Black & Decker BDST11000 Workmate(R) 1000 Portable Work Center and Vise

Nice product but needs a few changes. As most have written, the sliding block that the top smaller board attaches too, is plastic and doesn't secure/hold the bolts when fastening down. The bolts easily strip the plastic even with light pressure (not over tightening). I am looking to make the sliding blocks that will hold a bolt. The table over all is nice and handy.

had quite a while and it works as advertised. check it out.

received the work station 1000 for Christmas and assembled it today. All went well, however B&D should spend an additional 25 cents on these work station by either adding a captured nut in the adjusting slides for the movable section of the table or make them out of metal threaded. Come on guys it really is not a big expense on your part and it makes it a better product.

Bought two new units tru Amazon, both came with flaws: one came with part number 74 (on the exploded view) called "Vice Jaw Rear" (movable jaw) wrongly drilled (holes misplaced 7-8 mm towards the clamping edge, so screws couldn't be installed and movable jaw could not be fastened!). I had to fill the misplaced holes with epoxy putty and re-drill and counterbore them in the correct locations. The other unit came with the Laminated Bamboo jaws (parts 73 and 74) cupped, TOO CONVEX to work, not flat at all. Laminated Bamboo top material could be a very fine material ONLY IF correctly made. As it came from factory it is too warped (edges around are about 3/8" below center of top): Completely Absent Quality Control!
Additionally, the metal frame design is NOT as solid as my 25 years old Model-200 WM, because the two locking arms (part no.11 in the exploded view) have too much freeplay due to being punched with too loose tolerances (the throat that "catches" and locks is too wide, so that the frame can still be moved and distorted slightly when locked, enough for the whole frame to become quite less rigid than in the older and better made models. Required me to add some hard rubber shims to fill the gap and stop the excessive freeplay. I am disappointed by Model-1000 design because it is too flimsy in the direction of the jaws opening, so that a clamped piece of wood cannot be easily planed unless you keep the workmate-1000 firmly pushed against a solid wall to get the necessary stiffness! Being an Engineer with 39+years of experience and an advanced DIY myself, I opted to keep the two units to fix them, instead of returning both, as their folding mechanism is salvageable and can be upgraded and still be an acceptable buy... but Black and Decker needs to address the faults and correct them to reach the previous level of quality of older Workmate models. My upgrades consist of adding a couple of 1/2" steel tube diagonals to add the much needed stiffness, and either add RUBBER inserts under the feet ("plugs") or add some anchoring to the floor (as supplied the hard plastic feet are too slippery!) but I still have to find a way to flatten the excessively warped top (part No. 73 in the exploded view). I would demand at least two sets of acceptably flat Laminated Bamboo jaws from B&D as I find the quality of the ones received by me to be unacceptable. I sincerely hope that someone at B&D management reads this, as the Workmate has been an incredibly good concept for so many years and it is a shame how low their quality has been lowered recently. Alfredo M. Claussen, P.E.

As noted by almost everyone else, the metal bolts fitting into plastic parts isn't acceptable. The bolts don't cut their own threads because the plastic fitting holes are too large in diameter. Those need to be re-engineered by the buyer. I used new bolts - not the 8mm ones provided, so that I could buy 5/16" x 18, 1/2" T-Nuts and have them fit into the plastic pieces. When completed they work like they should and the top is able to be tightened down.

After that, I found that the dogs are too large in diameter to fit into the bamboo top-board holes. They needed some work with Plumbers Abrasive Sandcloth to get them down to the correct diameter. When completed - about 3.5 hours later in total - the workmate works as it should.

Quality Control is horribly lacking with this product, and Black & Decker is unable to help with the fix.

Purchased about 3 weeks ago, have used 2-3 times. Rear sliding vice jaw bolts have loosened / pull out of the plastic after very light use (like 5 oz pinewood derby car light.....). Have re-tightened with supplied plastic thumb wrench but not holding. Unfortunately, had already got rid of original box so have been advised to take bench to B&D service center for repair. On bright side it is nice little work table if the table top would stay on. Durability of top fasteners is serious question mark.

I was given the workmate1000 for Christmas and found the instructions difficult as there were no words to go with the pictures. In addition while screwing in the wm00314 bolts to fasten the wm00402 bench top, the bolts did not tighten up but continued to turn. They seemed snug but the top is not tight. What could be the problem and how do I fix it?