Customer Reviews

Black & Decker WM125 Workmate 125 350-Pound Capacity Portable Work Bench

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

Since I have been very happy with the heavy-duty WorkMate owned for the last two years, and needed to replace my old worn-out 2x4 sawhorses, I purchased the WorkMate WM125.

Unfortunately, Black and Decker has lost the handle on quality control in their offshore manufacturing. The WM125 is just plain flimsy, and assembling it was an adventure, or perhaps an ordeal would be more accurate. There was missing hardware, hole mismatches in components, and a severe thread mismatch between the jackscrews and their fittings. One of the roll pins for the handcranks was too large to force fit into the jackscrew. One of the bamboo planks had impact damage to one end that could not have been caused by shipping, as it was well packaged.

Finally, with the thread mismatch severity in the jackscrew fittings, it is very difficult to turn one of the handcranks (the other one is not very difficult, just difficult).

It might replace one of my sawhorses, but it sure won't be easy to use for anything else. It's amazing to me how this WorkMate product line has deteriorated. The older heavy duty model with its quick release folding latch and heavy duty plastic top is apparently no longer manufactured, now replaced by what appears to be offshore bamboo-topped models. I hope the rest of the product line is not plagued by what I experienced, but I will not be buying any more WorkMates.

I like this Workmate a lot, especially considering how inexpensive it is. I don't have room for a real work bench, so I needed something that can be stored away compactly but isn't too complicated, and this bench fit the bill.

I recommend this Workmate for people who need a small work bench for the occasional project, but don't know much beyond that. The higher-end Workmates are probably very nice, but I would suggest that you get the WM-125 unless you know there's a feature of the higher-end models that you want. I'm still impressed at the versatility of this one. I've been using it for months, and I have no desire to replace it with a more expensive model.

I bought this little Workmate recently from Amazon. It's a good
design but the quality was lousy and maybe not what it used to be.
One of the crank knobs came broken, and the general fit of the parts
was poor: the lead-screws that work the clamps were too stiff, even
after being greased; the pins that held the cranks were too big and
wouldn't come close to press fitting until I squeezed them down to a
smaller diameter with a vice grip; the plastic parts the front board
sits on didn't fit into the boards well and had to be pressed in with
a vise; and the foot-rest leg braces needed some bending before the
whole thing would sit square.

On the positive side, it's very portable and fine for light work,
especially for the price.

I've owned my little Workmate for about 15 years so I can't comment on the quality of the newer units. As for mine, it is an extremely handy portable bench. When used within it's obvious limits I have no doubt that you would be happy. Beyond the obvious things that come to mind when you look at one, let me list the things I've done with mine to give you a sense of what it can do.

1. Assembly table - By clamping a larger sheet of plywood, with a small rib down the bottom center to fit inside the clamp, it functions as a terrific assembly table.

2. Cutting bench for deck work - Clamp your 2x4s, 2x6s and 2x8s into the moving jaws and measure and cut them to size with a handsaw or power saw. It's so light it's easy to haul to the site.

3. Plumbing table - Similar to #1, I've screwed a rib to the bottom side of a piece of plywood, covered the plywood with tin, bolted a small vise to it, and then used it to do plumbing work. Again, its so easy to carry you can take it right to the spot. I even solder on it although I lay a piece of 1/4 inch plate steel over the tin covering.

4. Bench top power tool table - I use it to hold my Delta miter saw, my Sears scroll saw, my Grizzly 6 inch grinder, and I used to use it for my little drill press (my wife bought me a floor model for christmas last year.)

5. Oh yeah, before I forget, I saw on it, hammer on it, drill on it, screw things together on it, plane on it, and do a host of other simple tasks with it.

As you can probably tell, this little inexpensive table is a very versatile tool and it uses are probably only limited by your imagination and their overall weight.

It does however have a few downsides. Out in the field it can sometimes be a bit tricky to get all 4 legs actually sitting on the ground. Because it is so light it really isn't as stable as a real workbench. As an example, planing wood with a hand plane can be a bit tricky since it is easy to tip it over or push it along the floor. Additionally, my scroll saw vibrates enough to cause it to dance around unless I put my foot on the bottom brace to hold it in one spot. While plenty good for most tasks, the clamp can be a little tricky to use. For example, to get the most clamping strength each side needs to be parallel to grip things equally. This can be a challenge sometimes. Mine also has a little piece of metal below the main table with various holes in it that was intended to hold screwdrivers and other tools. Forget it. The only thing that this little piece of metal is good for is to interfere when you want to clamp a board vertically instead of horizontally. It can be worked around but it definitely wasn't one of their better ideas.

However, if you keep in mind that this is a very light (so it is portable) folding work table made of plywood, some plastic parts and some thin metal, you will get along fine with it. Even after all these years I use it quite a bit because I haven't found anything else anywhere near as handy. I've looked at the fancier Workmates a few times but, since this one is still chugging along I have no real reason to buy one. I built a full size woodworking bench for my heavy work so I don't try to use it as my primary workbench. But I should point out that I built that heavy duty workbench using this little portable work table. It's light duty but it is a great design and I gave it 4 stars because, although not perfect, it's good points far outweigh the bad ones. In fact, I have recently started teaching my grandchildren the basics of working with wood, and I will be buying each of them one of these portable work tables to learn on.

It seems the reviewers who have had this work beanch for years love it. The disappointed customers are those of us who purchased it recently. I bought two recently at a sale plus rebate that brought the price down to $10 each, primarily to use as saw horses. They seem to be ok for that purpose, but I was very disappointed with the quality.

When I went to assemble the first one, it was excruciatingly slow because, although the process is not complicated, the instructions are poorly written and printed in type so small as to be unreadable even with a magnifying glass. I finally had to find the tech doc at B & D's website, enlarge it and print it to begin to decipher it.

Well, I figure the second one would be a piece of cake. Wrong! The parts were so poorly matched and out of alignment that I spent hours putting two screws in place, and finally had to force the pieces into alignment with c-clamps and a hammer. Absurd.

Finally, with libertal application of WD40 I have two folding saw horses that are probable woth $10 each, but certainly not full reatil.

I don't think I have to tell you where it was made. Deosn't anyone in the Free World make stuff anymore?

I bought this today from the blue home store. I returned it today too. I had the same problems others had with parts not fitting together. The whole thing was out of whack and when I tried to bend it so the legs would all touch the ground, (I didn't get them all to touch at the same time) the table was twisted so one side was leaning. Trying to make the table straight and the legs were all out of sorts. The cross braces have two holes for bolts on each side. One fit ok. The second, one side I could only fit one bolt through. There was no way the second was going to fit unless I drilled a hole. It was about an inch off. I thought I would manage with one bolt on that side of the brace, But after getting the thing put together and not getting it to set right I returned it. No money loss, but a lot of my time. I would give it a "0" if I could.

I really wanted the wm 425 but one wasn't available. I will wait and think about this experience before spending more time and money.

I bought this Workmate because I recently moved and had left my larger Workmate in storage to be picked up at later date. I needed something to work on right now. I was very disappointed with the quality of this item. Almost all the parts needed hammering, filing and bending to get them to fit. I think the thing was made from melted down Hot Wheels and old pallets. If you do buy this thing make sure you have a file and something to apply some torque to the bolts with or you'll never get it together.

I was unable to put the workbench together because several parts did not fit together. I tried hammering, sawing, and sanding the parts until they fit. Some did, some didn't. When the bench was mostly assembled, I found the vise was inoperable because the screws did not thread properly. I tried to disassemble the bench to see if this could be fixed, but found that none of the screws could thread properly, and the bench could no longer be taken apart unless I was willing to saw or break it apart.

Many of the most crucial parts to this bench are made out of plastic. One piece was broken when I opened the box. Several more broke as I constructed the table (no undue force or pressure, just trying to put them in the slots they were supposed to -- but didn't -- fit in).

All in all, this was a waste of money and time. I wouldn't recommend it to my worst enemy, and I don't even trust it to service me as a side table. I'm sure if I'm willing to spend far more money on a Black and Decker workbench, I can get something functional. But the bait and switch they pulled by selling me a bench with *no* working parts makes me leery about ever purchasing from them again.

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This review is for the Black and Decker Workmate 125 and the Harbor Freight WORKBENCH. If you are serious about doing your own stuff you need one of these light benches.

Having owned an American-made Black & Decker Workmate for years - to which the Model 225 is the current equivalent - and finding it to be a bulletproof and excellent tool - I began to realize the need for a smaller and more portable model for quick, lightweight projects where the larger unit isn't needed.

They had this, the smallest portable work bench that B&D sells stateside, the WM125, on sale at Lowes for about $20 last Christmas so I bought four of them for family members who are DIY'ers. These benches, like the Harbor Freight WORKBENCH, are made in China. I put two of the four together so I became pretty familiar with the ins & outs of them.

The Harbor Freight WORKBENCH is a better bench, easier to fold up and sturdier when set up because it is fully braced 3/4 of the way down the legs like the larger models of portable work benches. [see the photos] B&D rates their 125 Model at 350 lbs. capacity but I think that is optimistic. The Harbor Freight one is rated at 260 lbs. and I believe that is about right.

Just yesterday I painted some corner blocks using the HF WORKBENCH with a small vise clamped to it with one quick-ratcheting 12" clamp. Easy and quick. Either one of the benches in this review would have worked fine.

FIVE STARS for the Chinese-made HARBOR FREIGHT
FOUR STARS for the Chinese-made BLACK & DECKER

This is a great, light work table that is easily moved from work site to work site. The plastic parts are its weak point. However for all but the extreme clamping jobs, this work table does its job. Also, with an easy to make larger solid top clamped tight by the workmate, it does double duty as a table for painting and crafting projects. It is a great addition to any workshop.