Black & Decker Workmate

[skmbabon]

I discovered this thread a couple of days ago and have been enjoying it, so thanks to all the contributors
One of the things I learned is that the dog holes are 20mm. Always assumed they would be 3/4" . For everyone asking about clamping and accessories, this is good news, as there is a wide range of items designed to work with the 20mm holes in Festool's Multi-Function Table (MFT) and its offshoots. Search for "MFT accessories" and you'll find lots. Here are some examples.
These are the Bessey GTR16S6H track/table clamps. I bought them to use on the track for a Makita plunge saw. As shown here on my Workmate Plus Medallion (79-042 Type 2), they also slip into a 20mm hole in a ~3/4" thick top to use as a hold-down. The L-bend in the clamp won't fit through smaller hole or thicker tops (unless the hole is bigger). Lots of similar clamps from other manufacturers. The clamp on the left clears the support and can be rotated but will hit the mounting bracket, limiting somewhat where it can be positioned. Beside the chunk of 2x4 is a small Veritas surface dog from Lee Valley. I did need to slightly enlarge the holes in the work surface with sandpaper wrapped around a dowel before the dog would insert and remove easily.


I don't have a full-size MFT, but here is a SYS-MFT. You could say it is the Festool (and Tanos, which makes the Systainers) version of the Workmate Shopbox. Clockwise from left side: black large and small Veritas surface dogs, UJK Super Parf dog with collar installed, UJK 50mm guide dogs (right one inserted in hole), UJL Parf anchor dogs with 8mm thread, and at the front UJK 12mm guide dogs (left one in hole). That's all I have on hand to show, but there are lots of other items, from bases for toggle clamps to bushings for work lamps.


Should your Workmate (or multiples thereof) fail to satisfy your need for perforated work surfaces, there are some great plans for DIY MFT-like tables. Look for Timothy's MF-TC and Dan Pattison's MPT for a couple of fine examples. (No connection to either though I think they are both great designs and plans.)
One more idea - if you have bar clamps with a bar <3/4" wide and a removable jaw, take the jaw off, put the clamp through a hole so the movable jaw will be on top, and reattach. Dan shows this on his web site.
Have fun!

 

[Grimpala]

FYI, if anyone is in need of the stock/standard bench dogs I found a file on Thingverse a while back and was able to print a half dozen dogs for mine. So far they seem to be on par with the original dog that I have. You can print them with more or less infill depending on how stout you want them to be, I think I printed mine at 50% infill.

 

[wolfcj]

I will point out that the standard swivel grips are still readily available and they aren't particularly expensive. If you don't have a 3-D printer or you aren't inclined to spend time making them, there's no need to worry about availability. Just search for "workmate swivel grips" or something similar and you will find many options. Some (but not all) of what you find will be a new design with the same 20mm posts but with larger heads, which some users think are better then the original design. You can also find both the new and the original black ones on eBay.

 

[NewShockerGuy]

FYI, if anyone is in need of the stock/standard bench dogs I found a file on Thingverse a while back and was able to print a half dozen dogs for mine. So far they seem to be on par with the original dog that I have. You can print them with more or less infill depending on how stout you want them to be, I think I printed mine at 50% infill.

I keep forgetting to check things like this online. I have a 3d printer and I still catching myself "buying" parts even though they are available to print. I gotta get out of that mindset...lol. Thank you for the reminder!

Here is the one that has good reviews:

Black and Decker Workmate bench dog/gripper-updated 2-8-19 by MakerBeck

I had destroyed a "Gripper" on my BD Workmate and decided to make a replacement. I ended up with two versions, one almost identical to the original and a second one with some reinforcements.1-2-15 I loaded my repaired version as someone reported an issue.Apr-4-17 Uploaded a double checked...

www.thingiverse.com

-Nigel

 

[Grimpala]

I keep forgetting to check things like this online. I have a 3d printer and I still catching myself "buying" parts even though they are available to print. I gotta get out of that mindset...lol. Thank you for the reminder!

Here is the one that has good reviews:

Black and Decker Workmate bench dog/gripper-updated 2-8-19 by MakerBeck

I had destroyed a "Gripper" on my BD Workmate and decided to make a replacement. I ended up with two versions, one almost identical to the original and a second one with some reinforcements.1-2-15 I loaded my repaired version as someone reported an issue.Apr-4-17 Uploaded a double checked...

www.thingiverse.com

-Nigel

That's the one I've used.

I hear you on the print it vs buy it. I have access to AutoCAD and just recently picked up a HF 56" toolbox, I've been printing all manners of tool organizers, from wrenches to nut drivers, to files. I have a ******* file holder on the printer as we speak. I can share the files if anyone is interested.

 

[fartymarty]

Has anyone seen add-on jaws like these for a Workmate? It's a photo from an estate sale and it's hard to be sure what it's showing.



It appears to be a 79-001 with its wooden jaws intact, but with large plastic(?) accessory jaws mounted on top. They have holes for the bench dogs and they appear to be fitted exactly to the Workmate. It also looks as though they have additional capabilities.

Am I the only one fascinated by this photo? It appears to me to be a commercially made top either designed for the workmate or adapted to it but my internet searching has yielded nothing...anybody ...anybody???

Although the top surface appears to be cream colored in the photo, it may just be reflected light off a black surface (and perhaps some sawdust as well) as during my search I've seen similar photo effects off of a DeWalt folding bench which is black. Still I have been unable to find anything that comes close in appearance to the one in the photo that wolfcj posted. I've also looked at router table tops since it appears to a have a miter slot runing the long way across the top. I'm guessing it's made of black plastic but since I can't find anything that matches..? Is that top sitting on top of the WM's original jaws with a clamping bar in between or are those just a couple of pieces of plywood to raise it up higher for clearance....come on internet detectives help us out here...Please?

 

[Grimpala]

While looking for that, what appears to be black plastic benchtop, I found this interesting piece. I did not know that these existed.

Benchtop Workmate

 

[rlitman]

While looking for that, what appears to be black plastic benchtop, I found this interesting piece. I did not know that these existed.

Benchtop Workmate

I have one. It's quite nice, but the aluminum jaws dig into woodworking projects, so I lined my jaws with leather strips.

 

[PoorUB]

Interesting thread!
I remember looking a the Workmate when they first came out. I never have bought one. Makes me wonder what I might be missing!

 

[RTM]

You guys with 3D printers, AutoCad, and Workmates should look into developing the mounting plug for the GripMate.
These things are worthless without the bases

Black & Decker Gripmate

progress-is-fine.blogspot.com

I suspect a few people, myself included, would pay for an extra or two to bring them back to life.

 

[RTM]

Just a silly question about 3D printing costs. This site has a bag of parts for $16/that includes 4 dogs. How much does it cost you in material to print one yourself?

Bag,hardware 242829-03 - OEM DeWALT - eReplacementParts.com

Buy the official DeWALT Bag,hardware 242829-03 replacement - Use our model diagrams, repair help, and video tutorials to help get the job done.

www.ereplacementparts.com

 

[Grimpala]

Just a silly question about 3D printing costs. This site has a bag of parts for $16/that includes 4 dogs. How much does it cost you in material to print one yourself?

Bag,hardware 242829-03 - OEM DeWALT - eReplacementParts.com

Buy the official DeWALT Bag,hardware 242829-03 replacement - Use our model diagrams, repair help, and video tutorials to help get the job done.

www.ereplacementparts.com

A 1KG spool of has ~335 meters of filament on it, typical cost is <$25 on Amazon, et.al. My printer, the way I printed them, used 15.5 meters to print 4 dogs.

So, for $25 I could print ~85 dogs, or roughly $1.20 for a set of 4.

Granted, these aren't extrusion molded and are PLA(I could print them in ABS if needed), however, if printed in the right orientation they are plenty strong for anything I need them for. I have a Wilton and various other clamping devices for the HD jobs.

 

[Grimpala]

You guys with 3D printers, AutoCad, and Workmates should look into developing the mounting plug for the GripMate.
These things are worthless without the bases

Black & Decker Gripmate

progress-is-fine.blogspot.com

I suspect a few people, myself included, would pay for an extra or two to bring them back to life.

Give me a day or two to tinker with the CAD and I'll see what I can do.

 

[Grimpala]

I'll let you know in ~45 minutes if its a dud or not.

 

[Grimpala]

Trying a different print setup with supports, the tangs on this one are weak, but the dimensions check out.

 

[Jmellc]

Mine was free. I won it in a drawing at Rose’s Dept Store, 1986. Saw a sign advertising a raffle for an entire B&D workshop. Had the bench, circular saw, slimline corded drill, jigsaw, router & palm sander. Still have all but the drill. I used it hard on job sites when I went back into electrical work later on. Got over a year of hard use from it, not bad.
I filled out a form & couldn’t find the box. Asked around & no one had seen it that night. Manager took the form & said he would put it in when he found it. I figured it would get washed in his shirt pocket later.
But a month later I got the call I had won. Maybe mine was the only ticket he still had. Only good stuff I ever won in a raffle & was glad to get it.

 

[wolfcj]

I have one. It's quite nice, but the aluminum jaws dig into woodworking projects, so I lined my jaws with leather strips.

The aluminum vise jaw covers on the 79-020 Benchtop Workmate are to be used "to protect the vise jaws when gripping objects with shapes or edges that could damage the jaws". You can just remove them when you don't need them.

"

 

[LS6 Tommy]

While looking for that, what appears to be black plastic benchtop, I found this interesting piece. I did not know that these existed.

Benchtop Workmate

I almost picked up one of those at a garage sale, but I already have a drop leaf unit and I overheard a young guy there with his dad say he wanted it for his work bench they were building.

Tommy

 

[captain14]

I won a very similar package from the local lumber yard chain around the same time. Great package of tools. Still use most of them today.

Mine was free. I won it in a drawing at Rose’s Dept Store, 1986. Saw a sign advertising a raffle for an entire B&D workshop. Had the bench, circular saw, slimline corded drill, jigsaw, router & palm sander. Still have all but the drill. I used it hard on job sites when I went back into electrical work later on. Got over a year of hard use from it, not bad.
I filled out a form & couldn’t find the box. Asked around & no one had seen it that night. Manager took the form & said he would put it in when he found it. I figured it would get washed in his shirt pocket later.
But a month later I got the call I had won. Maybe mine was the only ticket he still had. Only good stuff I ever won in a raffle & was glad to get it.

 

[langdon]

You guys with 3D printers, AutoCad, and Workmates should look into developing the mounting plug for the GripMate.
These things are worthless without the bases


I suspect a few people, myself included, would pay for an extra or two to bring them back to life.

Virtually every plastic part for various Workmates have a free STL file out there for the individual piece. And even some add on parts that are rather ingenious people came up with.

I just printed a leg clip for a WM200 I picked up this week and it is holding up just fine. It cost all of .40 cents in plastic to make and 90 minutes of time/electricity.

I don't own an H-frame Workmate but it would probably be worth if for someone here who does to investigate which files for 3D prints work with them so people who want to print them out themselves can do so. And as an FYI a lot of local public libraries are starting to do 3D prints for members for a buck or two.

 

[wolfcj]

I have a page of links to 3D printed parts for Workmates at my website, but the offerings for early Workmates are quite slim.

Black & Decker Workmate 79-001 3D-Printed parts

Links to sources for 3D-printed parts for Black & Decker Workmates

h-frame.weebly.com

If you can provide more sources, that would be great.

The Workmates with aluminum H-frames had very few plastic parts. The plastic was limited to the vise-handle knobs, and, for slightly later Types, the vise-handle arms. I haven't run across any of those parts as STL files.

The Workmates with steel H-frames, such as your WM200, have a few more plastic parts and the STL files are available for some of them. One part on a steel-H-frame Workmate that breaks fairly often is the top-release lever from the 79-001 Type 6, but I've never seen an STL file for this. It serves the function of a spring, with a "finger" that flexes every time you use it, which may not be possible for a typical 3D printer.

There are some STL files available for Workmate accessories, which work on all full-size Workmates, new or old. The most common are the bench dogs, but I've also found plans for the insert bushings for the Gripmate, here:

Workmate holddown clamp dog Black and Decker by TrentDavey

Workmate holddown (hold-down) dog. This is a dog that fits 20mm holes and accepts a 8x13mm holddown clamp. Shown is the original orange dog it replaces. The fit is nice and snug and since the printing leaves ridges along the Z-axis, the friction is large between both the workmate and clamp...

www.thingiverse.com

B&D Clampmate Insert by drochte

Black & Decker Workmate Work Center and Vise Attachment Clamp Part No. 79-016This is the 20mm Adaptor Bushing #975810 insert needed for the Clamp to function properly in Workmate workbench.The tolerance is pretty tight, so you'll have to adjust the cylinder portion for it to fit in the...

www.thingiverse.com

 

[wolfcj]

Here's a look at what may be the strangest Workmate that Black & Decker ever produced. If you're in the U.S. it's unlikely that you've ever seen one. Even in the UK, where they were sold, they seem to be quite rare.

Technically it's not a Workmate, at least in name; the first photo shows a closeup of the "HandyJack" label.

Looking at the second photo, you see that it appears to be a more-or-less conventional folding three-step step stool.


But then you fold the handrail down out of the way toward the back on its pivot, you turn the HandyJack around, and you flip the black plastic cover on the top step over on its hinges to expose...a Workmate!


It's hard to tell the size but it is certainly smaller than any floor-standing Workmate I've seen, perhaps 24-28" tall and 15 -18" wide. I would love to find a manual or advertisement for it showing intended uses. There are so few of them around that it clearly didn't sell well.

Here are a couple more photos of one with its top cover broken off.

 

[Outlawmws]

That is an odd one! I'l have to watch for that, as unlikely as it will be to find one here...

 

[y'sguy]

Yeah, that is a weird one. Gee, I can't decide… Do I want to clamp my work down safely or just climb up to a higher level. I don't know?

 

[Outlawmws]

Another odd one - I just got this one for free for my son. A Workmate 525 - can be used as a hand truck or fold down to a 30" work top/Vise - the Jaw material is laminated Bamboo, so a HUGE improvement over the particle board versions!

I don't know how many of you have used things made from bamboo, but I'm a definite fan. It's stable, HARD, and strong, Not particularly brittle and no splinters in my experience. Not bad for a "Grass"

I want to find a source for buying raw materiel... I



I haven't set it up yet, so pics from Amazon:

 

[nadogail]

Thé Dentist who invented the WorkMate deserves to be Rich.

 

[PoorUB]

I still am trying to figure out if I am missing something not owning a workmate! I do all my own home remodeling and never had any desire to own one.

 

[GreyOwl]

But--once you use one you will wonder how you got along without it

 

[Stephenw]

Thé Dentist who invented the WorkMate deserves to be Rich.

He was an auto designer...

Ron Hickman - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Outlawmws]

I still am trying to figure out if I am missing something not owning a workmate! I do all my own home remodeling and never had any desire to own one.

Depends on how much you like crawling on the ground to cut things, or trying to chase them while on ordinary saw horses. that is without using them to hold bench tools like chop saws and bench grinders...

 

[PoorUB]

Depends on how much you like crawling on the ground to cut things, or trying to chase them while on ordinary saw horses. that is without using them to hold bench tools like chop saws and bench grinders...

I have saw horses, I have a lot of clamps. I have an old solid core door I drag out for a bench top when I get serious. Bench grinder has it's own stand as does my power miter saw.

 

[mikegt4]

He was an auto designer...

Ron Hickman - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

For Lotus, Ron Hickman design some of their most iconic cars. The Lotus Elan heavily influenced the design of the original Mazda Miata.

 

[DaveT]

I have saw horses, I have a lot of clamps. I have an old solid core door I drag out for a bench top when I get serious. Bench grinder has it's own stand as does my power miter saw.

I have to say now that I have a couple workmates I find myself using them all the time. I also like to throw an old door across a couple saw horses sometimes when I need a large work surface outside, but there are some things a workmate can do that saw horses can’t. Here is one example: when doing the final glue up on this 36”x84” workbench that weighs 250lbs I was able to use two workmates in their lower position to hold everything vertical. Worked great.

 

[Junkman]

I bought one back in 1980 something and one winter it got left out in the snow. The top delaminated, so I had a friend that has a cabinet shop cut me 2 pieces of hardwood to make a new top. I forgot to take the old piece back, for a template to drill new holes in the wood. Might someone be able to give me the measurements of where the holes are located and the diameter of the holes? thanks Junk

 

[wolfcj]

At my H-frame site I have a page about top replacement that will answer your questions. It includes a link to another owner's measured drawings showing one of B&D's hole patterns for the 29" long jaws of the standard, full-size models such as the original 79-001.

Black & Decker Workmate 79-001 Top/Jaw Replacement

Replacing damaged jaws on a Black & Decker Workmate 79-001

h-frame.weebly.com

Quick answers to your questions are that if you want to use B&D accessories, the holes should be 20mm. This is discussed further at my site. The pattern of the holes can be anything you want; B&D actually changed the pattern slightly a couple of times on the 79-001. The shorter jaws of the various smaller models use a different pattern.

 

[RTM]

I don't know how many of you have used things made from bamboo, but I'm a definite fan. It's stable, HARD, and strong, Not particularly brittle and no splinters in my experience. Not bad for a "Grass"

I want to find a source for buying raw materiel...

Lots advertised online, but none of it local. HD and Rockler will both ship to you, or ship to store, but only found one flavor of flooring at my local HD, YMMV

 

[Modern Garage]

I've been waiting for it to show up in the local stores too. Apparently being one of the most common and sustainable materials doesn't translate to "cheap enough for Menard's".
Joe

 

[wolfcj]

My research into vintage Workmates continues, focusing recently on the original UK models. Here is one of my best finds, what I believe is the very first Black & Decker advert for the Workmate, from the London Daily Mirror for November 2, 1972. As you can see, it's in the form of a comic strip telling the story of "Andy's" kitchen remodel. It now appears as the featured image on my Documents page.

I also uncovered even earlier photos, newspaper reviews, and ads from 1968 to 1971 for Ron Hickman's original Workmate, which you can see in this recent blog post.

 

[RTM]

Here's a few more early ones that I had listed. The original links died, so took a bit of digging to resurrect them

https://vads.ac.uk/digital/collection/DIAD/id/4123/rec/2

https://vads.ac.uk/digital/collection/DIAD/id/8591/rec/1

https://vads.ac.uk/digital/collection/DCSC/id/14945/rec/4

The website's full list is here:

https://vads.ac.uk/digital/search/searchterm/workmate

 

[wolfcj]

Thanks. I wasn't aware of that site. I already have the second image on your list at my site, but there are several others I had not seen yet. I'm happy to see that they have a very permissive policy for non-commercial use of their images. My site concentrates primarily on North American Workmates, but it's interesting to cover some of the recognition that the early UK models received.