This is us
 

I came across this while cleaning out files in my computer. I don't know where it came from, but I know why I saved it. I could have written it, and so could many PPOTers. It made me smile and nod my head as I read it. Tools handed down to me by my uncle, father, and grandfather were stollen by an employee, and I miss them, more because they reminded me of my elders teaching me how to use them than the value of the tools themselves.

By John Niolon
I imagine it's a natural part of getting older and I'm sure we've all done it. You start considering your mortality and the inevitable distribution of your "stuff". For years I've scrimped and saved and swapped and inherited and appropriated my stuff. And, in my own humble opinion it’s a formidable pile. And it's kinda scary sometimes when I realize that I've left my shop unlocked for three days.
I've been through several hobbies and usually sold out of one to buy into another. Model airplanes, bicycles, cars, ham radio, cars, woodworking, cars, metal working, trucks… and on and on. Each hobby necessitated the purchase of a sometimes unique set of tools. Through the buying and selling and swapping of all these endeavors, the one thing that has remained in place was the tools.
I've always had a morbid fascination with tools of any kind and a great respect for those people who can use them to create what is in my opinion…art. Whether it's a fine piece of furniture, a remote control airplane or a nicely done piece of fabrication and pipefitting on a steam generator; when it's done properly…it's art, and those who do it are artists. There are a lot of machinists, fabricators, pipefitters, maintenance-utilitymen that are on a level with daVinci when it comes to taking a spark of an idea and creating something unique, useful and beautiful. But I digress…..
So, I've collected all these tools and tried to emulate these artists. Sometimes it was successful…..sometimes not. Wrenches, sockets, hammers, saws, tig, mig and stick welders, plasma cutters, torches, transits, yard tools, tractors, meters, gauges, mics and calipers and in multiple quantities sometimes. Hell, I've got more vice grip pliers than some people have total tools. Several thousand dollars worth of "stuff". There is also a value that can't be calculated in dollars here. Some of these tools belonged to my grandfather, my dad and favorite uncles. Just by the simple act of holding them, I can be in a place or a time that was so special to me, a feeling that I can't duplicate any other way. I have a transit that belonged to my father… it's over a hundred years old and we used it for years in his business. Years of memories with him, both good and bad, but more good than bad. I can just set up the tripod for this instrument and have the most wonderful comfortable feeling you could ever imagine. A simple Lufkin 50 foot metal tape in my hand revives thoughts of times with my uncle, the brick mason, laying out a foundation for a block wall. I can still feel the cold on my face from that January morning. I didn't really enjoy being there freezing then, but I'd give a months pay to have him here now and measure that same foundation. No one can appreciate that but me.
(There is more to the story, but he goes on about kids and Peter Egan and kind of lost me. )

Times like this I wish I had a son to pass this stuff down to. Both brothers have daughters and they're not worthy, if you know what I mean.

Will likely donate to worthy cause (animal welfare).

I have two sons. One just turned teenager the younger, pre teen. I have a shop full of pretty serious wood working and construction equip. I am not sure what to do with this stuff. The way it looks, my kids will not have any interest in them, maybe a cordless drill or two and a couple pliers? Who knows? I am thinking about giving my business along with all the equip to one of my workman if he continues to behave. Again, who knows?

My dad was a custom jeweler. He made all his stuff with only hand tools along with a power drill and a polisher. I grew up sitting on his lap when he worked on this little bench and naturally ended up worked for him during high school and early part college. As I got older, I knew I had to horde them. Remembering each and ever tool and my father's hand using them to put food on the table was enough to keep them around. Hopefully I can teach my kids to use them one day. I find every excuse to exercise them. I cleaned up and polished my client's wedding ring and repaired her clasp on her bracelet two weeks ago. Made my day and her day as well.

My wife and I are in the throes of moving to a smaller place--1800 sq ft--and are in the process of weeding through our stuff before what I hope will be the last move. We refer to it as the "Terminal House" because I plan to leave under a sheet.

Every single cotton-pickin tool I've acquired over the last 50+ years will be going with us, and there are a whole lot of them. This summer I'll be building an 800 sq ft detached garage out back of the place to keep them in.

Thanks for posting that.

Dammit, why does my wife insist on cooking with onions whenever I'm trying to read one of these threads on PPOT?

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/support/smileys/wat6.gif

In case anyone wants the full read

https://jniolon.classicpickup.com/articles/whattodowithyourstuffboth.htm

FWIW, just spent the afternoon changing the oil on the 911 in the driveway, then washed it, then raked the front yard/sidewalk and mowed the lawn. Of my 3 kids, it was my 5 year-old who was out there with me.

Give him a few more years, he ain't gonna to hanging out there with ya no more. Funny thing is, they will come around again in due time when we are truly old dudes.

When I was old enough to run away, I was gone as much as I can. During those early college years, I hung around because I needed to make a few bucks. Not until my early 30 was when I started going home more. When I had a serious girlfriend, around the same time, we had dinner with my folks once a months or two was pretty normal. We have a long way to go. Enjoy them as much as you can.

So, what are you gonna to give em'?

I am in a really great window of time. It will pass soon. My 17 yr old son asked for a torque wrench for Christmas. He likes to wrench on bikes. I join him. Perfect.

Alas, I done wrong. Not a car person bone in my daughter or her hubby. No grandkids. Glad I took care of the one item I really cared about before I croak. It's in good hands, I hope.

Logically, why should I care where any of it ends up? I'll be dead.

Yeah Paul, I think its about caring while you are alive. Plus, you had to have gotten a lot of happiness out of watching the suck-up manipulators reel. I know that I enjoyed it, so thanks. :)

My parents moved away when I was 35, and they didn't tell me where...imagine my horror coming home to find someone else sleeping in my bedroom.

Thanks for posting this. When I was young I worked with my dad in various ways... He was an Electrician by trade, but built racing engines for hydroplane boats, and cars on the side, when we lived in Chicago... Then we moved to a rural area Arkansas and he opened his own business doing general mechanic work, and electrical work for the general public because there was a need for that in the area. What started out as just handing him tools and running errands, eventually led to me doing actual work with him as I grew older. Keeping a fleet of trucks going for the local lumber company, commercial and residential electrical work, and countless construction projects and woodworking projects for our residence, and small farm. After he passed, my brother and I divided up lots of tools and equipment. While the hand tools are great to use, they also carry me back emotionally, to being with him. The big 15x60 Cincinnati machinist lathe takes me to place that is hard to describe.. I have it cleaned up, repainted, and set up in my home garage shop. I have my wood shop set up with a mixture of my stuff and what was his.
I have one son, who worked with me some as he was growing up in my own powersports repair business... however he did not enjoy the idea of making a living doing mechanical things, and chose the field of business finance, and law, working with mergers and acquisition of large corporations and banks. He knows how to use most of my "stuff", and it will be his some day. I have 1 grandson so far, and I hope I live long enough to teach him some of the skills I have and hopefully give him some of my tools, so he has memories of me to enjoy after I am gone.

For those that do "Art" with with tools, there is nothing like looking at something you have created inspecting it, pondering how it started out as an idea in your head, and then you willed it into existence, enjoying it and saying "It is good". Hopefully our descendants will enjoy, not only some of our treasured items, but the also act of expressing themselves, by creating items, as well as memories, and reliving some of ours with the tools and stuff we leave behind. Again thanks for posting that bit of prose.

That's a great story. Something for the next generation to remember.

I have dad's first jewelry work bench he bought in his 20s. The very same one I remembered sitting on his lap when he was doing work only that I was screwing up his Swiss made Rat Tail files running it on my cheap metal toys. He passed away two years exactly, 9 days ago. This bench has been cleaned up and sits in my family room for all of us to enjoy only without any of his tools on it. My kids know what it is, but really don't care much about it but they know that bench is the only thing I will carry out if my house ever catch fire.

My son will be graduating from UNOH diesel tech school in about 3 weeks. He has amassed a decent amount of tools, but is always borrowing/forgetting to return my tools for another one of his home projects. About once a week, I have to ask him where something is, but it beats the alternative of him having no interest in anything mechanical, like so many of his freinds who couldn't change a tire to save their life.

My Dad is 78 years old and still using many of his tools, which I think is great....he still does welding projects, and is always fooling around with old garden tractors like I am.

Stuff and kids.............
 

When my son turned 16 and got his learner license, I bought an old worn out Dodge Dakota truck. The deal was that he had to help rebuild the worn out stuff (mostly everything) and that I would only work on it when he was also out with me. The end result was that he got a pretty nice truck, knows how to use most tools and is not helpless around his vehicles like most of his friends. I remember the first time he got really greasy, the horrified look on his face, etc. Now it doesn't bother him too much to have to reach into dirty oil to fish out a drain plug! He wound up going to Georgia Tech and got his undergrad degree in Mechanical Engineering and later went back to GT for a masters in International Business! I'm pretty proud of the way the boy turned out!

I still have my Dad's Craftsman box wrenches, some with his name etched into them from when he was a factory mechanic. They will go to my son and since there are a bunch of them some will go to the grandkids as keepsakes.

My dad had passed away in April after a long decline. He had Alzheimer's like symptoms.

I have many of his tools in my shop. I wish I had room for many more but selling them seemed to be the logical thing to do at the time. Now I wish I still had them.

I also have many tools that he and my mom had gifted me while I was apprenticing. Not sure if my son will have any interest in having any of them.

Yea, with some minor changes the OP could be something I wrote. I love my tools, and after a lifetime it is rare anymore I honestly have to have a new tool, but that does not stop me from getting more. When I pick up one pair of oversize channel locks that are well worn, I think of my father-in-law that used to own it. When I use the bench vice on my bench I think of my grandfather on my my mom's side. When I dig into an old metal clad tool box put together with hand made nails, I think of my own youth, looking for tools that same box at grandpas house, and knowing he got it from his father and likely from his grandfather before. I have several tools my dad used to have, and several he gave to me as gifts for birthdays or Christmas.

My first "cordless drill" was a brace I pulled from that tool box. I needed a hole drilled through a 2x4 in the far end of my attic back in 1980, and I did not own enough extension cords to reach. The brace and a wood bit made easy work of it. It hangs on my garage wall next to my timing light and dwell meter, and oil can opener-spout on display.

I do have a nephew to give the tools to. I will let his sort through what he wants when I can't use them anymore.