Waste of money, try this,

http://www.screwfix.com/p/forge-steel-folding-workbench/9312j

way better.

Specifically regarding this workbench - I bought one from Homebase 2 years ago at £35, I've seen it loads of times at Homebase for this price and it seems to be always in stock...maybe one of those "permabargains"..
.

Does look like a nice setup, But I've no experience to even know lol

We may be talking at cross purposes.
I'm assuming that you were talking about the Workmate.

it looks solid to me too, the "vice" action is by using the supplied 300mm clamps

nice find

​My brother in law has been using the keter folding work bench ( same design as this:

http://www.screwfix.com/p/forge-steel-folding-workbench/9312j

) for over 9 years, he works for sharps bedrooms 5-6 days a week, he's put it through hell and back and it's still going strong. :stuck_out_tongue:

I would have to agree. My father had an old Black & Decker workbench which has been almost indestructible and withstood years and years of abuse. Sadly it was jettisoned when moving house, but I wish it hadn't been. I've since gone through "cheap" workbenches from Wickes & B&D, and generally find that either the wooden surfaces are damaged too easily, it's not possible to exert enough clamping force before the wood starts to bow upwards, or that the whole thing is so flimsy that as soon as you start cutting something on it, it feels like it's going to crumple in on itself.

The Forge Steel one linked to is my most recent workbench purchase. It's not what I'd call perfect still, but it's so much better than any of these workbenches at the same price bracket. I've been able to use multiple clamps to secure and cut 2.4m x 0.6m lengths of chipboard, as well as securely hold smaller blocks of wood when routing. I ran into a slight issue when using the router, in that I needed to raise the wood quite a lot (almost out of the clamp jaws), in order to prevent the router guide from fouling the clamp jaws. For that purpose, I would have liked a longer edge that I could use to clamp the length of the wood, but there was still no movement when working with it.

Funny you should say that, previous owners of our house left an original workmate from the 70's behind when they moved out, I've used it in some way for pretty much every job I've done so far.

I wonder how those plastic ones will fair at 5 years old, let alone over 40 :smiley:

Yup Homebase are horrible at this. Probably all reduced items bought by staff to sell on. At least 6 items I've reserved in a row over the past 2 years have ended up disappearing, the last one being the Guild 18V cordless drill for which I had high hopes (7 in stock according to their website at South Ruislip when I reserved it), but just as predicted, had a voicemail the next day stating there had been a 'stock error'. What a bunch of muppets

Wouldn't say this is a hot deal at all.

It's a vice so it has to split in two :wink:

Can you split the top surface into two, like the linked one? It looks solid and a single piece in the pictures.

Waste of money, try this,

http://www.screwfix.com/p/forge-steel-folding-workbench/9312j

way better.

Have to mention that since Homebase was taken over by an Australian company they are much better for both cost and stock levels - reserve and collect

Yes...and looking at Camel, its also been down to £29.99 a couple of times recently. Would much rather buy and wait from Amazon than Reserve and be told its not available by Homebase. :stuck_out_tongue:

Amazon have price matched it, but no stock until 13 June. Reviews seem mostly positive with some 1 star reviews mixed in