Work Sharp WSSA0002601 WS3000 Tool Bar Attachment

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.

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.

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.

This is an OK attachment but simply too pricey for what you get in the package. Again, it is useful but its price does not reflect real value.

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....

I have been happy with the WS3000 since day one. This is your typical high quality I've come to expect from Work Sharp. Opens up a whole new sharpening experience. Can't wait to see what they think of next.

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

I really like the WS3000, and have had great success with it - but this Tool Bar is a total failure. As another reviewer mentioned, there is too much "play" in the hole of the tool bracket in which the vertical rod slides. When the locking nut is engaged to hold the rod's vertical position, the rod "pitches" and the horizontal bar tips down. I was able to adjust the entire bracket so that the final "locked" position of the horizontal bar was parallel to the abrasive disk, but the pitching/tipping motion makes it impossible to use the included Set-up Fixture. When I rest the horizontal bar on the Set Up Fixture (to set the bar's height), tightening the locking nut forces the horizontal bar so tightly against the Set Up Fixture it can't be removed. If I don't fully tighten the locking screw so I can remove the Set Up Fixture, the entire assembly slides down as soon as I remove the fixture. With enough trial-and-error it is possible to set/lock the bar height and slide the Set Up Fixture under the horizontal bar to see if it's the correct height, but that's troublesome at best. I contacted Customer Service at Worksharp (a Darex Company) and they explained the elongated hole is intentionally designed into the fixture to reduce manufacturing costs, as the hole is cast into the metal bracket and not drilled after casting. Too Bad - Worksharp products are usually better engineered. On a different note, the Set Up Fixture (and associated Tormek jigs for which I bought the Worksharp Tool Bar in the first place) DO NOT work with the shorter lathe tools I prefer to use for turning small objects. That's not a criticism of the design, but users of shorter-blade tools beware. You can still sharpen them - just not with the repeatability that is the selling point of the Set Up fixture.