Black & Decker WM225 Workmate 225 450 Pound Capacity Portable Work Bench

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After he was done with the project he didn't use them often, so when I moved to another house and no longer had my big garage & work benches I thought of something like this, and remembered the ones dad still had. Well the old Workmate held up perfect for the 5 or so additional years I had it, but when I left state I accidentally left my Workmate "reloading bench" behind, so I recently order a replacement. The Black & Decker Workmate series of work benches are a classic that have been around for about 20 years. The workmate series of benches are very versatile, compact, yet are pretty stout, making them a good value for the money in my opinion. My dad used a couple of these to help build some actual "built in" work benches & shelves in his garage many years ago. It worked great, and if you have ever done any reloading of rifle cartridges you know it takes some serious pressure on the press arm (which is transferred to the bench) to complete certain steps. We worked hard that day but it was worth the trade.

That is almost always a sign of a good product. We worked out a deal where I came over with my truck and helped him to clean out his garage, basement, & haul off some cut down brush and I could have one of the Workmate benches. My only issue was the instructions could be made to be more clear, take your time and you won't have any problems. I used the Workmate around my new house a number of times, then converted it to my "reloading bench" for reloading ammunition.

And depending on what you are doing, you could really hurt yourself.As a side note, many of the five star reviews are for Workmates produced 10 or 20 years ago not today's Chinese version. This one is made in China, and like most products from China the quality is poor. Like so many others, I remember the good old made in the USA Workmates that were solid and reliable. Yes it will hold the rated load, but everything else on it is of dangerously poor quality. As they say, this isn't your daddy's workmate. From the little rubber things on the legs, to the tightening handles, to the mdf 'wood' platform, to the threads on the vice thing; the overall build quality is very very bad.

I was disappointed with the light weight construction of this product. This one will probably serve the purpose for light duty home projects but would not want to use it on a daily basis. I had owned one several years ago and it twice the quality of this one.

One end of the box was wide open while the opposite end had been crudely taped by someone along the way to reseal it after it apparently had come open. The parts I assembled are mostly plastic in several critical moving parts of the item and it is a foregone conclusion they will not hold up to even moderate use without breaking. I would not recommend the Black & Decker Workmate series. I just received my Black & Decker Workmate WM225 and am disappointed in both the shipping by UPS and the low quality of many of the component parts of the item. The base is metal and seems quite stable and sturdy, so why they would go with cheap plastic in the vise mechanism seems even more incomprehensible.

My Workmate arrived as scheduled, but when it did the box was heavily damaged. The rest of the box looked like it had been kicked around the warehouse, with several holes torn in it and the cardboard crumpled. I consider myself extremely lucky that, when I assembled the workmate, all the parts appear to still be present and nothing seems damaged badly. I chalk that up simply to luck though and it could have easily gone the other way.

I have used this workbench for so many projects over the years, and the only thing wrong with it is one handle is gone (because my brother accidentally sawed it off when we were cutting some flooring planks); everything else still works great. My father-in-law, who was an excellent woodworker, gave me two of these workbenches for Christmas sixteen years ago. I decided to use one and put the other away for when the first one wore out. I'm sure I'll eventually have to bring out the backup unit, but not anytime soon.This workbench is very well made and very sturdy. it's still in the attic, unopened.