BLACK+DECKER Portable Work Bench and Vise (WM225-A)

Does what I need it to do, holds work pieces securely and takes up little space when folded away. The one I have isn't level but a single small block of wood under one of the feet made it sturdy. The two board pieces can meet if you flip the board farthest from handles around - it will still securely sit in the bench and still be usable as a vice. The instructions are not the best, there was one diagram that was misleading - find a video of someone assembling it if you get confused. But assembly doesn't take very long and you only need to do it once.

I hesitated before buying the WM225 because several reviewers complained it was hard to put together, poorly made (somebody wrote that it had sharp edging requiring that you wear safety gloves for protection!), or generally low quality. Nonsense. Assembly is a breeze, no harder than a LEGO set. True, the instructions are in the form of diagrams, not text, but there's nothing confusing or odd about them. There are no rough or sharp edges, and I'm completely satisfied with the quality for the price. The table is useful, strong enough for all my odd jobs, and perfectly sturdy. The sole tricky part is getting the pins into the crank handles (to hold them onto the long screws that work the vice); know this from other reviews, I grabbed two 2" cotter pins and used them to affix the handles instead. Fine, that means the product cost me an extra ten cents. Finally, there was some moaning about putting parts in backwards and needing stickers or something to tell you how to do it right the first time: if you can follow the simple directions correctly you will be perfectly fine. Again, no harder than a Lego set. Take the plunge, you'll find this a very handy and sturdy mini work bench.

Once you figure out the 'instructions' it's fairly easy to put together. Seems sturdy enough but haven't had a chance to use it yet. It's exactly what was described.

Excelente y buen artículo

Pictures to assemble might look confusing, but it's not, stop and look at the picture then check the part your adding, take your time. Simple enough if you just take the time to compare part to picture, or watch the yt vids on it. What I did to get the pins into the handle was to just turn it sideways on the floor, add a screw into the white plastic so it's sticking out of the slot, makes it easier to grab. Takes a min to get the best position so one finger is holding the screw in place, turn the handle part so the pin hole is facing up, align the handle with the pinhole, hold it with the thumb and tap the pin into the aligned parts with a regular hammer. It's a pain but doable.

Classic very valuable tool. Well made and functions well.

Works as shown and is a useful tool. WARNING: Probably the worst assembly instructions ever printed. Very frustrating to see the small diagrams with little or no explanations given. I strongly advise watching some of YouTube videos showing assembly of this product...it was only way for me to assemble it.

I own a vintage 1978 Workmate 79-001 Type 4, and just bought this Workmate 225 to expand my shop. Here are my thoughts... In my opinion, the Workmate 225 model has some real advantages over the vintage model. 225 is much easier to unfold, carry, and move around. 225 is half the weight of the vintage model, yet is just as sturdy and stable. The 225 unfolding assembly is much better engineered so unfolding is effortless. I always arm wrestle with the vintage model to get it to open. The 225 wood vice top is half the thickness of the vintage model, so I plan to add my own 1.5" removable plywood top to the 225 to make them both the same height (so I could use the 225 as an out-feed table) as I will be using both Workmates for some projects. I had no problem following the 225's printed assembly instructions (but I also cheated and watched a 2 minute B&D assembly video on YouTube). The only real issue I have with the 225 is that one of the black plastic struts that supports the rear wood top was damaged at the factory (excess plastic in the threaded hole). I tried drilling out the excess plastic, but this unfortunately also stripped the threads. So I ordered a bag of replacement parts on Amazon-- which actually comes with additional bench dogs, so it's not all bad.