Mine is 80s. I replaced the MDF "jaws" with solid wood at some stage. As my work benches are covered in stuff, I often set it up outside to do a job. The plastic springs for folding the legs are broken which makes things pretty awkward as they flop about. Recently I looked online for replacements buy they were more expensive than a new Workmate. The most recent use was practising hand cutting dovetails. It is about the most useful, and used, thing I have.

I inherited my late dad's aluminium framed workmate and I have one from the mid 80's I bought when I was renovating my last home. I still use them both, often outside for dirty or dusty jobs or when I need to do DIY heaven forbid. I did manage to get some spares a while back from a Black & Decker shop when I was passing through Nottingham, likely long gone. Seeing this thread I wondered if the plastic parts are still available, a quick brose through ebay showed up most parts are…

larry you are NOT alone! I sometimes see my bench, when I'm having a clear up and clear out day, but other days………

Still got mine from the late 80's. The plastic clips locking the legs down failed recently, but replacements available at a sensible price. 8

Mine is a WM400, bought sometime in the '70's from either House of Holland or Argos, can't remember which. I've repainted it, added tape on the bottom of the legs to make the plastic feet a tighter fit, replaced two of the hinges with bolts (I seem to recall having make a pair of tubes or similar for the bolts to work), added a piece of 1/4inch wood, Ramin possibly, on the inside of the jaws and repaired one of the handles, the casting broke! And still it does all it's supposed to do.

I've bought various add-ons, the arms for holding large sheets, the steel bracket to convert it to a portable saw bench, the special bracket to allow the use of a tool tray on the rear of the rear jaw.

It's been used for just about anything I could cram into, or on, it: holding an old file whilst cutting it up, holding parts of tree branches whilst using a chainsaw, cutting smaller branches & scrap wood using the portable saw attachment, and right now it is being used as an extra table with a piece of plywood on top of the jaws and bits & pieces stored on top. In short, it's been one of the most useful pieces of equipment I've ever bought.

Mention has been made of "knock-offs", ie copies made by other than B&D. My daughter has a "knock-off", the design of which is so poor that the folding arms for the legs stick out rather than lay parallel to the legs as mine does. In other words, B&D may be more expensive, but it is proper engineered product.

Cheers,

Peter G. Shaw

Mine is the 1970's alloy one. Bought for me by my parents when I got my first house – possibly to celebrate getting rid of me! It still works well and is (like Larry's) mostly used as a temporary bench.

The most useful accessory I have is a sheet of 19mm ply with a block screwed across the bottom so that It clamps into the vice jaws. It has M8 inserts let in at the correct spacings to tie down the power tools for which I have no other bench space ( or which I prefer to use outside). It has fixings for the bench grinder, angle grinder stand, chop saw, an old B&D drill press and a horizontal stand for the B&D two speed drill that was supplied by the same source at the same time, and which I use for wire brushing or polishing.

After nearly losing a finger for about the fith time I junked a clone version and got a Bosch. Very expensive but I'll never regret it

I got a "proper" B+D about 15 years ago for 85 quid from B+Q.

the downward clamp part is very useful at times but its pretty weighty compared to the 15quid trestle style clones from Lidl so those ones get used a lot more in my workshop, they make very good portable tables

Edited By Ady1 on 25/04/2021 19:47:40

Mine is stil hanging onnthe garage wall, never used.

Dad gave me a B&D version in the early 70s, I've still got it. It doesn't get used a lot, but when it is used it's invaluable. Wonderful piece of kit!!

cheers

Bill

Until it was stolen by the 'builders', I had one of the original versions (mid 60s), with the thick beechwood clamps. It was one of the first 'tools' I bought after getting married and I recall part of the instructions contained a warning, something like –

" When using this device while sitting astride, be VERY cautious when closing the jaws !"

… manufacurers with a sense of humour are, regrettably, rare !

rgds

Bill