Back in the mid 80's when I was 13, I attempted to build a Flux Capictor out of stuff my Dad had in the garage. He was a Security Alarm Engineer at the time and our garage was an Aladins Cave of components and I loved playing with some of it. Of course, I wasn't succesful, but the Movie Back to the Future is probably responsible for my interest in gadgets and technology!
My actual first project was fuse tester, think I still have it somewhere...