Black & Decker Workmate 79-001 Type Study

The pages linked on the left are the heart of this site, its reason for being. They comprise a type study for the Black & Decker Workmate 79-001, sold in the United States between 1974 and 1982. The original Workmate 79-001 was called the Type E, and this was followed over the eight-year production run by the Types 1 through 9. Unlike some other tools, such as Stanley planes, the Type numbers were official designations from Black & Decker.
  • At the top left is an Excel spreadsheet that provides the only comprehensive summary type study of the Workmate 79-001, with a side-by-side comparison of the characteristics of all ten Types*.
  • That is followed by links to ten pages that describe and depict each of the Types in order, noting the similarities and differences between them, and including photos and interesting facts about each one.
This type study is based on my observations on hundreds of early Workmates, either in person or in photographs. I have owned almost two dozen Workmates and have examined dozens more in person. My collection of Workmate photographs is approaching 7,000, covering over 1,000 Workmates. Using the Brockville production codes, I have documented the production dates of more than 700 Workmates, including details of the specific components found on each of them.

*The 79-001 Type Study spreadsheet is my complete updating and revision of a much more limited Workmate spreadsheet developed in 2008 by Kirk Eppler. The photos and spreadsheet that he created were fascinating, and inspired me to start researching my Workmates. His spreadsheet is an inventory of the characteristics of a limited set of Workmates of various vintages that the members of the Bay Area Galoots brought together for a gathering, but it was never developed into a complete, detailed type study.

Variations
Black & Decker, like many other manufacturers, changed individual parts during the production  run of a single Type number. It's impossible to document this in the constraints of a spreadsheet while also keeping it readable and usable. The best that can be done in the spreadsheet is to document the most common characteristics of each type, while recognizing that there will be examples out there that have characteristics that are more typical of an earlier or later Type.

However, be assured that my web pages for each of the individual Types give all the gory details, listing every significant part change within each type, including the date when each change occurred!

As noted in the spreadsheet, the Type 2 is the Workmate 79-001 where Black & Decker used variations of the most individual parts. For example, the Type 2 can be found with three different styles of knobs on the vise handles. The Type 4 is notable as the only Workmate where some were produced with aluminum H-frames and some with steel H-frames.

Differences from other Countries
The Workmate was designed by Ron Hickman in England and was first sold there in an early version that barely resembles the ones that would eventually be introduced in the U.S. Even after Hickman sold the manufacturing rights to Black & Decker, the Workmates sold in England, Europe, Australia and other countries differed in model numbers and details of design from those sold in the U.S. Some of the models from other countries made their way to the U.S. and can still be found here today. 

This Type Study applies only to the 79-001 models sold in the U.S. Elsewhere in this site I have sections that document selected related North American Workmates and UK and European Workmates of the classic period 1974-1982. I continue the Workmate story from 1983 onward with a page on the Complete Model History for North America.