milling machine (for example, the lead screws on the X-Y table are 6
TPI -
man, is that a giant PITA!)

I'm willing to bet that they are really metric screws (4.25mm pitch
(0.1673"
per turn, instead of 0.1667"/turn)). Of course, neither is very useful,
but the 4.25mm might be better with metric dials. :-)

No, surprisingly, they're actually 6 TPI - and the hand wheels go up to
.166
... with a bit of extra space after the last division. Yech!

O.K. I've seen ones which were marked for 0.125" (with a little
extra unmarked space) for a full turn, but which were in reality 3.25mm
pitch (0.127953"). Really a crazy one, and a pain to use.

Well, maybe you're right - that's a pretty small difference. When I'm
knocking out some simple project, I generally try to use multiples of 1/2",
which is exactly 3 turns of the handwheel - or at least I thought it was.
I've never noticed it being off, but maybe it has been and I attributed any
accumulated errors to my carelessness in tracking backlash or something.
I'll put a caliper on it and find out for sure.

Some kids are tool users, and some aren't, I guess.

Yep. I've been as long as I remember. I moved back to my
parent's house after going part-way though high school in South Texas,
with a step-grandfather who was a tool user. When I got home, and
started looking for a hammer to do something simple, I found two -- both
tiny claw hammers with one or both claws broken off. That Christmas, I
got him a *good* claw hammer -- which I still have.

I also talked him into some other power tools for maintenance on
his all wood sailboat.

I can't conceive that someone doing work on a wooden boat wouldn't have more
than that pitiful set of tools! When I was 14 or so my Dad and I built a
small sailboat in the garage. My Mom was pretty happy to get the garage
back for a car after parking outside all winter and spring. I learned a
lot, though.

We didn't have much money, so every purchase was carefully considered. Our
only power hand drill was a 1/4" single-speed Black & Decker, but there were
probably a couple of thousand screws to drive in this boat. Rather than buy
a 3/8" VSR drill, which were still pretty expensive at the time, we found a
hand-clutch arrangement for a few dollars. It was ribbed cylinder, about 2"
in diameter and 3" long. One end way clamped in the drill chuck, and the
screwdriver bit in the other. By triggering the drill motor, you could grab
one half of the cylinder with your hand acting as a clutch to gradually
bring the bit up to speed. Grabbing the other half of the cylinder would
run the bit backwards (there was some sort of internal gearing). I ended up
with pretty tough hands for a 14-year-old...

Cheers!
~~
Mark Moulding