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Get an old bike. Take it completely apart, down to the bearings, spokes, and nipples. Attempt to put it back together. Buy the necessary tools to finish the job.
Tools are going to be the biggest hurdle. You can have the knowledge, but need the tools which really don't come cheap depending on what exactly you are going to be doing.
Brian
When you're looking for tools, I'd check non-bike related brands. You can often get things like p handle wrench sets for a lot less than bike specific brands will charge. To get started, you can probably do most repairs that you'll need with a p-handle wrench set (look for a ball head on these since it'll let you work on bolts at odd angles), a cable cutter, needle nose pliers, a chain breaker, a third hand tool, a pedal wrench, a lockring tool and a chain whip. Although you can jury rig something using ropes or a bench clamp, getting a stand is probably a good idea as well.
With this you'll be able to do most things except for playing around with your headset, bottom bracket and your hubs. But you'll be able to do pretty much everything else (I was able to replace my shifters, cables, and derailleurs with the above) The park tools website has great instructions and video in places for a lot of this and you can use the park blue book or bicycling's bike repair book. Oh, you may already have some of these already (e.g. most multi-tools have a chain breaker which is adequate for swapping a chain every so often and you probably already have tire levers).
You can get the other stuff as the need arises or if you move further but some of it is not worth it unless you're going to be gung-ho about bike repairs. E.g. a headset press probably isn't going to be used much but costs a bunch. Besides, as others mentioned, you can always go to westtown on open shop nights to borrow their tools for something like this.
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