The least-known feature?

What's the most obscure feature of the Workmate 79-001? A leading contender would be the "scratch guards" that can be found only on the Type 2.

The scratch guards are found on the lower edge of the upper frame pieces on each side that hold the vise screw assemblies. They are about 3/8" wide, made of a soft gray plastic. They slip over the edge of the frame, held only by the springiness of the plastic. Four were installed on each Workmate, two per side. The one closer to the front is up to 1-3/4" long while the one toward the rear can be over 3". They come off pretty easily, so many of them have since fallen off and been lost. Until I wrote about them, I never heard a single owner mention them, so I think owners never noticed them or thought much about them. I would estimate that up to one in four Type 2's still has one or more scratch guards. If a guard stayed on the frame for a long time before being lost, a ghost image remains, where the finish of the frame is visibly lighter.

One short, one long guard

Closeup view from the outside

One guard and one "ghost" image

Only one left on this Workmate

With the Workmate folded, the guard keeps the upper and lower frames from hitting (view from the inside)

Only a ghost line left here

There is no official explanation of what the guards are for. Black & Decker never mentioned them in the instruction manuals, and they never appeared on the part diagrams. However, it isn't hard to deduce their likely function.

The 79-001 Type 2 was the first North American Workmate to have some painted parts in the frame. When folded for storage, the upper and lower frames contact each other slightly along about eight inches of their length, right where these guards are located. In my spreadsheet, the earliest Type 2 with a painted lower frame is also the first one to have scratch guards. A logical conclusion is that Black & Decker was worried about scratches to the paint from this contact, so they added the scratch guards for protection.

It could be that the scratch guards were only intended for protection during shipping, so the customer's new Workmate didn't arrive with scratched or chipped paint. That would explain why they used something that falls off so easily in normal use, rather than a more permanent solution.

I have documented Type 2 79-001's with scratch guards during a period of just over a year, from September 1975 to about November 1976. After using them for a while, the company decided they weren't worth the trouble and eliminated them. If you look carefully at this area of the upper and lower frame pieces on Workmates without scratch guards, you can often find marks from the contact.

(Note: This blog entry was updated December 16, 2020 with new information and new photos.)