I don’t think my parents realized what they were doing when they bought me an electronics kit at age 10, because it completely changed my life for the good.
I had a nascent interest in electronics and how they worked, but knew next to nothing at that age. While the kit taught the building blocks of electrical circuits in language that was probably meant for ages 14 and up, my father was kind enough to help me with anything I didn’t understand. I spent years going back to those manuals to learn how things like capacitors and resistors affected the behavior of specific circuits. Then when I became obsessed with playing the electric guitar in high school, I was buying guitar pedals and learning how they were wired with the various kits you can purchase on the internet. They send you all of the parts you need including the metal enclosure and then you follow the wiring diagram to build the pedal yourself. But things got really interesting when I got to college and learned how to weld metal. Welding is in high demand in a number of industries. When I was learning how to weld, rebar tie wire was an essential resource for practice. I bought a rebar bender and rebar cutters and then a few coils of basic black bar rebar tie wire. When you look at wholesale construction companies, you can often get good deals on basic black bar carbon steel rebar. It’s the cheapest rebar on the market and is a lot cheaper than galvanized or stainless steel rebar tie wire.