My dad was an engineer; he liked tools and gizmos as much as I do. That's probably where I got it.
When he died I inherited his workshop. I went through it carefully, many of its contents I was familiar with (from him showing me his cool toys) but some came as a surprise.
I decided to pass on his cool Unimat miniature lathe, because I had no use for making aluminum fittings. One of his caretakers had a husband who coveted it.
I already had his 1955 DeWalt radial arm saw. The starting capacitor failed when he was building his house, so he bought a new saw, but the old one is way cooler and heavier duty.
I already had vices and sanders and grinders and a bandsaw and voltmeters and a tap-and-die set, but I gladly took his battery test kit and use it frequently.
He had some magnifying spectacles that are like a stereo microscope you can wear.
He had heavy-duty right angle toenail clippers that I've never seen anywhere else.
He had ultra-fine heavy duty tweezers I've never seen anywhere else.
He had a cool Japanese bidirectional handsaw which is essential for certain kinds of cuts.
He had the longest hemostats I've ever seen. He had clamps and ViceGrips the likes of which I've never seen.
He had a whole box, about 30 pair, of drugstore reading glasses (because he was always misplacing them). I weeded through them, kept a couple, and donated the rest to the Lions Club.
I kept a jeweler's anvil. Haven't found a use for it yet, but it's too cool to let go.
Since I have a daughter -- who's married to the son of a professional contractor -- I dunno what'll happen to all these toys when I pass.
Incidentally, my grandfather was a dentist. My dad inherited a whole file cabinet full of dental tools from the 1920s. I kept a couple of odd-looking picks, but what the heck would I want with the rest of it?
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