My Black & Decker Workmate 400, was one of my first purchases when I moved into my house in Richmond, circa 1990.
It has served me well, however, I found that being able to collapse it and store in a low profile, often made me ignore it and while set up,
was just a pain to move. This was also one of the first “tools” that I mobilised. The initially chosen 50mm wheels were not ideal,
as I sacrificed too much height if I folded the legs, but that extra 50mm felt awkward, if I didn’t…. and the wheels had butterfly brakes which I hate.
I then upped the wheels to 100mm with better brakes, which left folding up the legs a tad more comfortable overall,
While I may be accused of a penchant for MDF, after destroying the tabletop by negligently leaving the Workmate out in the open exposed to the winter elements for a prolonged period, I made a mirror image (without the print) of it with all the dog holes, out of 2 layers of 18mm MDF.
Unfortunately this model with a vertical clamping configuration,
is no longer available commercially, so I will shift concentration to customising any Workmate.
As mentioned, mounting the ‘mate on large wheels, will make it mobile yet maintaing the comfortable working height.
Unfortunately this makes it a tad difficult to fold, but with the wheels, easy to move around, providing you have the footprint available.
The base is not fixed to the Workmate but sits on top
so folding and propping the table and base against a fixture/wall is not that problematic.
I tended to use it for sanding and after storing my sandpaper on the tray shelf,
realised that some built in storage would not go as-tray.
I look in the mirror every morning and accept the fact that I have no right to enter a beauty contest, so the drawers and frames I built can stay ugly, however, optimised to provide as much “practical” storage as possible.
I even went to the indignity of using pocket holes
… after all I had a swag of Kreg screws I got for free, left over after I gave my crappy Kreg Forman to a person I didn’t really like... didn’t dislike him enough to deprive him of any of his shekels for it.
Kept the drawer sides relatively low so don’t need to reach down, however, can buff out the height with scraps, to stack boxes,
The frames for the drawers were tapped and screwed to the Workmate’s metal frame,
and mounted with slides in an under drawer configuration
as the metal form of the Wokmate frame made side mount a tad harder than shelves for under drawer mounting.
Due to weight of sandpaper, I was not concerned about the prospect of tipping when the drawers were fully extended,
Then I went out and purchased my Fe$toolVAC-SYS and needed a place to store/mount them.
I will not even contemplate a review of my beloved VAC-SYS as it is no longer commercially available… (not due to usability but because of price… at least that’s what I was told).
I found that with a piece of 42mm x 19mm pine, I could screw a mounting piece to a melamine sheet
t
to provide a perfect, yet movable tabletop
for the VAC-SYS,
as one of my primary use of the VAC-SYS is sanding, the sanding storage under the Workmate proved invaluable.
I also used that melamine tabletop to mount an upside down ROS in a Zyliss clamp,
Unfortunately there is no SketchUp ( or any type) of sketch for this project as it was measured on the fly and multiple cuts using sneak up process to get a perfect fit
Thanks for looking.
Don’t be crafty Craftisians,... SHARE your craft!
If your first cut is too short... Take the second cut from the longer end... LBD
I am out helping No 1 Son with another warehouse fit out so I will have to delay my workmate check until I get back home... and looking at a second hand fork
Hey there Duck. . . . .this is a great answer to "what do I do with this thing?" I got mine in 1974 and for the past 30 years I have moved it from place to place and from back corner to another back corner, never truly giving it any thought as to what it might become with come thought and imagination. you, sir, have definitely rung the bell with this project. great job and thank you for the inspiration.
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