Work Sharp WSSA0002601 WS3000 Tool Bar Attachment

I was skeptical about this and turned off by the price but purchased it because I have other attachments that could be used on this machine with the bar.Yes it probably is overpriced for what it is, but it expands the capabilities so much, it is worth the money. You could probably make something similar if you are handy but with this, it's fast to set up and you don't have to fool around.It only took a few minutes to set up.... I wish that it didn't require an allen wrench and they had designed a built in adjustment knob or something. I always lose wrenches.You can use many of the Tormek jigs with it, or the cheaper cousins (Jet, Scheppach, Grizzly). There is a sharpening jig called Accu-sharp sold by Shop Fox that also will fit this if you buy the attachment for it (the attachment has a round hole to match this bar). That is what I use most with it. It's a very heavy duty table, similar to the popular Veritas ones only much more solid. I believe the Accu-sharp jigs are sold on Amazon too.It's also fairly easy to make your own jigs with a block of wood and a matching drill bit....

Helps keep my turning chisels sharp. Not too hard to use for basic sharpening. A little more time consuming for super sharp edges

I purchased this so that I could use Tormek sharpening jigs on my Work Sharp 3000. It works, as far as that's concerned. My SVD-185 fits.However, this tool bar lets me down in three important regards:Alignment - The tool bar only has one axis of alignment, so you can only set the bar to be parallel to the sanding/grinding surface when the bar is in position "B". If you rotate the bar to the "A" position (roughly perpendicular to "B"), there's no way to align it. It's not a total loss - with patience and shims you can eventually get it right, but that discourages removing the mounting bracket, and of course there's no discussion of how to do this in the manual. It's fiddly to get right, and as far as I'm concerned, there should be a way to adjust it so that you don't have to mess around with shimming with bits of aluminum cans or foil, but it's not really much more difficult that adjusting any other tool that wasn't designed correctly yet requires good alignment (some table saws, for example).Rigidity - the combination of the bar and the mount will flex somewhat under pressure, making if even more difficult to maintain a proper alignment. This may be a consequence of my shims, but I don't think so. Further, if my choice is "aligned but flexy" vs "rigidly locked out of alignment", I'll take the flexy, and try not to apply too much pressure.Locking the bar in place - It's more or less pointless to try to lock the tool bar in one position. Apply much pressure as you're sharpening and it will start to move around on you. It will maintain height, but it will rotate about the pivot. On the flip side, the alignment of the bar to the sharpening surface is affected by the tightness of the locking knob. If you loosen it, the bar will sag. You have to snug it up to raise and hold the bar firmly in a repeatable position. So you can't just leave it loose to take advantage of the option of letting it pivot back and forth as part of your sharpening technique.I wrote an email to customer support regarding the alignment issue, and I received a prompt and polite response which, paraphrased, said that this was acknowledged, per their design, and not significant. I found the problem to be significant, and continue to be frustrated with the tool bar, and consequently with my whole Work Sharp 3000 setup which I purchased specifically so I could sharpen lathe and bench chisels precisely. If I had it to do over again, I'd buy a Tormek T-3 or T-7 setup, though at much more expense.

Very difficult to make this all parallel to the work surface. I've made many attempts, and still haven't been able to do so. It works, but doesn't have the level of precision that many people are looking for.

I use my WorkSharp all the time to keep my plane irons and chisels razor sharp. Now I can also keep my lathe tools just as sharp and ready to go. It was a little awkward using the Tormek jigs at first but once I got the hang of it I was able to sharpen my gouges and skews better than when they were brand new. The instruction booklet that comes with the kit was very helpful in understanding how to setup the jigs and use them.

There are some free-hand sharpening operations that can be done using the "double-T" bar that comes with the machine (an axe blade, for example). However, for most precision cutting tools, the adjustable tool bar and its stepped height gauge is a must. They provide a means of returning to a previous setting so that precision tools (chisels, lathe tools, screwdriver blades) that have been previously sharpened need only a quick pass on a fine grit surface to become sharp again.

I use this to attach Tormek fixtures to sharpen woodturning tools. Works like a charm. The Tormek gouge fixture has some clearance issues on the Work Sharp, but it's not a deal-breaker (I may not have it set right). The others (for sharpening scrapers and skews) work fine.

See my other reviews, but I got this for freehand sharpening when you have the wide-blade attachment installed, as it locks to the Worksharp in place of the standard too rest. That said, I greatly prefer this one, as it is micro-adjustable and it is a permanent add on to my unit. I wish they sold it with the standard Worksharp.They market it for adding on Tormek accessories. Thus far, I do not have any of those, so do not need that function. But if I start turning again, I will need their gouge fixture.