My Blog

Black and Decker Workmate Restoration Part 2 – It’s Home

  • 30/11/2020

The workmate is home and in my garage. 

Despite it’s well used appearance it is in great condition, I have only noticed a couple of broken bits so far; one of the frame locks that holds the bench in the folded (closed) position is missing, and the adjustable feet have seen better days, some of the plastic feet are heavily worn. 

I think I’ll also be replacing the wooden top of the bench as that looks a bit past it now.

 

The base and the wooden top supports (all the blue parts) are made from steel and the silver looking parts are made from cast aluminium. 

All of the components seem to be in really good condition, no bent or damaged parts which I am really pleased about, just a bit of surface rust that will need a bit of wire brushing to get rid of.

Unlike the later models, this one has machine screws and starlock washers rather than being permanently riveted together. This means I can disassemble the components completely in order to clean and repaint them, making the restoration so much easier.

Next step is the strip down where I will break the bench down into its separate components ready for cleaning and painting.

Black and Decker Workmate Restoration Part 1 – The Purchase

  • 25/11/2020

So I need a new project and I have decided to make that project a restoration of a vintage Black and Decker Workmate project which I will then put to work once complete, this won’t be a garage queen, it will get used for it’s intended purpose! 


I remember my dad having a workmate when I was younger but he had the black one and I remember that bench breaking easily. These older ones are a little more robust which is why I decided to start my search for one. 

I sourced a vintage workmate from eBay in need of some care, and a quick bid and £42 later I was the new owner of a very old and tired looking Black & Decker Workmate. 

It was advertised in Harwich so I dispatched my dad to go and get it as he lives up that way and it would give me a good reason to drive down there and see him for the first time in about two years.

These are the seller’s pictures which give a good indication about the condition of the bench and the job I have in front of me. It looks like it’s done plenty of work over it’s life and I think with some care it can go on working for decades to come.

General consensus is that these old benches are the best ones they ever made. Much better build quality than the later ones, which my dad had and I remember from my childhood.

He had a black one, a workmate 2 or similar and I remember the adjustment handles had broken off and the leg stays were plastic which had also broken, No such issues with this old girl.

Keep an eye out for my progress after I pick it up. I’ll be disassembling it next.

 

Black and Decker WM625

Roof Construction

  • 19/09/2017

Following the lifting up and installation of the roof trusses on my last post, I opened the main roof and built the diminishing trusses from the old roof structure to the new trusses and started on the construction of the valley between the two roofs using a timber valley covered with a GRP trough.

The photo below shows the timber valley backing with the breather membrane covering prior to the GRP valley being installed.

I decided to put a temporary sheet over the whole roof to stop my joists and trusses getting soaked and warping. This made life easier and more difficult in equal measure.

I used the 2000 gauge DPM that I had left over from the concrete floor. I stapled it and then realised the wind was going to lift that straight off so ended up battening it down. This is something I have noticed not many house builders do, I have seen loads of new builds around my area with exposed timber for months. I can only imagine how warped things are in these new builds.

Here’s the GRP valley before it is put in place 

Trusses Arrive

  • 12/09/2017

Here’s the video of my brother and I hauling the roof trusses two storeys up the side of the building and onto the wallplates by use of a long rope and some brute force.

Having discovered that the trusses were a little low I subsequently added a course of engineering bricks to raise the roof height slightly. To achieve this, I used some long timber and a car jack to lift each end in turn.

Arrived at Wallplate

  • 23/08/2017

Now we’re at the wallplate height and waiting for the trusses to be made and delivered.

Not much can be done now until they arrive so here’s some photos of the progress for you to look at.

Up Up & Away

  • 25/04/2017

Here’s a couple of clips from the old CCTV camera which show the progress of the build quite well. the camera position hasn’t moved.

The Garage

  • 07/04/2017

This is the bit I have been looking forward to the least.

The garage is full of stuff so I could not afford for it to be exposed to the weather for any time at all.

The drawings utilise the existing garage wall as the lower part of the inner leaf and a steel beam to be installed to for the support for the outer leaf.

In order for me to continue building the blockwork upwards I needed to take off a part of the garage roof to expose the brickwork.

This sounds easy but the garage is a flat GRP roof that slopes backwards towards where I am working, this means that any rain that falls is going to run down towards the open roof and into the garage so I better work quickly and pick my day.

First I removed the door & frame in order to make the door central and create a support pier

New blockwork completed and door reinstalled

In goes the lintel and the roof is off and the interior exposed to the elements, worse still is the roof slopes back towards the opening

Here you see the padstone in place for the steel to support the outer leaf

What I have done to stop water running into the garage is buy some torch-on felt and apply it to the GRP roof and create a dam. So far it seems to work pretty well although using a plumbing blowtorch to heat up felt is pretty tough as the flame is just far too small.

First Two Steels In!

  • 18/03/2017

Now that my padstones are in and set, I have taken the plunge and got my steel beams in.

There are two beams, bolted together with spacer tubes between them in order to give rigidity and the correct spacing.

This cavity wall matches the existing building rather than the standard 100mm gap as it will need to extend onto the existing structure when the roof goes on, to create a gable end due to the uneven spacing of the trusses. More will become clear on this later.

I managed to get both of these beams in without assistance, which is handy as I didn’t have anyone around to help.

Padstone Two

  • 10/03/2017

I bought a Bosch laser leveller and I’m so glad I did. It’s been so bloody handy!

I got the laser out and got a level from Padstone One on the new wall across to the existing building and marked up where Padstone Two has to be height wise.

Then I broke out the Bosch SDS drill and used my new Armeg mortar chisel to carefully remove a few bricks and dry fitted the padstone. It went in perfectly.

Knocked up some strong mortar with sharp sand (for extra resilience) and bedded Padstone Two in place. Checked the level and it’s spot on, not a bad 45 minutes work.

Now that’s done, time to go inside for tea & medals.

Getting Cold Outside Now & More Blocks Delivered

  • 24/01/2017

It’s getting really cold outside now, and I’m having to add frostproofer to the mortar. It’s becoming a real task to get motivated to go outside and get on with this!

Second time lucky for Ridgeons as they brought the wrong blocks initially as I arrange for staged deliveries.

I substituted the 7n dense concrete blocks I had originally ordered for 3.2n celcon standard blocks and they forgot to change the order. The driver had to go away and come back with the right ones. We got there eventually.

I literally could not have continued to build with 7n blocks as they’re just so heavy. The lower half of this building is so solid it’s like a bomb shelter.