I wanted to quantify the errors indicated by the Wissota Elite Edge Checker when used to check for level edges. Along the way, I discovered this. The wedge of light appearing between the Starrett square body and the edge checker indicates a squareness problem.
This piece of the two-part tool wasn't mounted square to the magnetic attachment. That would indicate level edges when in fact, they are not. I already sharpened my own skates using it this way, so they don't have perfectly level edges. Frankly, I didn't detect it skating yesterday, so I must be able to tolerate slightly uneven edges.
But still, I don't like inaccurate tools. I suspected that the heavy paint application caused this. The paint built up in ridges around its edges, including the mounting holes for the magnet. Two screws took the unit apart for fixing.
I placed sandpaper on a flat surface to smooth the paint on the magnetic block. This surface had irregular ridges of paint around the mating edges, so they were flattened by rubbing it against the sandpaper.
I also took a small file to flatten the paint on the bottom where the magnet mounts. I did squareness checks as I leveled the paint to ensure that I didn't go too far.
The photo above shows obvious paint build-up on edges, and where I removed some of the high spots from around the mounting holes.
I now have this perfectly square piece.
There are a lot of edge checkers out there that work like this. I wonder how many of them need a little TLC for best results?