BLACK+DECKER Portable Workbench, Project Center and Vise (WM425-A) & 20V MAX* Cordless Drill Combo Kit, 4-Tool (BD4KITCDCRL)

Hey got my Workmate today and I'm really happy I did! I don't do a ((LOT)) of woodwork but when I do finally get on a project, I need TOP-SHELF GEAR to be on hand and ready to go. I don't have TENS OF THOUSANDS to invest in a PREMIUM HOME WORKSHOP, so I get by with something REALLY COOL over here, and REALLY HANDY over there. I needed this bench more than a hog needs slop lol.. Because when I used my router or sander, I never had anything to properly hold the wood steady - till now!!I'm so excited to FINALLY be able to clamp a piece of wood down and just go to work on it - (Be careful not to sand or cut in to the plastic "dogs/posts" holding your work. As long as that doesn't happen you can't beat this for versatility, practicality & usability. The only reason I didn't give it 5-stars was because it's a tad small, and was a little tough to put together. There's 2 pins that have to be hammered into place, and MANNnnnn.... That took some WORK to get those things banged into place and "FLUSH" with the handled.You better hope you don't bend or damage them during hammering because once they get INTO position just a bit, you'll NEVER get them back out. After battling those pins to get them into position, the rest was easy. The instructions are fairly vague and you have to really figure it out on your own. This IS NOT for beginner-level builders because you really do have to figure most of it out as you go - fortunately there's not many pieces for it. Regardless, I DID also stop at the hardware store and pick up 6 washers - I don't understand why they didn't include washers and it likely doesn't matter but (I don't like bolts digging into wood).So ultimately - It would also be cool if it had a height adjustment, better directions, and if it was BIGGER! Basically... Black & Decker needs a FULL-SIZED WORKBENCH with drawers, peg board on the wall and a vice on the side. With THE WORKMATE as an item-companion, WOOWWW!! Now THAT woulda been cool!!! 😉 Other than that, It's actually REALLY well made, solid as a rock, and I'm looking forward to using it and putting it through the paces. 😍

When folks say "You get what you pay for" it's usually a negative, but in this case, it's positive as well.This is a great little work bench. I used it for a few hours and found it tremendously useful.On Stability:This portable work bench was much more stable than I expected, actually. I really appreciate the large step platform which provides a greater range of where I can place my feet when working with my hand plane. I think that's really important for healthy ergonomics. Some other work bench/platform solutions don't offer this and I found it quite restrictive trying to work around a piece when your foot is forced into one position. That meant you have to frequently reposition your piece and clamp it down again to maintain the most comfortable working position. Having a large step area mitigates that issue quite well. Not entirely but certainly better than similar competitors. It would have been nice to have step platforms on both sides. I would have paid an extra $20 for it. (Black and Decker, are you listening?) Doing so would increase the base further for an even more stable surface. Yes it would be slightly longer when folded up but the width would remain the same and the increased height wouldn't affect the folded footprint.On the Work Surface:Bamboo, as most folks agree, is much softer than a hardwood like oak or birch. But this is only true of the interior pulp.. The outer shell of the grass is extremely hard and resilient, typically harder than most commonly availlable hardwoods. Fortunately, for this portable workbench, the outer surfaces of the three wooden panels that make up the surface are laminated with that portion of the Bamboo stalk. So they are impressively sturdy. The center is derived of the softer portions of the bamboo, which saves weight.. As for stiffness, all three boards are plenty stiff for most purposes, although I highly doubt each board can support the entirety of the load rating (550lbs), nor do I think something like that is implied in the load rating. It's usually a max distributed load. Anyway to give you an idea of the flexibility, if I were to stand on the foot rest and lean hard into the thinnest slat (the clamping slat), by placing the majority of my 130lb frame onto it, it will flex a bit--somewhere between 1/8 and 1/4 of an inch. This more than meets my expectations.On fit and finish:This is one area I was not surprised about. The fit and finish reflects the price more than anything. The thing works really well, which I'm very pleased about. What I didn't get was precision. Of course precision usually means very expensive and here we have a very inexpensive work bench, so I was not expecting high precision. While the painted metal and finish of the wood surface was excellent, what was not was was the surface edges of the metal frame. They were all very rough to the touch. Fortunately no edges that have cut me yet but it just feels like it might. And throughout the unit you can see lack of tolerances in the assembly. For instance, the clamping bamboo slat did not align perfectly with the adjoining slat when closed all the way. It was 1/32" higher. Manipulating all movable parts feels rather loose.. The clamp knobs have lots of play, so does the release lever bar. But when things are locked and clamped down, all is well. This is the most important aspect and I'm glad they made sure the things stayed put. Likewise, the legs and platform are solid when locked into place. One minor issue I did have is with the springs attached to the levers used to fold and unfold the device. They pricked me. If you're not careful you might spill a bit of your own blood too. A quick fix was to grab my needle nose pliers and bend the ends of the spring so they don't stick out so much. Anyway just a quick tip."Made in China"?I know many have stated that the older models are more solid, but in this day and age, where pretty much everything is manufactured overseas, you get what you get. Had this unit been made in the USA, it might be $50 more and I would have happily paid that for it if it were offered, if for anything just to support my fellow Americans. But the truth is this unit is more than adequate for the occasional DIY or beginning woodworker, and for the price it represents an excellent value. I don't expect this to last forever, due to plastic being used I the clamping mechanism. But looking at the design of the clamp, it is quite intelligent and I think the parts in plastic were selected for a reason beyond just cost cutting--they provide smoother operation than a cheaply casted metal part would. For a clamp to be made of all metal, it would have to have very high tolerance for smooth operation. At the $110 price point (street) that's an unrealistic expectation. One last very important point. I always try to buy the best, regardless of where it's made, and I'm happy to believe I have achieved it this time. I have not found any other product that does better job than this unit. For my purposes, in terms of what it's design offers, it was a great purchase.Pros/Cons:Pros:-Stable-Compact.-Lightweight.-Good materials used (mostly).-Good clamp force-- enough for woodworking.-Superb engineering. Extremely easy to use. Clamp has a torque release spring design prevents over tightening. Bench dogs stay snap in semi-permanently and stay when the unit is folded up.-Best price and value.-Extremely easy to assemble. It comes 90% assembled. It's really just the work surface and clamp knobs. There are only 6 bolts. That's it. If you can't do that you probably should stay away from tools.Cons:-Fit and finish can be better--rough edges, but fortunately not where it matters.-Tolerances can be better. Work surface was not 100% flush with clamping surface, which was 1/16" higher.-Use of plastic parts in the clamping mechanism.UPDATE 8/22/15: It's a must-have!Five months later, I have come to realization that this little sucker has become an indespensible tool in my workshop. There have been many occasions I needed the extra degree of freedom it offers (moving around the clamped piece) over my two massive Gladiator workbenches (8' each with bench vises and woodworking clamps installed). I use it so much I don't even bother to fold it up any more. It only goes back to its storage spot when I need the extra space. It has become is my "go-to" bench when working on larger or oddly-shaped pieces pieces that require me to move around more. Much easier than reclamping.But even more so, it's also my go-to bench whenever I'm doing things that are a bit more destructive as I want to avoid damaging or minimizing wear and tear on my primary workbenches (such as using a torch, glue-ups, etc). I know those workbenches were designed to handle the abuse but if I had the choice between leaving burn/glue/paint marks on a permanent workbench and a replaceable cheapie, it's gonna be the cheapie :)This is a must-have for every DIY workshop

Compact and versatile as a workbench option for a small space. Tricky assembly that is nearl impossible to figure out by the hieroglyphic picture instructions, so go to Youtube for video how-to instructions. Also, if you are interested in getting one of these at a cheap price check out moving/estate sales as I have run across a few of these at dirt cheap prices after I paid for new. Lastly if you keep it out unfolded it’s easy to trip up on the feet of the table as you walk past it (but that’s why its sturdy)

High quality. Somewhat confusing to assemble but worth it.

Function-wise the Workmate 425 can well be a terrific crafting table. I would have given the assembly 5 stars but there are two reasons which each docks one star. First of all, the instruction illustrations are not for everyone and half the time you would need to look up a video on YouTube to assemble the outfit properly. Second, the hand crank rivets ruin the whole work bench. You will be hammering at the rivets in vain just to get those hand cranks bolted on. I suggest you find bolts and nuts of a length just long enough to reach out from the holes and to make sure the diameter of the bolts are just narrow enough to fit through the holes on the metal chucks where the hand cranks are to be attached to. Nevertheless, the plastic hex wrench is really stealthy and it tightens the bolts the work bench came with surprisingly well.

Replacement for older one. Newer one ever better!

Used this a few times now, a handy table to have, I do for the vice function, it's quite useless for what I need and the edges of Ave gone mouldy, so going to have this clean that up and varnish the edges. It hasn't been outside only in the garage and none of my other wood has gone mouldy.

They sure don't make WorkMates they they used to. This unit is poorly manufactured, the jaws doesn't open and close parallel and everything is loose and wobbly. Will be returning.

There are only 3 workmates widely available in the UK, and they are all basic or compact models. So I ordered 2 of these and had them shipped from the US (kinda expensive)Do yourself a favour and throw away the assembly instructions. They are the usual cryptic diagram nonsense with no text. Would it really be so much trouble to provide multi-lingual instructions with actual text, how many of these do B&D sell a year, yet cant be bothered to hire a one-off translator?Anyway, search youtube for "how to assemble your workmate 425" by "workmateguy" and this will help you lotsThe wooden surfaces are nice, made from compressed bamboo, kinda shiny and rigid like laminate floor boards. No warping for me, although other users have had this problem.The metal frame feels quite cheaply machined with lots of sharp edges, although seems sturdy enough. The rubber caps simply refuse to stay gripped onto the feet, so will either have to be glued on, or drilled and then bolted.The two vice handles are connected in tandem with a cheap plastic belt. It doesn't work very well and also removes the ability to close the vice at an angle. You can fix this by either cutting the belt, or digging around and trying to remove it altogether, but the workmate provides no easy way to just disengage it temporarily. People have been complaining for years about how stupid this design is, but B&D do nothing.Worst of all, the crank shafts and handles are attached by having to hammer a metal pin. For me the metal pin simply would not go into the hole no matter how gentle or hard I hammered. Not sure whether the pins I got were malformed, but I ended up having to use a nut and bolt to secure it.Overall, I'll get some good use of out these workmates, but I can't say I'm that impressed with the build quality, and even the design is not that clever, with obvious improvements even to a non-designer. Ultimately they've cheaped out on a lot of things which they shouldn't have

Bought this as a replacement for a much older model; it works well enough but perhaps a bit "overthought" in design and execution. I mainly need a sturdy vise to handle planing and cutting long planks of treated wood so the extra wide clamping is less important than the vertical clamping feature. It is comparatively top heavy when handling to open/close. Do yourself a favour and cut the nylon track belt that operates when your turn either handle; even with carefully resettingthe assembly this "feature" does not/cannot exert equal pressure on both sides of the jaws resulting in the workpiece slipping when you apply tool pressure; there also may be times when you need angled jaws for other than parallel edges and the belt would prevent this. It's sturdy enough for ordinary uses although I wouldn't class it as rugged.Reasonable value for money but if you can do without some of the features I would look at a different model

Great work bench to do my little dad projects with haha.