Traditionally some of the trade apprenticeships started with the new apprentice making their own tools. When I took a molecular cell biology class in college,

Traditionally some of the trade apprenticeships started with the new apprentice making their own tools. When I took a molecular cell biology class in college, the first series of labs involved disassembling and reassembling the bench microscopes that we would be using for the rest of the course (they were close to maxing out on optical resolution, the faculty couldn't afford to replace a broken one) As an engineer I enjoy making my own tools, sometimes a little too much