Hi all brains! In today's project, we will make a simple pencil with our own hands using a cutting machine and a router. In this way, you will get rid of unnecessary wooden blanks and feel like a real master.
Step 1: Cutting out the pencil blanks
Cut two thin strips of wood from your favorite wood. The size doesn't matter as we will determine the exact size in the final steps of the project.
Step 2: Grooving
Using the v-bit of the router, cut a small groove in each piece. It is needed to hold the pencil lead.
Step 3: Choosing Leads
Drawing slates can be purchased online, such as Amazon.
Step 4: Bonding
Add a large amount of wood glue to each half of the blank and insert the lead into the groove.
Step 5: Clamping
Pull the resulting workpiece with a clamp and let dry for at least one hour.
Step 6: Trim to Size
Now cut your pencil to the correct size. I took the finished pencil and made the necessary measurements of all sides.
Step 7: Cut to Length
Cut the pencil to length. See the attached photo of this process.
Step 8: Sanding
Using a block with glued sandpaper and two pieces of wood joined at a 120° angle, I sanded my pencil at the required angles to create a hexagonal shape.
Step 9: Finish processing
Optionally add a protective layer of polyurethane for an unsurpassed appearance your pencil.
Step 10: Coloring
Optionally dip the tip of the pencil into white paint for a decorative finish.
Step 11: Sharpening Your Pencil
Now you can sharpen the finished simple pencil.
Please note that different types of wood require a different approach to the manufacture and processing of a pencil.
It will be impossible to do. All sketches are carried out with the help of this stationery, traces of which can always be erased with an eraser. This product is quite simple, but it is very difficult to produce, in several stages.
During the manufacture of a pencil, more than a hundred materials are used and several dozens of different actions are carried out using specialized equipment, as well as in manual mode. Who would have thought that this small object, intended for drawing, is produced for about 11 days.
To understand how complex and at the same time consistent the production process, you need to look at it from the outside. To do this, you can visit the most famous enterprise in Russia specializing in the production of pencils - the Krasin plant. This factory started its work 90 years ago. By the way, this year she celebrated her anniversary. To one degree or another, the enterprise owes its existence to the support provided by the government.
The main task of the authorities of that time was the fight against illiteracy. Therefore, it was important to start producing stationery in sufficient quantities and make them available to the entire population without exception. With the collapse of the USSR, she was engaged in the production of pencils exclusively at this enterprise. This plant produces all the necessary raw materials, without which it is impossible to make finished products. So, what are the main steps in the production of pencils?
Main stages of production
Special linden boards are delivered to the factory, which are not even useful at the beginning of production. First you need to make writing rods, without which it is impossible to imagine more than one pencil. This is done in a special workshop. Graphite and clay are used as raw materials for the manufacture of rods. The first step in the preparation of the mixture is the process of grinding the clay, after which it moves to the grinding equipment.
Further, on a special installation, the mixture is cleaned of various impurities, pebbles, dirt particles and other foreign elements, and then subjected to several more types of processing in order to obtain a quality product. For the manufacture of slates, only natural ingredients are used, so you definitely don’t have to worry about safety.
The next step is pressing. There is no waste in this production, because they are reused. At this site, ready-made rods are made, but they are not yet placed in pencils, they must first be subjected to a number of different manipulations.
The process of producing rods can be compared to the procedure for extruding animal feed. The prepared mixture is squeezed out of the opening of a special hose. Then it is placed in a container specially prepared for this purpose, and dried for more than 15 hours. And that is not all. The process of sorting quality rods is carried out manually. This is a long and difficult process that requires special care and perseverance.
After sorting the rods, they are pierced in a special device. Annealing occurs at a temperature of about 1200 degrees Celsius. The quality of the rod and the hardness of the pencil will depend on this. After the end of the annealing procedure, the rods are filled with fat. This is done so that the rod begins to slide easily, display well on paper and be erased with an eraser without much effort. It is worth noting that all manufactured pencils may differ from each other in terms of hardness and softness. Various components are used for this: confectionery fat, lard, wax, etc. After all the necessary procedures are completed, the rods are sent for assembly, where, using special machines and planks, a groove is made in the pencil through which the rod is inserted.
With the help of the cutting part of the machine, grooves are machined in the plank. The boards are automatically sent to the holder, and on the other machine the rods are placed in the boards, then glued, and then they are left to dry under pressure. In this case, the rod is not glued to the planks. The rod is inside the wood and does not go anywhere due to the tightness of the wooden shell.
When the workpiece dries, it is sawn with a cutter into several pencils. After the end of all the main processes, the output is finished stationery, which, however, is not yet ready for sale, since they are not painted.
On special equipment, pencils are primed. To paint these stationery, special enamels are used, which are also produced at the factory.
Special coloring and original shape of pencils
On sale you can see pencils that are very original painted, as if with stains. To do this, they resort to special technology. Stationery after painting is left to dry. In order for everything to work out as evenly as possible, the procedure for machining the edges is carried out. The product is marked. At the same time, the equipment works at a tremendous speed. Finished products continuously fall into the pallet.
The company produces these products of unusual colors, as well as original shapes, for example, oval, it would seem that this is completely impossible, but it was not there. Such products are widely used in repair and construction work. Before packing pencils, they are manually sorted out, checked for integrity, quality characteristics are evaluated, etc. This is done by employees of the plant, some of whom have been specializing in this all their lives.
After the release of pencils, they are necessarily tested for quality in a special laboratory, new production technologies are mastered in order to reduce time and cost. The factory produces pencils for professionals and amateurs for various needs.
The pencil has become an absolutely indispensable thing in human life. Starting from kindergarten, he accompanies a person at school, university, at home and in the office. Finally, it is simply necessary when solving crossword puzzles.
The total cost of a complete set of necessary equipment, which is required in order to organize a medium-sized production of pencils, starts at two million rubles.
How much does a used line in a complete set cost? To this must be added the cost of renting a production facility, which for a small workshop should have an area of at least fifty square meters, as well as the purchase of raw materials, wages of workers and utility costs.
It is rather difficult to name the exact payback periods for such a business as the production of pencils. First of all, they depend on the volume of products produced and on the starting (initial) capital.
In addition, during the initial time, all profits are most often invested in promotion on the market, since competition among companies that produce not only simple, but also colored pencils is quite high, especially among Western factories, with which domestic ones compete little due to high quality. the products they produce. However, many experts say that the minimum payback period for small businesses is two or three years.
Technology
The production of pencils is carried out according to the following technologies. Previously, the wooden blank is carefully sanded, then the body is primed four times, since a decrease in the number of passes leads to insufficient surface smoothness. The primer, filling all the irregularities in the tree, provides it with strength for subsequent painting. Then the hull is painted.
Savings at each stage of the technological process, although it reduces the cost of produced pencils, however, leads to a deterioration in their quality. In addition, the environmental friendliness of the final product is also important, depending on the composition of the varnish covering the body of the product. It is known that children, and sometimes adults, are very fond of chewing writing instruments. Therefore, the varnish must be water-based and not contain harmful chemical solvents.
What materials are needed
For the manufacture of simple pencils Of no small importance is not only the composition of the stylus - clay and graphite. It also affects the quality of the wood. How the pencil is made depends on how the finished product will subsequently look, and how easy it will be sharpened. The cheapest goods, intended for undemanding buyers, are made from alder. The wood of such pencils is both unsightly in appearance, and has a gray color, and does not hold the lead very firmly.
Wood
The most common type of wood, which fully satisfies all the requirements for raw materials when the production of pencils is organized, is linden.
In addition, it grows almost everywhere and is a sufficiently viscous material to hold the rod tightly.
A higher quality and, accordingly, more expensive pencil is a product made from pine, cedar, and also a tropical jelutong tree, production characteristics which are very high. But the most valuable is the raw material from California cedar. Stationery made from this tree is very expensive and is considered prestigious.
stylus
First, a pencil core is made from clay with graphite. It is the proportions of these components that determine the hardness of the lead. Moreover, the more graphite, the softer the structure will be. And vice versa, if there is a lot of kaolin in the lead, the composition of simple pencils will turn out to be more solid.
It is very important how the stationery is sharpened. A neat and even chip is ensured by the quality of the wood. At the same time, it is very important that the rod is located in the center of the body, because if this technology the production of pencils is disrupted, the lead is cut unevenly during sharpening.
In addition, to prevent the stem from breaking if pencils are dropped, many office supply manufacturers use what is known as SV lead sizing. In this case, it breaks only at the sharpened tip, and not inside the case.
Paint stage
This third and also very important element in production does not allow less than seven layers of pencil coloring, otherwise the wood will become covered with burrs. Well-known companies that are serious about the quality of their products usually start with twelve layers. Whereas the production of high-priced pencils involves coloring up to eighteen, sometimes up to twenty times. Then this stationery will have a high gloss and literally a mirror surface.
Equipment
Equipment for the production of pencils is diverse. Clay cleaning requires a crusher and special mills. Clay diluted in water is poured with liquid glass to rid it of impurities, including sand. Then, according to the recipe, graphite and a binder, which is made from starch, are added to it. The core mass must have a certain temperature and humidity. The slightest deviation leads to deterioration of raw materials.
The carefully beaten “dough”, kneaded with graphite and clay, is sent to a screw press, where it is formed using rollers with three different gaps. As a result, the mass is crushed, becoming homogeneous. Air bubbles with excess moisture are removed from it. The thickness of the dough after re-processing is gradually reduced from one to 0.25 millimeters.
Then the mass is passed through a die with holes, where it turns into a kind of "noodles" - into cylinders, from which the press already squeezes out a rod with the required length and diameter. The rods are thoroughly dried in drying ovens, where continuous rotation takes place for fifteen or sixteen hours. The humidity of the finished element should not be more than half a percent. After drying, they are calcined already in the oven in special crucibles.
Colour pencils
Colored pencil leads are made somewhat differently. They contain pigments, as well as fillers with binders and fattening agents. Clay or kaolin is the main raw material.
Each more or less large manufacturer has its own recipe for making leads, which is kept a great secret. 
Many additive factories use dyes and waxes, as well as natural cellulose-based fillers and binders.
The cores of colored pencils do not undergo heat treatment, since color pigments can be destroyed under the influence of high temperatures.
At the stage when fat is added, which gives a color mark and keeps it on paper, two different technologies are used: the so-called hot or cold “preparation”.
In the first case, it is carried out immediately after drying, while the leads are moistened in hot fat. Most often, this technology is used in the production of high-quality watercolor pencils.
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Each of us from an early age, being engaged in creativity, or on school lessons faced with such an object as a pencil. Most often, people treat it as something ordinary, as a simple and useful thing. But few people thought about how complicated the technological process of its production is.
By the way, in the production of a pencil, it goes through 83 technological operations, 107 types of raw materials and materials are used in its manufacture, and the production cycle is 11 days. If you still look at all this from the side of the whole product line, then a complex well-established production with careful planning and control is drawn.
In order to see with our own eyes the production process of pencils, we go to the Moscow factory named after Krasin. This is the oldest pencil production in Russia. The factory was founded in 1926 with the support of the government. The main task of the government was to eliminate illiteracy in the country, and for this it was necessary to make stationery available. After the collapse Soviet Union The Krasin factory remained the only pencil manufacturer in the CIS with a full production cycle. This means that everything is produced at the factory - from the stylus to the final product - pencils. Let's take a closer look at the pencil manufacturing process.
For the production of pencils, the factory receives specially processed and stacked linden boards. But before they are used, it is necessary to make writing rods.
Let's move on to the workshop for the manufacture of pencil rods. Writing rods are made from a mixture of clay and graphite. The preparation of the necessary mixture begins with such technological installations, where clay is crushed. The crushed clay is sent by conveyor to the next production site.
In the next section, special mills are installed, where the clay is more finely ground and mixed with water.
Installations for the preparation of a mixture of clay with graphite. Here, the mixture for future rods gets rid of impurities and is prepared for further processing.
It should be noted that only natural substances are used in the production of leads, which allows us to consider the production environmentally friendly. Installation for pressing the mixture. Rods are obtained from the semi-finished products obtained. There is practically no waste in production, as they reuse it.
At this production site, the rods themselves are already obtained, but in order for them to get into the pencil, a number of technological operations will be carried out on them.
The very technology of obtaining rods is reminiscent of extrusion. Carefully prepared and mixed mass is squeezed out through a special stamp with holes.
After that, blanks for writing rods are placed in a special container.
And dried in the closet for 16 hours.
After that, the rods are carefully sorted by hand.
This is how the workplace for sorting rods looks like. This is a very difficult and painstaking work. Cats sleep behind a table lamp.
After sorting, the rods are calcined in a special cabinet. The annealing temperature ranges from 800 to 1200 degrees Celsius and directly affects the final properties of the rod. The hardness of the pencil depends on the temperature, which has 17 gradations - from 7H to 8V.
After annealing, the rods are filled with fat under special pressure and temperature. This is necessary to give them the necessary writing properties: the intensity of the line, the ease of sliding, the quality of sharpening, the ease of erasing with an eraser. Depending on the required core hardness value, lard, confectionery fat or even beeswax and carnauba wax can be used.
Output product of the rod production area.
After that, the rods go to the assembly. Here on such machines, planks for pencils are prepared. Grooves are cut into them for the installation of writing rods.
The cutting part of the machine grinds grooves in planks.
The boards automatically enter such a clip.
After that, on another machine, the rods are placed in pre-prepared boards.
After laying, the halves of the boards are glued together with PVA glue, and they are left to dry under pressure. The essence of this operation is that the rod itself is not glued to the planks. Its diameter is larger than the diameter of the groove, and in order for the structure to close, a press is needed. The rod, on the other hand, will be held in the wood not due to glue, but due to the tension of the wooden shell (prestressing specially created in this way in the design of the pencil).
After drying, the workpiece is sawn with special cutters into individual pencils.
Pencils are gradually sawn over several processing cycles.
The output is ready-made, but not colored pencils.
Already at this stage, the shape of the pencil is laid due to the type of profile of the cutting cutter.
Next, on special lines, the surface of the pencil is primed. When painting pencils, enamels made at the factory are used. These enamels are made from components that are safe for humans.
Line for painting pencils.
I think that in stores we have seen gift pencils painted with colorful stains many times. It turns out that in order to color them like that, a whole specially developed technology is used. Here is a small snippet of the painting process.
When visiting the paint shop, I happened to see a batch of pencils for delivery to the government of the Russian Federation of a new sample. The tip of the pencil symbolizes our national flag. Pencils dry in a special technological framework. The regularity of the rows looks very unusual and attracts.
After painting, the pencils are stacked in batches for shipment to the next sections of the factory.
It is a great pleasure to look at thousands of pencils colored according to the factory's proprietary technology. This is a very unusual sight.
Technological surface finishing line.
Stamp storage cabinet. Here are stored stamps for the entire range of products.
If necessary, before packing, pencils are sharpened on a special machine. The photo shows the intermediate stage of sharpening.
I was amazed by the speed of the machine. Pencils fell into the tray in a continuous stream. I immediately remembered all my personal unsuccessful attempts to sharpen pencils. From these memories, this machine began to inspire even more respect.
The factory also produces such interesting oval-shaped pencils used in construction and repair.
Arrays of stored pencils look very unusual and attractive. You won't see this anywhere else.
At the packaging area, the pencils are sorted and packaged by hand. Here reigns special atmosphere. People work quietly and silently. Many employees have continuous work experience in the factory for more than 40 years.
The factory has its own equipped laboratory, where products are tested throughout the entire production cycle and new production technologies are developed. In the picture - Amsler's device for determining the resistance to breakage of writing rods.
Before leaving, I went into a room with demonstration stands for the factory's products. The emblem of the factory causes some kind of nostalgia. After all, these pencils are familiar to each of us since childhood.
The factory produces several product lines. Professional series of pencils for artists, decorators and designers.
Samples of pencils supplied to the government of the Russian Federation. For the design of the pencils, a drawing was chosen to match the color of standard malachite tableware for employees of the government of the Russian Federation. But besides this, they also have other differences from ordinary pencils: firstly, their shape is made with maximum consideration for the ergonomics of an adult’s hand, and besides, they use a special “lumograph” type rod for making notes in the margins and in the diary, it is not smeared by hand , but erases well with an eraser without damaging the paper.
Engineering drawing pencils:
Original souvenir products of the factory.
The visit to the factory was very exciting and informative. It was very interesting for me to see how much original technology and labor is invested in the manufacture of what would seem to be such simple object like a pencil.
I want to express my deep gratitude to the chief production technologist Marina for her help and explanation of the production processes. At the end of the visit to the factory, its management presented the editors with their branded pencils, including those supplied to the government of the Russian Federation.
A short video on how pencils are made.
