How Old Was You When You Became Interested In Electrics?

[OnlQQker]

I was 7. I painstakingly removed 2 screws from a power socket with a small pair of scissors and then tried to unscrew the live in the same fashion.
This is how I became painfully became interested in them, how about you?

 

[ruston]

Bloody hell. There’s a career I wouldn’t want to make a mistake in.

reminds me of the time I worked on an RAF base. Nothing special, still needed civvies to change a lightbulb.... but we were workingin the missile section. Every new building we worked in, we had to have an induction/ safety brief.
Fire safety in this place was: “If you discover a fire, first raise the alarm. Then see if you can run away as fast as I can!”

One of our hydraulic machines caught fire .This was massive digger with hundreds of gallons of oil and diesel in it
The banksman abandoned the machine as quick as he could and made no attempt to tackle the fire . At the enquiry he was asked what steps he should take in the event of fire. He answered "Great big fkkkrs , two at a time".

 

[freddo]

I must say I'm glad I'm not any younger, everything fun is banned now.

I was 11 when my grandfather taught me how to operate a digger and dumper. I remember it was quite hard for little me to push the clutch pedal in on the dumper. Once taught I was left alone to dig out an earth bank, load it into the dumper, drive the dumper into the next field and dump the soil there. Can you imagine that happening these days?!

A year later he gave me a carrier bag full of parts that was once an 8mm projector. I worked out how all the parts worked and fit together and it still works to this day.

Anyone else play on building sites as a kid? Always liked to see the wiring in the houses being built. Certainly not now though. Loved heights (and still do) nearly fell off the roof of our 3 storey tree house once, and nearly through the rotten floor of an abandoned farm building, the drop was about 15' or so. Still hasn't put me off wondering through old buildings.

 

[Mike Johnson]

Near to our house in Blackheath was the Kidbrooke de-commissioned RAF station, we used to play on the Asbestos roofs and get inside the buildings by climbing down the roof truss's and steel columns, that RAF station became the Kidbrooke Council Estate on the opposite side of the road to the Railway Station, I actually think this is now being pulled down to be re-developed, in Highbury where we lived prior to Blackheath we played on the bomb sites.

 

[PEG]

Loved MarkRibbands early explosives DIY
I too,had the bug,and with a pal,we were knockin up some pretty hot compounds,plus his grandad was an ex sapper,and awful influence. Me pal then got an apprenticeship with Bayer,and we had access to all missing ingredients......scandalous,and 5 years chokey,now,but sooooo satisfying

My eldest has the same interest,but with a future career in the military,even reminiscing,has to be In Camera....

 

[hasel5]

1976 when we moved house and the sparks was doing a RB4 Got hooked then and now out of contracting doing EV points on the cards.
Had good time doing it and bad times But TBH never want to do a rewire or New build ever again

 

[dmxtothemax]

even as a toddler I used to play with gpo's, so some say it's in my blood !

 

[jay sean]

when I was about 10 I used to help my dad on foreigners used to pass him tools, when I was 17 I left school to be a electrical install apprentice, It was only then my dad told me he used to work for the EMEB.

I still help my dad on jobs and Im 40 years old and I love being a fully qualified electrician. I still get son 'you are doing that wrong'

 

[edexlab]

I actually wanted to do bomb disposal that was until I went to the Army careers office

The NCO said it's an interesting job , Technical too! , come back next week and you can have a chat with my colleague who's spent 15 years doing it!

Went back the following week met the guy who'd got 4 fingers on one hand and two stumps on the other, and a few vicious facial scars from NI a few years before

Interesting bloke, especially his attitude
to what had happened to him, he said he'd
been involved in enough incidents that could have killed a lot of people so it was worth it!

Inspiring however it did make me think twice!

 

[EddieSparks]

I think the question should be now, who would pick to do the same job again?

 

[Edtwozeronine]

Ha Ha! The days when a 12 y/o could walk into 'Boots the Chemist' or Woolworths, buy a 7lb tin of (unsuppressed) Sodium chlorate weedkiller, a pack of icing sugar, a box of 12 AG3B flash bulbs, a roll of bell wire, and a torch battery, all at the same time, from the same check-out, and no one said anything.
Happy days. Which, incidentally, informed my entire subsequent main career.

ps: And then film the whole ridiculous and dangerous process on my father's 8mm cine camera. Here's a still, which, until this thread got me reminiscing on a happy childhood, I forgot I had

Note the prepared device in the milk bottle. And who else remembers 'Savbit' solder?

And check out that massively cool LED watch
View attachment 54991

I used caster sugar myself, closer to the granule size of the sodium chlorate.

 

[EricMark]

I think it's hard to say exactly when, I had an electric train set, and I must have worked out dirt on the lines stop it working, and remember putting two 6 volt bulbs in series across the track and one failed, and dad explaining how the watts needed to match.

But at what age that happened?

 

[pirate]

Loved working on building sites when I was a student. drots, D8s, motor scrapers, anything...foreman just said go for it, and off I went.
My favourite was a huge Volvo scraper with hydraulic rams, so when you got bogged down you just dropped the rams and swung the cab section to one side and dropped the wheels on dry land...happy days!
Out of interest, this was in 1973 to 1977, and my wage packet was usually about £135/week cash and no tax...a pint of Double Diamond in the student union bar was 14p...
7 pints for a £1 and 2p left over for a box of matches...

 

[rapparee]

My dad was a sparks he worked in a big factory as their maintenance guy. Pretty mundan stuff like fitting tray and conduit , fixing stuff and replacing light bulbs etc.
I spend the summer holidays with him after taking my GCSEs , did some basic stuff like cutting conduit and pulling cable etc. spent hours just roaming the factory floor looking or little jobs that needed doings...
Unfortunatly the factory was closed down shortly there after (is now a big yellow storage units) and everyone was was made redundant overnight.
But from this brief time working with him sparked my interest in wiring and electrical work.

My old fella was a foreman electrician in a massive factory. A few years after he'd left he started up on his own and I remember he used to take me in there to do summer maintenance on shutdown. His old chargehand had taken over his job and tested me with a fault find on a small machine.
I, luckily I'll say, narrowed it down to a faulty solenoid and got a pat on the back. Went back to school but eventually joined the firm as an apprentice.

Are you guys brothers?

To answer OP I was 21

 

[Lister1987]

From about 9 when I started to take my toys apart, then about 14 I started stripping them for components and making new circuits then through my 20s going computer repair and actually looking to advance through college and beyond to become a spark.

The kicker of course being I'm disabled (had hydrocephalus and cerbal palsy since birth and non-specifical lower back pain since 2015 with no sign of abaiting) but if I want my kids to get a trade when they grow up,I must lead by example, sure I might not get anywhere with it (disability being the barrier to potential employment on the industry) but I'll have it under my belt.

 

[Baddegg]

From about 9 when I started to take my toys apart, then about 14 I started stripping them for components and making new circuits then through my 20s going computer repair and actually looking to advance through college and beyond to become a spark.

The kicker of course being I'm disabled (had hydrocephalus and cerbal palsy since birth and non-specifical lower back pain since 2015 with no sign of abaiting) but if I want my kids to get a trade when they grow up,I must lead by example, sure I might not get anywhere with it (disability being the barrier to potential employment on the industry) but I'll have it under my belt.

Good luck to you @Lister1987 thats a great attitude you have mate!