I bought my first soldering iron and multimeter by mail-order from Maplin when I was about 16 (1984) to build some add-ons for my ZX Spectrum. None of my creations ever worked 
I still have the soldering iron. I finally retired the analogue multimeter only last week after 21 years of sterling service and replaced it with a no-name digital one that I picked up in B&Q for €25.
I spent 6 years in UCD studying Electronic Engineering. In that time, I didn’t make one useful thing. I know, I know, they weren’t teaching me how to solder, they were giving me the skills I needed so I could get someone else to do it 
Every once in a while I get the urge to put some wee electronic kit together, but I never make the time available.
April 28, 2005 at 10:24 am
God good, when you think, it would have taken but one afternoon session to shows us a couple of soldering tips and tricks. Practice makes perfect after that, but the lads here were shocked that I didn’t know to ‘tin’ (as they say) the ends of wires before soldering them to a pin…
But I much ‘publish’ my first envelope detector radio tuner!… just wait in excited anticipation!
April 28, 2005 at 10:32 am
You’re in the stationery business now?
I always found that the Dutch and German engineers seemed to have both the theory and the practice which is a much better way of doing things.
I knew that trick about the wires tho!