Workshop Accessories
Browse used workshop accessories for sale from riders across the UK. This is the furniture of a home bike workshop rather than the tools themselves: cleaning stations and brush sets, solvent parts washers with a recirculating pump, workbenches at the 90cm or so height that suits standing work, and the toolboxes, trays and boards that stop a socket set living in a carrier bag. Much of it is bulky, so it usually sells locally for collection.
Do I need a parts washer?
A parts washer is a sealed tank of degreaser with a pump that feeds a brush, and it earns its place if you regularly strip cassettes, chainrings, jockey wheels and bottom brackets, because it recirculates the fluid instead of you tipping a bucket down the drain each time. For one bike and an occasional chain clean, a chain scrubber and a tub does the same job for a fraction of the cost and space. Parts washers from Sealey and Clarke turn up used from garages as often as from bike workshops.
Bike workbench or general workbench?
Most bike work happens in a repair stand, so a bench is there for wheel building, hub and headset overhauls, and holding a vice. What matters is a top that will take a vice bolted through it without flexing, a working height that suits you standing, and a depth of at least 600mm so a wheel can lie flat. A general-purpose workbench does all of this, and one already scarred with oil is worth less to the seller and no less to you.
What goes in a cleaning station?
A cleaning station is a bucket or caddy with a set of shaped brushes: a wide one for frame tubes, a narrow claw for between cassette sprockets, a soft one for the paint and a stiff one for the drivetrain. Muc-Off and Park Tool both make brush sets built around this split, and the value is in keeping the drivetrain brush away from the paintwork brush. Cleaning stations that come with part-used bottles of degreaser should be priced on the brushes alone.
What should I check when buying used?
On a parts washer, the pump is the failure point: degreaser left to dry in it seizes the impeller, so ask to see it running. Check the tank and lid for cracks and that the fusible lid link, where fitted, is intact. On benches, look at the top for delamination and soft, oil-soaked patches, and check the frame is square rather than racked. On toolboxes, count the trays, check the latches and hinges for rust and the tote handle for cracks, and treat a case with a moulded tray as incomplete if sockets are missing from it.
What is worth buying used here?
Bulky items are the bargains, because collection-only listings attract fewer buyers and shipping a bench or a solvent tank is impractical, so expect to pay a third or less of new for something you can drive to. Steel toolboxes and tool cases from Park Tool and Unior last decades and are worth buying at any sensible price. Buy new for anything holding solvent where the seals or tank are damaged; browse the wider workshop listings if you are building a bench setup from scratch.