History Do you remember the 1st tool you ever bought?

I usually borrowed my dad's stuff when I was a kid, other than the Dremel tool I picked up in high school. Then I had a small cheap ratchet set and a couple of random pliers.

My first decent set was a 168-piece Craftsman set I purchased out of college once I actually had some money, for $120 in 2005. Gave my FIL the 12-point 13mm socket last summer for the oil drain plug on his new mower, but other than that the set's intact and is my primary set of smaller sockets. I have nicer ratchets now but they all work as well.

 

I bought a set of maybe 10 sockets in a narrow steel tray. They were held in place by an Allen key like tool that snapped in place to stop the sockets from falling out and was used to turn the sockets. The sockets were so thick they would not fit too many applications. Somewhere I still have it, one of those "useless" tools in hindsight!!

 

My high school buddy's parents bought him a really cheap Japanize socket set. Starter went out on his Buick V6. WE jacked it up and crawled under car to remove starter. 9/16" socket rounded out like it was made of butter!

 

first specific tool in the hot rod/ surfing era

Hello,

We did not have to do much body work on any of our own cars. But when the surfing era came around, we were body repair teens as well as shapers and finish people. We had to know how to do all of the necessary repairs as the local shops charged an arm and leg for the work. We had the skills, the knowledge and now we had the implements.

A small fender bender on a friend’s car had me helping with the final prep before we took it in for a matching color spray. We were not car painters or pinstripers, so we left that to the experts. We lowered the cost by doing some of the prep work first. It was a good thing the damage was small pretty simple to fix.

As far as my first tool for body repair and smoothing out irregular surfaces, the “Surform tool” was perfectly made for that purpose. The body painter said we did a good job of prepping the damage. So, we had big heads for a while.

Jnaki

Several longboard repairs required a complete cutout of foam from bad collisions with a fin or two. So, when the chunk was cut out then a new piece was put in place, a Surform tool was necessary for the matching shape of the rail’s edge. Then the glass could be put on and later glossed over.

Well, many years later, I got the idea that I could build my own custom short board from an old longboard just sitting in our garage. So, after stripping the old glassing fiberglass surface off and getting the rough foam somewhat clean and straight, I proceeded to figure out the shape design I wanted. A slight “V” in front of the fin that was a part of a concave surface from rail to rail. Then, a smaller “V” in back to the fin to the edge to help with the flow.

Then I got to work on the scoop of the nose from a flat deck of the longboard. At the time, a slight scoop and a more pointed nose was better than a totally round nose of the longboard style. So, I finally moved on to the rails and I wanted sharper rails to dig in better on hard turns. The sharp edge cuts into the wall of the wave allowing a faster turn or cutback. There is a fine line to the sharpness of the rails for a good performing surfboard.

Well, after spending all day in the garage and having a ton of left over foam shavings everywhere, a somewhat good looking surfboard was laying on the shaping table. I was proud of the shape, the design and quality of the finished surfboard blank. I showed my wife what I had spent the whole day doing in the garage and she was impressed with the result. It actually looked like those we saw in the surfboard showrooms.

What became of the first shaping experience? As nice as the overall shape was, the short board design was too short for me and the weight it was supposed to support. One of the little kids in the neighborhood stopped by and was in awe. His old surfboard had seen its days and he was in need of a new one. So, we figured out that somehow, I had shaped a 10 foot longboard down to a almost 6 foot modern design that would be a perfect fit for this little kid.

I gave it to him and his parents paid for the local surf shop to finish the glassing and fin placement. He rode that thing like a pro surfer and everything worked as planned. But, it was quite a bit short for a big guy like me. Oh well, another future vocation down the drain… YRMV

 

When I was about ten (1961) my father gave me a set of 5 wrenches for Christmas,
nothing was safe after that.

 

1/2" Thorenson socket set when I was 15. Still using it. Basically unbreakable.

 

Ha, cool posting. Yup, bought most of my mechanical tools while still in High school and still got 'em. Made in Canader eh! Bought these Gray's around 1980. Even then I wasn't crazy about the finish so moved onto Westward which I bought a virtual complete set of within a few years after the Grays. My one indulgence while still in high school and working a big weekend wage at a plywood plant was a Snap-On 1/2" ratchet I bought around 1982, quickly realizing on that path I would be broke. Still the only Snap On tool I've got.

 

I started my apprenticeship in 1969 with the cheapest tools I could find, dollar store quality. One day I was pounding on my cheap chisel with my cheap hammer while being supervised by an old mechanic who farmed on the side. A piece of the hammer face broke off and nailed the poor guy right on the cheek. Not a serious injury but it drew blood. I was in shock. He said “here, let me show you how to fix that hammer”. I thought great, he’s going to show me some old school farmer-type heat treatment. Nope, he walked to the nearest trash can dropped it in, and then told me to never, ever go cheap with anything you hit with. Lesson learned, I headed to the only decent tool store in that small town and bought a new hammer and a set of Herbrand chisels, my first high quality tools. Almost broke me at the time but I still have the chisels and use them almost every day. Later I bought mostly Snap On tools for the big stuff like wrenches and ratchets, money well spent (but it hurt like hell at the time!).

 

I grew up on a farm so there were tools around. What I do remember is around 1969, I purchased a clutch head screwdriver to remove the fasteners from the cam thrust plate on a 64 Fairlane with the hipo 289. I installed a cam with way too much duration. I had no idea what those were called and had to describe what they looked like to the parts man. He walked over and took on off from the wall.