Category: Production Dates

From the Original U.S. Marketing Manager!

5/14/2021

As you can imagine, I often search the web for Workmate-related information. One of the most remarkable things I have come across is a short recollection written by the original marketing manager for the Workmate in the United States.

I found this in the comment section of a posting about the Workmate at the "toolmonger" blog. The blog appears to have been inactive since 2014 although the web site is still functioning as I write this. I didn't want to take a chance on it being deleted so I'm reproducing the posted comment below in its entirety, with numerous typos left intact. The poster gave his name only as "Thomas", posting the following on July 8, 2012:

I love seeing all the positive comments about the Workmate as I was the Markeeting Mgr. for the Professsional Div. when the first 6-units were imported from England. I thought it was great but corporate thinking at the time was if it does’t have a motor or attach to a tool with a motor, we don’t need it, The President, Pat McDonough gave a few of us in marketing units to use and familiarize ourselves with. But, I was the only one who liked it and saw major possibilities for sales.

The original units were made in England using all aluminum castings and were beauties to behold.FYI, the UK company projected sales of 50,000 pcs first year at the US ewuivakant of $85, a large chuunk of disable income over there then and lo and bdhold they sold 3oo,ooo pcs first year.

when I got mine I had it included in equipment to be shipped around to a series of regional sales meeting around the country,,,to e used as a prop for the introduction of the Mod 4, cordless tool line to the sales force, (Mod 4 was the first cimercislly availsble line of Cordless tools) I got laughed at for using it to hold wod, steel & aluminum samples for the salesmen to drill holes in using the new tools, But, I got the last laugh when in a 5,ooo unit market test in Dallas, they evaporated off the shelves overnight.

I was the first workmate champion in the company but as soon as they started selling our President took it away from me and the Professional Div. and forced the Home Products guys to take it over, The rest is history as B& D had to build 3 mfg plants to keep up with demand.

I still have my one of the originak 6 abd it needs restoration but it is a reak nice piece of B&D history. You have to understand, corporate thinking frowned on any new product that didn’t use a B&D ekectric motor so to force it through and get the ckearances needed for me to use it in sales meetings, even as a prop, was qite q feat of which I am very proud, SO yes, these many years later, I am thrilled to lnow that my gut instinct was right, you guys like it and it’s still it’s is one heck of a product!

a breakthrough on production dates!

9/28/2020

It's been an exciting past couple of weeks here! I'm thrilled to announce a breakthrough in my documentation of the Workmate 79-001—I have broken the code to determine the actual production date of many, if not most, Workmate 79-001's!

You may have seen the 5-digit numbers stamped in ink on the bottom surface of the jaws of the 79-001 Types 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 8, and 9. They have been the subject of some speculation over the years, with suggestions that they could be some sort of serial number or the like. As far as I know, no one has come up with their actual significance until now.

A few weeks ago I was idly looking at the number on a Workmate and had an inspiration—the pattern of the digits could be seen as a type of date. I started checking my own Workmates as well as my large collection of Workmate photos, and it all clicked into place. Once I had it, it was actually embarrassing that I had not figured it out sooner. These numbers are production codes from the Brockville, Ontario factory that date our Workmates for us!

But First, A Plea for Help------------
I want to add as many Workmate 79-001's as possible to my list of documented dates, in order to narrow down even further the start and end of each Type, as well as the dates when the changes in components happened within certain Types. I need the help of owners to do this. If you have a 79-001 with a readable 5-digit code stamped under the wooden jaws or on the metal footrest, please use my Contact page to send me the code. I will reply with my email and ask you to send one or more photos to document it. Please help with this crowd-sourcing effort to document the Workmate!

Decoding the Date
How does the Brockville production code work?

The first digit is the year. If the digit is 4 through 9, add 1970 to it. If it is 0 through 2, add 1980 to it. So the example at the top of the page was made in 1977.
The second and third digits are the week within the year. So the example was made in the 47th week of the year 1977.
The fourth digit is the day within the week, with 1 being Monday and 6 being Saturday. So the example was made on Friday of the 47th week of 1977, which works out to November 18, 1977.
The last digit is the work shift at the factory, so the example was made during the second shift.
(So far, none of the Type 1's documented have this fifth digit. I see two possible explanations. One is that Black & Decker originally didn't think the shift information was useful. However, the one I like better is that they didn't originally intend to have more than one production shift per day, but the overwhelming demand for the Workmate forced them to!)

Can You Prove This?
So the first logical question is: Since I'm the only one making this claim, why should you believe me? First I'll explain that the reason I was embarrassed not to have figured this out sooner is that I have run across the "YWW" year-week pattern of three digits as a date code from another manufacturer in the past (although I can't recall who it was). Why I did not connect this to the Workmate numbers years ago, I can't explain. So that was the first clue...

...Remainder of discussion moved 12/15/2020...

Note: Originally this blog entry was much longer. By December 15, 2020 I realized that the detailed explanation of the Brockville production codes was much too important to have only in the blog, but required its own standard page on my web site. You can continue reading it at the Brockville Production Codes page.

The Unofficial Workmate Blog:

From the Original U.S. Marketing Manager!

a breakthrough on production dates!

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