Tool Count: 283…
Mar 1st, 2010 by Michael Coppola
…and forever rising.
With the Leigh’s recent shop acquisition I’ve been tasked with a few real issues, notably getting a Jeep, a boat, a motorcycle, a go-kart and whatever else Alex decides is the flavor of the week. Realizing that now I’ve actually got the environment and knowledge base to grow from my mechanically deficient state of being, I knew I had to get some tools to assist me on my journey (through manhood, they tell me). After asking questions with, for most people blatantly obvious answers, as well as churning through a myriad of hypothetical situations I wound up at this interesting point in time where I was armed with the majority of useful knowledge people should know before making their first purchase. Arriving at this stage feels like rolling down the hill for the first time without your training wheels, and making your first purchase feels like riding your bike off into the deep end of a swimming pool.
I can’t say I wasn’t prepared though, and I can’t say that people turned their backs either. In fact, I recently discovered that tools are a great conversational piece amongst men, and even some women too! What amazes me about it all was how eager and willing people were to share their experiences with a given tool, their opinions of a certain brand, or even whether or not you should buy a set as opposed to purchasing tools individually. Everyone seemed to have something to say about tools, and while some of it was very useful, there was a fair chunk that didn’t seem very relevant (though that didn’t stop them).
I’m 24 years old, my name is Michael Coppola, and I just purchased my first tools. If you’re reading this, try to think back to when you got your first tools, remember the excitement, your trepidation, your sudden desire to completely disassemble everything in sight and revel in the magnificence of it all… I hope you remember, since for me it isn’t something I feel I’ll be forgetting.
Don’t forget your upcoming helicopter.
Don’t forget he mentioned an ultra-lite too. =)
I remember buying my first set of tools. I went out shopping with a mechanic from the motorcycle shop I frequented. He pointed, and I tossed it in the shopping cart. Yes, I did try to take apart my motorcycle that night.
Fortunately, I just took the body panels and marveled at how I’d never get it back together again if I proceeded further.
I think the first real tools I ever had were oddly enough a gift from my mother. Unlike whatever other screwdrivers and things I must had, I remember this day like it was yesterday, even though I was a little kid. She bought me this Craftsman 3/8″ drive ratchet set, which was something I really needed for working on bikes. I still have most of the sockets, and I kept the ratchet well into my 20s, until I somehow lost it. How do you lose a ratchet, anyways?
In terms of buying my own, and really getting started, it was all the BMW E30. I got that car and I needed to work on it when I was living in the loft in KC, so whenever I needed some tool to fix something broken on the car, I went to Sears and bought it. Pretty soon I had one of those little lunch box tool boxes and I was doing brakes and things and it all went downhill from there.
Most of my tools have come from my dad as things he thought a single girl should have. He was right, for the most part, although I’m missing a breaker bar for my car. The rest are things I acquired to support various hobbies and I remember how I got each and every one of them. My prized possessions, are a set of crosscut dozuki saws that I picked up from some lady on CL who evidently didn’t know what they were, since they’re still sharp and cut through wood with an almost horrifying efficiency.