Black & Decker Workmate - Do you?

[Wildman]

I still have two of the dual height plus another for spares. When away jobbing they served to hold doors being fitted with locks or hinges, add a flush door on top and I have a great outdoor work surface that a lot of gluing up is done on. Would not be without mine.

 

[GLFaria]

All this reminds me of something that has puzzled me for years.
The dog-holes on my type 625 WM, of mid-70s vintage, are 20mm in diameter. as are the shanks on its bench-dogs and on the gripmate. I wonder if B&D was ahead of its time in using metric sizes, or if it was becoming usual at the time. Anyway, it seems the 3/4in size is still the most common standard.

I want to drill some dog-holes in another bench, and would rather not have two diferent dog-hole diameters, so want to make them 20mm.

I do have a pole auger bit in 20mm, but it is rather long at 450mm and the shank is a hex 7/16in, for which I still could not find an adapter for a square tapered shank. Dieter Schmid does sell adapters, but only up to 9mm (3/8in).

I have been looking for 20mm short auger bits with tapered square shanks for use in my bit brace, but so far have only managed to find them in Imperial sizes. Is there any chance of finding a source for short auger bits with tapered square shanks in metric sizes?

Thanks
G.

 

[scholar]

All this reminds me of something that has puzzled me for years.
The dog-holes on my type 625 WM, of mid-70s vintage, are 20mm in diameter. as are the shanks on its bench-dogs and on the gripmate. I wonder if B&D was ahead of its time in using metric sizes, or if it was becoming usual at the time. Anyway, it seems the 3/4in size is still the most common standard.

I was going to add that aspects of the Workmate are seen on the MFT tables by Festool - in fact I use my Festool clamps in the WM dog holes.

There are a few Festoolaholics that make their own worktops with 20mm holes - there was some discussion of what bit to use here http://festoolownersgroup.com/festool-j ... outer-bit/. That might be of interest.


Cheers

 

[Rhyolith]

I have 5 old blue workmates (got a job lot for next to nothing at a car boot), as everyone says that are endlessly useful round the workshop. I used the best of them as part of my mobile workshop (just a load of tools in a van ). One of the more useful things I did with them is attach a fairly large Record Engineering Vice via a clamp able wooden set up, this provides much better grip than the workmates own vice (with some aluminium and cloth jaw covers for woodwork).

The new workmates are appallingly low quality, its worth waiting on car boots and eBay to get an old one. +1 for the blue ones

 

[blackrodd]

I had one of the really older, alloy framed ones, my son, doing some clearing out, and trying to be helpful skipped it, whereupon I was not best pleased!
They were the best made I really miss mine, I have the tin ones now, not so good or stable.
Regards Rodders

 

[8squared]

I had one but after a little use i wasnt in love with it so it sat in a corner till i needed a bbq stand... That was the last time i used one, i wont be having another.

 

[Harbo]

I have two of the original ones - one I bought myself and one inherited from my father.
Still as good as new and very stable - used a lot for DIY jobs in the late 60's and early 70's before I got a proper bench.
One is still being used as a base for my router table cabinet - it was intended to be a temporary arrangement but that was 10 yrs ago!

Rod

 

[Jameshow]

I've been looking at on old BLACK &DECKER 2000 workmate fir our men's shed as we are doing a fair bit of work out and about.

Nice big work area and solid build quality unlike either the ketter ones or the cheap workmate copies?

Any thoughts???

 

[scholar]

I am a fan of the Workmate 2000 - I have 5 of them in total - I find them stable and versatile and useful in pairs. (I do have a very nice proper workbench, but that’s not mobile, of course, and I wouldn’t use it for many of the rougher jobs I use the Workmates for). There aren’t many jobs you cannot get done with a pair of Workmates, though.

I commented similarly in another thread recently Temporary workbench recommendations (Saw horses + 2x4 or otherwise)

Mine are in a range of conditions - one at least is pristine, others less so, but they all still function fine. The jaws and central panel are made in a variety of plywood and veneered mdf, depending on their vintage, I assume. Some of the plywood is a bit ropy and some of the central panels are a bit bowed - I keep meaning to remake some tops with laminated good quality birch ply, but have not got round to this - if I ever do, I would try to build in a better alignment system so that the central panel engages accurately with the jaw faces to give a really flat surface overall - at present you cannot rely on that, not that it matters much for most jobs.

Hope that helps

Cheers

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I've been looking at on old BLACK &DECKER 2000 workmate fir our men's shed as we are doing a fair bit of work out and about.

Nice big work area and solid build quality unlike either the ketter ones or the cheap workmate copies?

Any thoughts???

Excellent bit of kit. I have one.

 

[Tris]

Really useful to have, picked my current one up from the local tip, excellent condition and cost me a fiver.
If I remember correctly they were weight rated so you could use them as a hop-up if needed, may not pass H&S risk assessment now though

 

[Jameshow]

Great thanks I picked it up for £25 same price as those cheap nasty ones!

Hopefully it will be a good mobile bench!

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Workbenc...=p2349624.m2548.l6249&mkrid=710-127635-2958-0

 

[Ozi]

I have a cheap n cheerful pressed steel WM. Useful at times but not a patch on milk-crates when it comes to cutting large sheet items, can't get milk-crates any more since our local dairy closed, used to be given damaged ones just to take them away

 

[ian33a]

I also have two of them. The first one was purchased back in about 1987 and is pressed steel with ply laminated top. It's heavy, sturdy and decent. The second was purchased in about 2014 and put to work in our business. It feels light, tacky and cheaply made. It does the job but I'm forever thinking that its about to fall to bits. For me, the two are great indicators of how a product can be cheapened to serve a market where people don't want to pay over the odds for something.

They have their place - almost exclusively where I want a large pair of trestles or where I am working away from the workshop and want a portable table on which to place things and occasionally anchor them.

 

[clogs]

I have four, one ally and the rest v/old but pressed steel.....
the ally one I bought for a tenner...the rest have been resued from skips.....
people will throw out anything...
All my work is done outside on a gravel flat spot (not so flat really)
find the legs of the work mate's dig in quite well and make em fairly stable....
need more plastic catches for the legs....someone mentiond ankle rippers....lol....

 

[cowtown_eric]

there s a collectors agenda on these...

https://h-frame.weebly.com/workmate-79-001-type-study.html
the English ones are type "e"

Eric

 

[bp122]

I have a new pressed steel workmate at home, gifted by my in-laws when I first started my DIY journey in our 2nd floor flat.

As you say, they are useless for hand tool work, but good for laying tools when you are working.

After moving to our house, I started using a used solid wood dining table someone was giving away and put a couple of sheets of MDF on top for flatness and heft.

Now I use the workmate for resting my pizza oven when I use that!

Although, just last week, I had to make a rudimentary work surface for work and I bought these:
https://www.toolstation.com/minotaur-saw-horse/p13480
These are really solid and even come with removable brackets you can connect some wooden stretchers to join the pair and put any sort of top on and way way better than any workmate setup I have seen, plus cost half of a brand new workmate. (Just £55 odd for the pair)

Most importantly, they fold into nothing and can be stored very easily.

Worth a shot.

 

[carpenteire2009]

I have two Workmates, both the modern pressed steel type which I press into service every now and then. I replaced or beefed up the tops on each with a small strip of ply glued to the underside to increase the effective depth of the gripping part of the jaws. Coupled with some straight 8 foot 4 x 2s and a ply sheet on top they make an excellent glue up/ assembly bench for working outdoors in fine weather. I used this set up last year to complete a garden woodwork project which utilised long lengths of treated timber- couldn't have done the job without them. The workmate gets a thumbs up from me, a nice addition to the workshop arsenal but but not a substitute for a proper workbench.

 

[Paul200]

Wouldn't be without mine - a modern, pressed steel job. Just after we moved here (and before I had a workshop) we were desperate for some storage so I built these solely on my Workmate on the front gravel drive, when it wasn't raining!

 

[Stevekane]

One for the Health and Safety buffs,,An early Workmate bit the dust after my sons put a car engine on it,,one of the poor abused plywood jaws snapped, I had a black pressed steel one which I still use and think they are great,,anyway I could t bring myself to throw the broken one away and about 20yrs ago turned it into my sawbench below which has outlasted several skillsaws. It still folds and with care you can cut full sheets on it. Its been very usefull as its easy to carry outside and it must have cut miles of timber over the years.
Steve