It just goes to show with these wonderful stories....Where there is will, we all find a way.
My earliest experience with electronic kit building came with the ACE battery charger/cycler. I was a junior in college I think and was what I could afford on meager wages. Someone from the field convinced me that I had to have a cycler for my NiCds and this was the cheapest way to go. I learned the art of soldering along the way. I still have the thing some 40 years later and it still works except some LEDs don't.