Tinkering ... what does it actually do?

[Naria]

So, I've had FreeTime since it came out, but I've never used the Tinker option on any of my Sims stuff yet, as I'm not sure what it exactly does. Does it make any significant change, does it break my objects?

What's the deal? LOL.

[austwickmc]

It seems that when my sims tinker with something a lot of the time it makes things worse and I end up getting it repaired but saying that, it is quite funny when you see water gushing out of the bath when they are trying to fix it

[ancienthighway]

If you tinker with items in the house, chances are you will break them.  But that's okay, because you want to be able to fix them using your mechanical skill to further increase your tinkering and mechanical skills.