Gas powered pencil sharpener- for students that spend the entire class sharpening a pencil.

Every now and then, a student will spend a big chunk of class making sure his/her pencil is SHARP.  For some reason, after a particularly long day, I was vegging at my desk staring blank-eyed at my pencil sharpener.  It was one of those *LIGHT-BULB!!!!* moments.

You, too, can have a gas powered pencil sharpener.  All you need is a weedeater, a pencil sharpener, and a few scraps of wood and metal.

This weedeater was left in pieces after one of my students decided they didn't want to fix it.  I managed to mix and match enough parts to get it running and piece this together.

Still isn't running quite right yet because the carburetor isn't correct, but it runs enough to sharpen a pencil and get real hot!

Step 1: Gather Materials

Supplies:

A running weedeater.  If you can find one that has a clutch, it would work MUCH better than the one I used!
A useable pencil sharpener
Scrap of wood to mount to
Scraps of metal for motor mounts
Screws
Misc. nuts and bolts
Duct tape.  VERY important...

Tools:

Screwdrivers for screws
Saw for wood
Metal cutting tools- snips, shears, saw, whatever
Metal punching tools- pin punch, turrent punch, knockout punch, whatever
Bolt cutters
Hacksaw
Welder
Tap and Die set

Comments

[Dr.Bill]

Ah nice belt drive reduction would make things interesting.

[zomfibame]

awesome sharpener. too funny.

[ToolboxGuy]

Time for an upgrade - Teach your kids that PTO doesn't just mean Personal Time Off...
It mean Power Train Option!

Get them to come up with how to interconnect something else to a PTO engine.

[burnerjack01]

Any plans for a diesel model for the hard core industrial pencil pushers?

[plysaxaphone]

Ha!

[DoctorDv]

Are you allowed to use this in your classroom?
-Doctordv

[dorkpunch]

Sure! I don't let my students use it... It's more of a demo just to show them whats possible. More of a make-sure-you-stand-well-back and have-your-safety-glasses-on type of thing. They always want to try it out, so every now and then we'll fire it up and chew a few pencils down to the eraser.

My "classroom" is fairly conducive to this sort of thing- several vent fans, a large roll-up door, and lots of space

[OpenSourceBrain]

lol

[DoctorDv]

Ohhhhhh I was thinking that was unsafe, but now I understand. Thanks!
-Doctordv

[OpenSourceBrain]

car powered :)

[nfalduto]

this is the best instructable of all time.

[kenbob]

This is art. Love it.

[lemonie]

Quality.
Do you have plans for collecting the pencil-waste, or is this finished?

L

[dorkpunch]

This is more of a pencil disposal tool... I tend to pick up all of the pencils left on the floor in my room. I've got quite a stack of pencils. As far as collecting it goes, anyone know any good uses for pencil dust? Fire starter, packaging material, or?!

[handyman1940]

You might try putting the shavings around your Blueberry.
Especially if their made of Pine.

[handyman1940]

Sorry, was supposed to say "Blueberry Plants"

[lperkins]

I carry a pencil and a small, hand sharpener in my emergency kit when I go camping. It's both something you can write with and, as long as you use a real wood pencil and not one of the recycled pulp and glue ones, it works quite well for tinder.

[Taimur]

@lperkins: seriously u have a pencil sharpener in your emergency kit?!

when I was a kid I used to sharpen the pencils with a knife x)
actually sometimes I still do it!!

@dorkpunch: about the dust of sharpening the pencil (if it is really dust if you let them airborne in a small space you could provide a explosive situation just like happens in cereal silos) if you have splinters of wood you could pile them soap them in flammable liquid and aggregate with glue or resin to produce fire-starters.

Again with the dust it is explosive.. but! there is still use for the dust as a filler with wood glue to repair some holes or you could use it dry to heat up a biomass boiler (the coal power-plants use dust of mineral coal) with that principle you can produce heat in a boiler with the dust. If you want a way to do so just ask.

[lperkins]

For sharpening pencils for use I often use a knife as it's faster than rooting around for a sharpener. The sharpener in the kit is one of the ones which has a container to catch the shavings. Stick the pencil in, turn five or six times, presto, instant tinder that's not scattered all over the place. It lights and burns rather nicely.

[Tommunbeig]

If it is not V-8 powered then it is not a pencil sharpener. On the other hand, it is handy to have one in your emergency pack so you can ride it home if it gets too unpleasant for camping.

[Kinnishian]

so, pencil graphite might not be as good lubricant as pure graphite (pencil has clay mixed in), but i imagine it still might be offering some decent lubrication throughout the sharpener.

That said, when very fine, it is also going to be somewhat explosive :p [like basically anything else flammable when it gets small and has a high enough surface area it can flash fire], i hope it never gets too bad. Maybe you should add a shrapnel shield around the whole device?

[lemonie]

Build a removable-hopper perhaps? (swarf needs to be collected.)

L

[yoyology]

Willy Wonka claimed that's what breakfast cereals were made from. You could use the shavings to add additional interesting layers to your homemade Micarta:

• http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-homemade-micarta/
   
• http://www.instructables.com/id/Mokume-Kireji-DIY-Woodgrain-Composites/

[carusoml]

If you really wanted a "V-8" powered version, there is a company that machines miniature versions for RC Cars. Crafting a coupler for the transmission output shaft wouldn't be hard at all. And for the truly insane, there is even a supercharged version.

http://www.conleyprecision.com/609.htm

[burnerjack01]

Make it solar powered and you can have sharp pencils AND save the planet. Probably i little more quiet too...

[foreverdisturbed]

This would be great for my son. He has a battery opperated pencil sharpener and he has more fun sharpening the pencil then he does writing with it.

[sdobbie]

Now, if it were hydrogen gas you were using to power the engine, I would be interested.

[Dickerson888]

Wouldn't work if it's a two cycle.

[the doctor who]

not true it takes some modification

[Dickerson888]

How would you get the oil into the combustion chamber to lubricate the internal workings? I'm confused. Explain please. I have several two cycles I'd like to convert to propane.

[the doctor who]

I am working on a new dezine but so doing a dripe sistume

[lperkins]

Sure it would. Substitute a gas mixer for the carburettor, put a flame arrestor on the exhaust port, and make sure it doesn't get hot enough to auto-combust the hydrogen. Overheating would probably be your major concern since most small engine designs use fuel vaporisation to soak up a lot of heat.

[Dickerson888]

Where does engine oil go?

Now if it a four cycle it wouldn't be a problem. I've converted several mowers over to propane.

Anything than runs at a specific RPM for it's job is simple.

[lperkins]

It depends on the design. Some two cycle engines do have separate oil systems. Otherwise you have a few options depending on how heavy-duty the engine is and its internal geometry. You can inject oil with the fuel as usual, you can find a spot to add oil ports, or, since a gaseous fuel doesn't wash the oil off of the cylinder walls like gasoline will, you can replace the oil with a high temperature, high pressure grease. There are pros and cons to each approach.

[lloydrmc]

Many, more sophisticated two strokes don't use premix, but regular gasoline with a separate oil injection system. Shouldn't be too hard to come up with something that's "good enough" for this application.

[spiritwalker6153]

This is for the person who has everything. So cool.

[awsomehighvoltage]

You just gave me an idea. A gas powered razor.

[the doctor who]

be careful don't shave your head off but have fun

[awalls]

Alot better then The version we did at school, We made a video on youtube(On the youtube channel NickLTR) and we couldn't find one picture or topic related to a weedeater powered pencil sharpener. I would of loved to have atleast had something to go off of. I am going to say your idea is better then what ours was.

[annarosesc]

You could have have it automatic , where it takes the pencil, sharpens it for .2 seconds then ejects it. You could sharpen 1000 pencils at once.
You made the Instructables newsletter which is how I saw this.
This is worthy of a Tim the toolman award for sure

I can turn letters into words, http://wordunscrambler.com , but you are the real deal. But please don't try to upgrade to a jet engine powered pencil sharpener.

Anna