A Word of Warning

[Ian PParticipant @ianp]

I met Ron Hickman a few times on various classic car related occasions. In his bulbous briefcase he carried a stock of ready prepared pieces of plywood. He wrote out and gave me the plaque pictured above, ready drilled to mount on my Workmate. I did not have the courage to tell him I did not possess one!

In the early 70s a work colleague bought an all diecast Workmate (before the extra height legs were available) and our boss stood on it to replace a light bulb. He was quite tall and well built and I still have vivid memory of the Workmate slowly collapsing under him! Although he did manage to remain upright. Every one of the diecast components was broken or buckled and the prized workmate was just scrap. I think that if the two halves of the top had been clamped together it would have carried the load easily.

Ian P

[Jesse Hancock 1Participant @jessehancock1]

Yeah fond memories of my clone workmate. The first one I made, had breeze block legs a builders plank and a large neighbour sitting on the piece I was working on. I then progressed??? to a watch your fingers as you fold this up model. At times it had to stay outside in the rain since there was little or no room for it indoors where I was working.

I'll never forget my father words as he watched me rock and roll around the back yard trying to cut alovely piece of knotty green and twisted wet pine from you know where. "Let the saw do the cutting…Don't force it." At which he took the saw and zipped through the wood on the mark in just a few cuts.

I left it in the shed when I moved determined to break with the habit of D.I.Y. home improvements.

Jesse.

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