Hello friends,
I am trying to drill my own erasers to use with some of my 1930s mechanical pencils. I tried many things, but I always got stuck at some point.
I use the metal ferrules to drill the erasers because these ferrules are thin enough. However, they always wiggle while drilling.
The black drill bits in the photos are from Harbor Freight Tools. I am looking to smooth the outer frame because it is very thick and difficult to drill through with rubber erasers.
Additionally, I want to adjust the bits to fit a Dremel (from hex to 3mm). This outcome should solve the issues.
I bought the two drill bits on the right from a factory in TN. They drill fine, but the drilled erasers are too short. They also do not directly fit into a Dremel without a converter. I sent some converters to my brother abroad, and he helped me convert them into 3mm. However, they are wiggling due to weak craftsmanship and also due to the excessive length and number of converters between the bit and the Dremel.
Can anyone assist with the machining operation?
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What size are you looking for? There are plety of erasers available on the market that might save you this work, or at least provide a starting point where you only have to remove a little material to get to your desired size.
If you can’t find what you’re looking for on the market I’m not entirely convinced that drilling is your best course of action. It seems that using a punch might work better for a soft material like erasers. If you can’t find the right size, you could get some steel tubing with the right inner diameter and a thin wall (which you can even sharpen) and hammer it in your eraser.
Easy said than done! I am struggling with any custom work over here. Tubing here is for large pipes only. I wish I know a factory that produces stainless steel ferrules, that would be perfect!
I am aware of all eraser refills in the market, but nothing compares to a plastic eraser such as the Staedtler ones. I am looking for oversized erasers, way thicker than the refills for machine erasers. I use the refills of machine erasers and some Pentel refills to cut erasers for my slim utility Autopoint pencils, but the oversized 1920s are difficult to get. Even those that were produced for Rite In The Rain thick pencils, they are not doing good job in erasing.
You may not be able to source it locally but you can certainly find tubing in small diameters on the internet, without even requiring custom work. It comes in all sizes from capillary- to pipe-size in 1 mm and sometimes 0.5 mm or even 0.1 mm steps. I recently got 2 mm steel tube with 0.1 mm wall thickness for a modding project.
I did that, and I ended up with long tubes that still require laser cutting. Also, I need to find a way to make it a drillable bit!
Here is the pencil I use:
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I tried the hammering, but the erasers are too soft to hold their shape. I used the ferrule in the opposite way, which is the perfect size, and hammering didn’t work at all. I had better erasers just by pressing the ferrule into the erasers.
