Shop-made Disks for WS300

Making Additional Disks for WS3000

I figured that since MDF was a pretty flat material I could make replacement disks for my WS3000 and not have to buy additional glass plates in order to have a selection of grits.

MDF Disk Fabrication 

The following sequence shows the approach I took to fabricating my disks. I used 1/2 MDF from Home Depot as the material.

6" squares were cut , the centers marked and then a 1/2 hole was drilled.
Final measurements written on the disk. Do this step as accurately as possible.

Removed excess material on the band-saw. Final measurements are written on the disk.

cut the head off  a 1/2 bolt  and inserted into my collet on lathe

Mounted and turned the disk round on the lathe

Flattening and sanding to thickness.

Disks were surface sanded to match the glass disk's thickness

Pretty decent results! 

Stropping Disk

Using one of these shop made disks I also made a stropping disk.

The leather for this disk is in the worksharp-3000-lapping-upgrade kit.

Stropping Disk Fabrication:

• Make one of the disks shown above
• Spray adhesive on both sides; the leather and the MDF. Make sure that both have plenty of glue as the disk and leather are porous.
• Mark the leather using the MDF disk as a template. 
• Cut the leather in a circle to fit the disk, I used tin sheers to get a good edge
• Cut a 1" diameter in the center of the leather. This allows the fastening knob to seat on the disk not the leather. I used a sharp Xacto knife after drawing the center circle on the leather.
• Charge the leather with polishing compound.
• I made two of these stropping disks one each with the leather rough side up and down.

Cost Comparison

Cost of WS leather hone: $29

Cost of shop made hone: $2.44

• 1/6 of MDF sheet  $8/6 = $1.33
• 1/4 of leather sheet $12.99/4 = $3.25
• Total = $2.44

Assessment

This was an easy accessory to make. I was pleased with the minimal run-out I achieved. Your mileage may vary if you do not have a lathe but employing a circle cutter jig may work just as well.

Upside: very cheap and available

Downside: not as easy to remove an abrasive from the MDF as the glass ..... make extra MDF disks!

Run-out: a 1/2" bit is slightly larger than the actual WS3000 spindle. As a result the disk runs a bit out of round if you just throw it on the spindle. I found that you can set the MDF disk over the spindle and get it on center by eye if you are careful. Not sure this amount of run-out is a problem. BTW the glass disk also has a bit of run-out.

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