You're not a real DIYer until --

[Mary Fisher]

No sharps allowed in ours :-(

Mary

[Mary Fisher]

All kinds of tape measures - including rulers.

Mary

[Mary Fisher]

Spouse couldn't wait for our sons' rites of passage. They were barely walking when he handed them a spanner.

I'd have done the same with the girls except that it had to wait until I found the scissors ...

Mary

[Peter Scott]

Come to think of it same son always used to nick my tools, let alone give them to him. From about age four he would always grab any things that no longer worked and take them to bits. I knew he had the makings when he could put them back together. However.... we did have our blowups when he didn't bring the tools back. He got to recognise the pitch of bellow from me when looking in my tool case and used to come scurrying. Perhaps this is the way to protect the great DIY tradition? Like the Jesuits, get em young?

Anyway for those not yet embarked on sibling training, it is worth the effort because if I leave a job long enough he sometimes does it, and often better than me.

Peter Scott

[Peter Scott]

Didn't mean 'sibling' of course. Substitute brat or offspring!

Peter Scott

[Huge]

I know I'm going to regret this, but ... I still have the Stanley knife I bought some 30 years ago.

[Mary Fisher]

It's worked with ours. But the taking-apart syndrome can be almost disastrous. The number of radios, clocks etc. which have been taken apart then, in true d-i-y tradition, one little bit lost ... Spouse was never amused, I kept a special oil for troubled waters. That particular son is coming for dinner today with his brood for a substitute Christmas. His present - a hammer drill. One of his sons left his garage window open and some tools took flight. Come-uppance time :-)

It's even more useful the older you get. You can feign frailty and they leap in to do it. You can tidy up the bits you don't like when they've gone :-)

Mary

[Bob Eager]

One of the good old ones, I guess. Mine is only 25 years old...but I have the Stanley hand drill I bought 40 years ago...I think it is the only tool that has survived that long!

[Andrew Chesters]

I hope you wear your safety goggles when you do that!! Hammer heads are hardened to the extent that shattering would be a _very real possibility_.

[Peter Scott]

Male pride will not allow this I am afraid. However the 'Son you're a real man now. You kin do jest lark yer ole pappy.' That does

Peter Scott

[Huge]

I still have a Stanley pump-action screwdriver of the same vintage.

I also have some of my grandfather's plumbing tools, but I can't count those because I've only had them about 15 years.

[Rob Nicholson]

Me too although not that old. Must buy some new blades.

[Rob Nicholson]

I made the classic comedy mistake/event of climbing back down the ladder and putting my foot in a bucket of cold water.

[Harvey Van Sickle]

On 30 Jan 2005, Rob Nicholson wrote

I'm getting better at avoiding this one, but my repeating mistake

-- annoying, not expensive -- is wiring something up before realising I've not strung the cover/cap/whatever on the cable.

Done that *way* too many times.

[Rob Nicholson]

Did it once with a 25 way serial connector years ago and never since!

[Harvey Van Sickle]

On 30 Jan 2005, Rob Nicholson wrote

Maybe if I'd done that, it would've sunk in. ;)

(I last did it a few weeks ago making up a coax cable; simple enough to correct, but still reelie stoopid.)

[Huge]

Have you ever dipped the paintbrush in the cup of coffee?

[Mark]

Ouch Yankee screwdrivers need a safety warning as Huge as a chainsaw. Im still using a Wolf elec drill from c1950, excellent plaster mixer.

[Huge]

Oh, I haven't used it for years. The B&D leccy screwdriver is still going strong after some 15 years.

Blimey, mine isn't that old. I still have a B&D 2 speed one from about

1977 that I bought to put up some shelves in my flat. The gearbox is a bit noisy, but I still use it occasionally.

[Lurch]

On Sun, 30 Jan 2005 19:57:20 GMT, "Mark" strung together this:

My mate uses one of those as a core drill. Not reconnended for working at the top of a ladder!