What do tools mean to you?

[papadan]

Some people use tools to make a living, mechanics like myself. Some use them to make a living by dealing in them. There are people who collect tools based on a certain type of work done by them, Like Hand planes, Hammers, air craft, or even brand name, like Craftsman, and H.D. Smith. I collect certain types of tools like Perfect handle tools, Ford script, miniature tools, and what I call my pretty tools. I collect the perfect handle tools, because they are perfect in my opinion, they are strong yet have a soft wood handle that is easy to hold and use, I don't look for brand names, age, or origin. Ford script tools I just kinda got into because I found a few, I don't have all that many of them. If I find them in a box lot or just cheap enough I add them to my collection. At first I thought they may be valuable, but I found out how many millions are still around and they just don't fetch a big price. I love miniature tools just because of the oddity of them when made correctly to scale and usability. Like the 6" and under forum, but 6" is really on the large size for my likes. My "pretty tools" are mostly marking an measuring tools like wood and brass squares, folding rules, trammel points, and levels. You know the ones I mean, rosewood and brass, clean and shiny. As for collecting "normal" tools, I've got a lot of modern tools from Craftsman, Snap-On, Mac, and so on, that I have gathered since I started working on cars and trucks in the early 70s. My wife of 44 years now actually bought me my first set of tools when we were 16. I was raised by grandparents and the old man was a real bastard. I wont go into details, but he had to let me have a car and get my license. He was totally against it just because it was me, but he opened his mouth and then had to comply. A wrecker showed up one day and dropped a 66 Biscayne wagon in the driveway. All he said was, there's your F****** car. My girlfriend bought me a starter set of tools from Sears and I lied about my age and drivers license and got a job in a gas station. Fast forward many long hard years and here I am, a broken down, beat up, disabled old mechanic. I have the modern tools to work on anything man made, the only thing I have never worked on is aircraft. I have worked on lawn mowers, cars & trucks, Forklifts of all types, tracked vehicles of all types(including mil. tanks), I have been on ships and in Subs. I have even worked on steam and diesel locomotives. I have my tools to handle anything up to 5" not counting adjustable that go much bigger. my actual largest size, fixed size wrench is a home made 11 5/8 box end wrench that I made for adjusting a drive clutch. It was blue printed and several copies made for future usage.
            Back to the point of this post I don't collect very many tools just to collect them. Most of mine are the tools I do or have used. I've been out of the mainstream for about 8 years now, but have still added greatly to my tools collection. Because of health problems my Hobbies have changed greatly over the years. I've built street rods, furniture, all types of metal working, small woodworking, small metal working(knives), and now mostly leather working. My hobby shop has gone from a 2 1/2 car garage, down to a spare bedroom, and now is a tool cabinet by my recliner in the living room. Wont be too much longer and I'll be out the door for the last Time.
So what is YOUR connection to tools. User, Dealer, Collector, or all of the above? 

[Lostmind]

All the above

[Papaw]

All of the above except for military vehicles. I have also worked on one, and only one Volkswagen!

I didn't do much mechanic work until I was much older, but found motorcycles to be my forte, as it were. Cars and trucks, of course, usually due to needs and lack of funds to have others do the work.

I had a Triumph Daytona 500 that was the catalyst for moving me into bikes, since it needed work regularly. I would work on it in the driveway often, and kids with Hondas and Suzukis would stop by and ask if I ould fix theirs. Being quite adept, I usually said sure, then figured their problems out. Later I went to work at a guy's shop and ended up buying the shop from him. That was a learning experience ! I learned after 5 years that I was no businessman because I was too friendly. We had great times at the shop, but I made no money.

After closing the bike shop, I went to work at a large Harley, Honda, and Suzuki shop in Houston and moved from parts to service manager rather quickly.

That job lasted 12 years, but due to disagreements with the manager, I left and went into trucking, where I stayed as a driver, then Driver Services, then lastly as a night dispatcher. I retired at 72 in 2014.

[coolford]

My first tools were bought to rebuild a 1936 Dodge engine and thus I always considered tools a way to do things for yourself and save money. Then over the years I restored numerous cars, and sold them keeping the best for myself. Not only mechanic tools, but construction tools, as over the years I was the general contractor on several shops I built as well as three houses. I did everything I could myself and subbed out what I could not to those with the proper license. So I always considered that tools fit into the category "the way to save money is don't spend it".

[EVILDR235]

I got my first 1/4 x 3/8 inch socket set with S&H Green Stamps. If I remember right it was a Stevens Walden set in a little metal box. I had to ride the Gray Dog bus South about 15 miles from Napa Calif to Vallejo Calif because Napa did not have a S&H store in our town. This would have been about 1966 the year I got my first car a 1955 English Ford Anglia. The car cost me $6.00 and I had to pay it off in two payments. I also had a Sears Allstate moped I had gotten a year earlier. I don't remember what other tools I had or where I may have gotten them. In 1971 I got my first real job and one of the first things I bought at the local hardware store was a Small Kennedy tool box with a tote tray in it for $17.00 plus tax. I started buying more tools because I was buying a lot of older cars that always needed some kind of work. I quickly had found out having a shop working on your cars was expensive. I enjoyed doing my own work and the old cars and trucks I had were easy to work on. Also owning my own tools meant I didn't have to borrow any from anybody anymore. Tools have given me time for other hobbies because I still had money in my pocket and not some mechanics. For about 10 years off and on I worked for a good friend of mine in his wrecking yard who taught me a lot about not only old cars and trucks, but a lot about old machines in general. He showed me how things use to be made and if taken care if will last a long time. Because of health problems the last 8 years I have gotten rid of my last old car a 1956 Chevy 210 sedan I owned for 34 years and related parts, but I have kept my old engine collection and ever growing tool collection. I think my love of tools and what they have taught me has helped me be the person I am today.

EvilDr235

[amecks]

  Yes, some similarities as I got my first tools, a set of Barcalo wrenches from a S&H green stamp store.  Around that time I got a tool box.  Still have the wrenches and tool box.  First used my tools on bicycles and like Papaw, started gathering more tools to work on minibikes, go-karts and my '69 Triumph Bonneville, purchased used for $800 in 1974.  Papaw probably has heard the motto - "Triumph motorcycles - turning ordinary men into mechanics since 1902".  I bought quite a few tools when I started as a Ford tractor mechanic in '84.  After that I started finding used tools at garage sales.  Also there was a used tool store somewhere near Passaic, NJ.  Gone now, but does anyone here remember that place?  It was incredible - all kinds of tools, lots of them and  plenty of mechanics tools.
  Today I am still working as a mechanic 6 hours a day, fixing mowers and other small engine equipment.  I mostly buy tools that I can use.  Sometimes purchasing tool lots, I will keep the ones I need or I'll swap out better tools and sell the old ones.  I'm still sorting out tools I purchased this year but will soon be getting rid of what is left.  I'll give some to my friends who are mechanics, and some to my grandkids (they may not want them), and whats left will get taken to the Restore, thereby giving me an excuse to stop there and snoop around.

[J.A.F.E.]

As a kid I wanted to know how everything worked. That usually meant bashing them apart which meant repercussions from my poor mother. When I discovered tools would let me take stuff apart and put it back together it was almost an epiphany.

We weren't well off and tools were expensive so they came one at a time mostly  I was in my 20's before I was able to buy a set of wrenches or sockets for the first time.

I worked for a mechanic when I was in school and he taught me a lot. Never really worked as a pro wrench on cars although I have been a tool user just about all my life and work on my own cars - and for select friends.

I collect mainly ratchets (mostly 1/4 drive but some in other sizes), 4" and smaller adjustables, 1/4 and smaller wrenches, ignition wrenches, small tools and oddball stuff. Most of my users (I try to use them all if I can) are Snap-on from early/mod 50's to early 80's and these I seek as users. I have some really old stuff but it just doesn't usually hold the interest for me so there has to be something I find interesting about it.

I'll work on pretty much everything and do my own plumbing, electrical and drywall. I also dabble in fixing electronic stuff and sometimes building stuff.