Here's a question about a little-known, short-lived, feature of the early Workmates.
How many of your Workmates have little plastic "frame protectors" (my name for them) as shown in these photos? They are found on the lower edge of the two upper frame pieces on each side that hold the vise screw assembly. They are about 1-1/2" long, made of a soft gray plastic and just slip on, held only by the springiness of the plastic. On the Workmates that have these, I have seen as many as four installed (two on each side), down to as few as one. They come off pretty easily, so I think that four was probably standard and that lots of them have since fallen off and been lost.
If your Workmate does have them, what model and type is it? I have only ever seen them on the 79-001 Type 2, so I have a theory about them. The Type 2 was the first North American Workmate to have a painted frame. When folded for storage, the upper and lower frames contact each other slightly. My theory is that the company was worried about wear to the paint from this contact, so added these for protection. After using them on the Type 2, they decided they were unnecessary and eliminated them. So I'm wondering if anyone has them on an earlier or later Type.
I considered that maybe they were only intended for protection during shipping, so the customer's new Workmate didn't arrive with chipped paint. I've never seen them mentioned one way or another in the instruction manual, or depicted as "for shipping only" or some such thing, so I'm not so sure about that.
The first photo is with the Workmate opened up, looking at the outer side of the upper frame piece. The second is with the Workmate collapsed, now looking at the inside view, showing how the "protector" keeps the frame pieces from touching. The third photo is of a different Workmate, showing how each side was fitted with two of these protectors.
