Introduction: How to Make Automatic Pencil Sharpener Using Recycled Materials

By letsmakeprojects.com
About: Founder of letsmakeprojects.com...Sciency Guy who always try to make innovative projects,check out what i made in my instructable..

Hi readers! In this instructable, I will show you how I made this automatic pencil sharpener using recycled materials.

This project is made using very simple materials like a plastic bottle, a 775 DC motor that I got from an old drill, a sharpener, Earbuds container from my friend! and a colored pen cap

This tiny device can sharpen lots of pencils in very less time, how cool is it that something that was kind of abandoned earlier is now a very useful tool and time saver

You can easily assemble this handy device and the most interesting part here is it is portable and powered by a 6v dc source!.

This simple and environmentally friendly project will not only sharpen your pencils but also contribute to reducing plastic waste(to some extent we can say!)

To make this project easily understandable to every new maker out here I have explained the steps in a very detailed and easy manner.

The photos will help you understand even more, I have explained everything possible in a concentrated manner, and to your surprise, you can finish this project in less than 4 steps

Not wasting any time of yours we can start building this project

But before let me tell you what triggered me to build this project.

-Why you are buying expensive pencil sharpeners when you can DIY them at your home?

-Another point here is we know that plastic bottle after use is littered everywhere and it contributes to various environmental factors so instead of going that way I wanted to put this into something useful, Even the earbuds/ear swabs container was made from plastic and to my luck everything was fitting each other so as a whole this project came up

-Most importantly here there is no need to buy materials from shops to build this if you cant find some materials at your home you can ask your friends to save them for you instead of throwing them away!

You can also gather all these materials and try to make this project with your family/friends.

This would also be an interactive project for young creators if they are accompanied by adults, as there are more and more interesting things educationally that would help to improve young minds in a positive way.


Supplies

Pencil sharpener preferably one

Used plastic bottle

Earbuds/ear swabs container

DC motor from a drill

Color pen(only the cap part is required)

DC power socket and a 6v adapter to power the motor

Hot glue

Pencil that needs to be sharpened

Step 1: Preparing Sharpener to Fit the Motor Shaft

To make the frame/body/container we are using plastic bottle, just cut them into two pieces

One from the top and the other from the lower bottom as in the visuals, on the second piece(bottom one) make a hole of a size slightly larger than the pencil at the center, these make our casing for the motor as well.

There are many other ways to connect this sharpener with a dc motor but as I want to use only recycled materials I will be using the cap from a used colored pen

Just take off the cap and cut it into 2 pieces, believe me, this fit the shaft soo well

Now find the center point on the sharpener and add a drop of superglue

Gently place the cut piece on the sharpener and allow it to dry completely

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Step 2: Preparing the Dc Motor

There is not much work associated with the dc motor, just solder the wires to its terminals and at the end of the free wires connect the dc power adapter or a jack you can say.

After this make a hole in the cap that matches the slot size of the adapter.

Before gluing add the wires inside the bottle(as in image 4 of this step)

Now fill the space between the dc slot and the cap base with hot glue, keep in mind that the threads of the caps should be untouched as these will be used later to attach to the bottle.

Step 3: Lid or Pencil Waste Holder

I found the lid of ear swabs container fits very well, so I made a hole in the center of the lid.

This lid then is attached to the center of the dc motor as you can see from the visuals.

Now the top part will be attached with the sharpener(that we got from step 1)

While adding to the shaft make sure the alignment is proper, as we are dealing with rotation to sharpen the pencil.

The base of the lid can be coupled with hot glue.

Now finally add the base part of the bottle(saved from step 1) to the swabs lid

For me, it was a perfect fit and it will be the same for you too

Step 4: How to Use

I guess at this point almost everyone has a clear-cut idea of how to use these, let me tell you again.

All you need is a pencil that needs to be sharpened.

Plug your 6v adapter pin the slot, and press the switch of supply to on.

This motor starts to spin while the sharpener is ready to eat some pencils.

Feed the sharpener with pencils and you can see that within no time the pencil gets sharpened.

After the work is over you can throw away the waste that was stored inside and use the sharpener again.

This was all about making this automatic sharpener, if you have any questions on any steps ask me in the comments.

Step 5: Working Video

You will miss out on many things if you don't watch this video, this video includes step-by-step video instructions along with a working video that will amaze you for sure. if you face any problem in loading the video directly use this link of the same video on your browser(copy and paste) https://youtu.be/SeyQlgCQsPQ

Try making this cool project:) have a great day and thanks for reading