I've been using the WorkSharp 3000 for quite a while now with good results for basic sharping. For touch-ups while using chisels I keep a DMT Extra-Fine diamond plate near my workbench. Recently, it was time to go through the hand planes and give them tune-ups, clean-ups, and re-wax their soles. And I had one old plane that hadn't yet been fettled. That iron was not flat. Normally, on the WS3000, to flatten the backs of plane irons or chisels, one tries to do "3 point" landings on the top of the spinning discs. Or, as the WS folks suggest, tip the blade so the non-cutting end touches down first and rock it flat onto the disc. No matter what, avoid touching down on the cutting end first as that quickly devours material right where you want it dead-flat. Touching down on the far end just gives a small arc-shaped gouge well away from the cutting end... it's ugly but doesn't affect the blade's cutting ability. I tried putting the blade onto the WS3000 disc with the machine turned OFF. That meant holding the plane iron down with one hand while turning the WS3000 ON with the other... not exactly a comfortable experience.
Then I had the "ah-hah!" moment: use the foot switch that I bought for the scroll saw! With that, I could hold the iron in both hands and use my foot to turn the WS3000 ON. Lifting the foot turns OFF the WS3000 with the switch I have; some switches cycle between ON and OFF with each foot press. Mine is ON only as long as I hold my foot down - it's one sold by HF.
Using a foot switch made it much easier to hold/control the plane irons when flattening the backs.
mpc
Then I had the "ah-hah!" moment: use the foot switch that I bought for the scroll saw! With that, I could hold the iron in both hands and use my foot to turn the WS3000 ON. Lifting the foot turns OFF the WS3000 with the switch I have; some switches cycle between ON and OFF with each foot press. Mine is ON only as long as I hold my foot down - it's one sold by HF.
Using a foot switch made it much easier to hold/control the plane irons when flattening the backs.
mpc
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