rivett608
Diamond
- Joined
- Oct 25, 2002
- Location
- Kansas City, Mo.
A lot of us have played around in our workshops for nearly all our lives. Many of us fall into the catorgory of old farts, crumgdgens, that guy that can fix anything, tinkers, artists and a million other names. I suspect maybe the older we are, the earlier we started messing around in our shops. For me it has been for 53 of my 61 years! I think it would be interesting to hear stories of childhood shops, both back in the old days and what kids today think of a shop.
Mine started when I was 8, we moved into a new house just outside Washington, D.C., I was born in Ohio and in ‘62 my parents decided that was no where to raise kids, that there was a lot more to this world than Ohio had to offer so to D.C. we went to a rental house until we could find the right one. I was given a corner of the walk out basement between two windows. The old kitchen table was my workbench. I built models, slot cars, fixed stuff, took anything broken apart to see how it worked. In time peg board was mounted on the walls soon to be filled with tools. A real workbench was built with a big Polish machinist vise as a Christmas gift. A 7” Sears table saw with the tilting table was dragged home from someone’s trash and rebuilt, even painted pretty psychedelic colors. Soon old radio/hifi cabinets began to appear and be retoped for drill stands, grinders and other “machines” with the bottoms becoming storage for my ever growing stash of parts. Many of these, including so many of my nuts, bolts and screws were salvaged from things I took apart. As time went on my shop space grew, I kept moving my parents old junk closer to the door and eventually to the trash. Things like the old stove and refrigerator. By the time I’m in high school, the table saw is replaced with a new 10” Craftsman, the pegboard is gone replaced by Sears roll around stacking tool chests to hold my tools, 1st a base unit, then a top, a middle, another base and so on. At 15 I started to work in a hardware store, I brought home half my paycheck in screwdrivers and pliers....
I still haven’t stopped buying tools.....
It was in this shop I made all sorts of things, or maybe it was this shop that made me? Or at least who I am today.
So what are your stories? Do the younger kids today still build things? What?
Mine started when I was 8, we moved into a new house just outside Washington, D.C., I was born in Ohio and in ‘62 my parents decided that was no where to raise kids, that there was a lot more to this world than Ohio had to offer so to D.C. we went to a rental house until we could find the right one. I was given a corner of the walk out basement between two windows. The old kitchen table was my workbench. I built models, slot cars, fixed stuff, took anything broken apart to see how it worked. In time peg board was mounted on the walls soon to be filled with tools. A real workbench was built with a big Polish machinist vise as a Christmas gift. A 7” Sears table saw with the tilting table was dragged home from someone’s trash and rebuilt, even painted pretty psychedelic colors. Soon old radio/hifi cabinets began to appear and be retoped for drill stands, grinders and other “machines” with the bottoms becoming storage for my ever growing stash of parts. Many of these, including so many of my nuts, bolts and screws were salvaged from things I took apart. As time went on my shop space grew, I kept moving my parents old junk closer to the door and eventually to the trash. Things like the old stove and refrigerator. By the time I’m in high school, the table saw is replaced with a new 10” Craftsman, the pegboard is gone replaced by Sears roll around stacking tool chests to hold my tools, 1st a base unit, then a top, a middle, another base and so on. At 15 I started to work in a hardware store, I brought home half my paycheck in screwdrivers and pliers....
I still haven’t stopped buying tools.....
It was in this shop I made all sorts of things, or maybe it was this shop that made me? Or at least who I am today.
So what are your stories? Do the younger kids today still build things? What?