Thread: Black & Decker Vintage Workmate

I have listed a workmate for sale on Gumtree and Facebook, listed price is $200.00 but negotiable. It is a vintage version when they were still making very good units, I find the older workmates fantastic, they will fit in the boot of your car easily and are so robust and useful on site or in the workshop. I have had one that is even older than the one I am selling, and it has served me well. I recently purchased the top-of-the-line new version from Amazon and it was complete rubbish, luckily Amazon were willing to take it back and give me a refund. The top was bamboo, and one side had a bad warp in it. Over the years I have tried other types including the one from Axminster tools in the UK. The Axminster unit had lots of bells and whistles but when collapsed down would not fit in the boot of a car so I reverted to my original Workmate and modified the top so I could grip much wider items and it still folds down to the same size and fits in a car boot. I have attached some photos of the unit I am selling plus two photos of my original unit with the modified top to illustrate what can be done to increase the gripping capacity. The feet on the legs were missing on the unit I am selling so I fitted locally available feet that work well. The legs fold up and stay up and fold down and stay locked which can be a problem in the older units. The retaining springs seem to be stainless steel which is unusual. Any followers of Paul Sellers, who is one of my heroes, will probably have seen that he has at least one and maybe two workmates of the type I am selling.