop burned and a lot of his tools were lost. He retired in 1988 and had bought some tools but didn't ever replace a lot of the tools lost in the fire.

I have all his tools, here's what a lot of them look like. One of these days I'm going to take the time to try and buff them to see if they'll shine up.