Workmate--what is it good for?

[Bob Winkler]

I have the cast aluminum one too. I use mine quite a bit to throw in the van and take to my daughters house for a mobile work bench. Mine is actually from the late 70's and still going strong. It's actually a great design.

Bob

[Grant Wilkinson]

Mine is beat up from steady use. Mostly, it holds logs while I am chainsawing them into bowl blanks.

[John McClanahan]

I too have one like Matt pictured. One of the few Black & Decker tools worth having around the shop.

John

[Steve Kohn]

I've found one use for mine that justifies the Workmate existance. It is the best way I have to hold doors up on edge for mortising in hinges.

[Jim Becker]

I use mine primarily for home improvement on-the-spot stuff. (Along with my Festool MFT)

[john davey]

I have a B&D and a HF one. THe B&D is much sturdier and lives in my basement. It sees all linds of work as I am re modeling the inside of the house a room at a time. It will end up in the room I am working on for a little work bench for little tasks. Beets running to the basement all the time. The HF one stays in the shed and I basically pull it out and use it if I need to work on the chain saw or lawn mower or other out door task. If is flimsy but gets the job done. My bench top spent a long time on top of the two of them and it worked but was not very stable. Plus the HF is shorter so I had to stick a 2x4 in it t get it to the correct hight.

[michael osadchuk]

I used to have 5 Workmates but last year gave one to my adult daughter who moved into her first new home.

Two are used as small workshop tables for bench machines such as a small disk/belt sander; the other two are used when I work outside.

I pick up them for $10 or $15 at Habitat for Humanity Re-store; inevitably the ones that end up there are the deluxe two level, verty solid old ones.

They store easily.


What's not to like.

michael

[Kevin Bourque]

I have 2 of them I use all the time on construction jobs, mostly for my chop saw, tile saw, or my small table saw. I love them!

[Dick Mahany]

I never thought I'd use mine as much as I do.........
1. Tormek wet station
2. Paint mixing platform
3. Shop cat(s) sitting platform
4. Lathe tool/ chuck holder
5. Camera / video stuff holding place I the shop
6. iPad / PC / monitor holding surface
7. Clamp for stuff while work bench is tied up
8. Any horizontal surface to generally put stuff on

And many more that the original designer never intended it to be used for !

[Carl Beckett]

I use mine primarily for home improvement on-the-spot stuff. (Along with my Festool MFT)

Workmate


Festool MFT


Basically the same as each other, no??

[Myk Rian]

Mine is the 350 model. Got it for Xmas 15+ years ago.
Let the boy use it, and got it back with the top boards sawed in half.
I made new ones.
Why do I keep loaning him things?

[Gary Hodgin]

I primarily use my WM as I would a portable table. My grandsons use it as a workbench. Mine is too high and I don't want nails it in. I recently put a stain/finish on my wooden fence and use it as table for my turbine. In fact, I've still got a couple of sections to do but have to wait for better weather.

[HANK METZ]

It fills an odd role in the shop, kinda like Larry of the Three Stooges: nobody knows exactly what his role is, but the act wouldn’t be the same without him.

Many years ago I was one of the first Skil/ Bosch demonstrator guys. The Workmate was new on the scene, just coming over from the U.K. and Skil was giving us their version of it made by Wolcroft to demo, it was a dog; heavy, clumsy, not as versatile and made of formed steel. The Skil engineers liked it vs. the B&D because they claimed the cast aluminum base could fail radically under load while the steel would buckle and collapse progressively, thus giving warning of impending doom. Hardly a sales pitch that would inspire instant sales, but it was all they had for us at the time.

- Beachside Hank
Improvise, adapt, overcome; the essence of true craftsmanship.

[Jim Andrew]

When I built houses, found a workmate a extremely handy tool, as I didn't have a workbench with a vise on the job, and used the workmate like a vise on the bench. Now that I've retired from the building thing, still find some uses, although not as much since I built the workbench.

[Matt Meiser]

Well, its a moot point as there must have been a weak spot or crack in one of the H-castings which broke last night when I got it back to the shop.