Rebuilt worktables.

I posted one of these a few years ago, but the tops of a copule others bit the dust lately. I made new tops out of pine and varnished them. I made the rear tops 2"wider to give me a bit of extra room. I have found these very useful in my limited space, and the price has gone from the $20 they used to cost (and I got one on sale for $12.95) to $40, so I hope to get several years out of them.



I think I used oak for the top of the last one I did, and the wood cost more than the table had.

Looks good, Roger, It has given me some ideas, too.

I've got one of the older 3-leaf Workmates, but the middle leaf was missing when I got it. (I do have the little p[lastic things that go on the bottom of the middle leaf, though.) Being older, it has thick plywood tops...I'm guessing a bit shy of 3/4". I've pondered how to make a replacement leaf in the right thickness, and hadn't though of just using lumber. I could replace all three leaves, or plane down a board to match the existing leaves. (Finding dimensional lumber that's thick enough might be tricky, but I could glue up a couple pieces of 1x material then plane it down.

WorkMates are definitely worth saving. I don't use them often anymore, but when I first moved here, one was all that I had to work from, out in the driveway, until I managed to build a shop and get everything out of storage and unpacked I jut picked up a third one last weekend. This one won't need new tops. All it needs is one of the plastic latches for the short legs, but I doubt that I'll ever even buy one. When folded the leg missing the latch is on top, so gravity holds it folded. It's a model 225 type 3 and the previous owner said that he only used it twice. I can't imagine that, but I believe it from it's condition. It's near perfect. The second model 225 that I bought needed new tops and I made them from pieces of 2 X 6 that I planed down to the original thickness. The original 225 was a Christmas present to me back in the early 80's. I picked up the second one in the early 90's for $20 and just picked up the most recent, also for $20. I'll likely be giving the second to my son, because I doubt that I'll ever need three of them, but having 2 has been very handy for long projects. I bought this latest one because it looked like new and was too good to pass up. WorkMates have been part of my workshop tools for a long time. Although I don't use them often lately, I doubt that I could get along without them.

Charley

I have one of the original Workmates, many decades old. I use it often, less so now that the shop is up and running, but it still fills a need that few other substitutes (like saw horses) can fill. I will likely never get rid of it!

I've had my Workmate for about 45 years. Initially, it was my ONLY workbench, but now it's seldom used. Probably about 30 years ago, I replaced the original (moisture damaged) tops with some 5/4 maple.