Clean Out Rods Part 2

Clean out rods (CORs) are not always supplied with automatic pencils and if my source at one major pencil company is correct then soon we may see all automatic pencils being sold without CORs. And this will be a bad thing. COR's are very important and a vital part of an automatic pencil. Clearing a jammed up lead sleeve simply can't be done without one. As I mentioned in Clean Out Rods, common household items can be found for 0.5mm, 0.7mm and 0.9mm pencils but not for 0.3mm and 0.4mm pencils. However one size can work for all sizes of pencils. A one inch length of 0.014" (+ or - 0.0005") diameter wire will serve all sizes of lead diameters. A 60" length of rod can be found at SmallParts.com for $5.00 plus $4.19 shipping. That's enough wire to make 60 CORs of 1" length.

To make a COR you'll need a 6" ruler, a Sharpie to mark off the length of each COR, a good set of small wire cutters to snip off the wire and a small needle file to smooth off the ends of the wire. You will also need a small pair of flat nosed pliers to hold the wire while filing. Use the 6" ruler to mark off a one inch segment from the rod. snip it off using the wire cutters. Holding the COR in the jaws of the flat nose pliers use the needle file to file away any burrs on both ends of the COR. Once you have made the COR use the flat nosed pliers to hold it while stowing it away by pushing one end into the base of the pencils eraser. DO NOT use your fingers for this as the small diameter wire will act as a needle and puncture your skin if not handled correctly. When the need arises use the eraser as a handle when using the COR.

That's all there is to it. To use it to clear a lead jam simply remove the eraser and COR as well as the end cap and set it down on the desk top, base down. With your finger press the end of the lead flush with the end of the lead sleeve, if possible. Next guide the COR to the end of the lead sleeve and push the lead back through the lead sleeve, pushing the COR all the way into the lead sleeve. Once the jam is cleared replace the eraser and end cap and resume normal operations. That's it.

Clean Out Rods

One major pencil maker has informed me that they will no longer be supplying clean out rods (CORs) with their new automatic pencils. The reason given was one of safety. I only have this person’s word for this but I have absolutely no reason to disbelieve them. Why would they lie? I have no practical way of discovering this out first hand so why not take their word for it? But this is a disheartening thing to hear for I believe that CORs are a necessary, yea, an important part of a modern automatic pencil, especially a drafting style automatic pencil. It is true that non-drafting style pencils have never to my knowledge, limited as it is, been supplied with CORs. The reasons for this I believe (just a couple of guesses mind you) are that the lead sleeves are considerably shorter, even nonexistent, on non-drafting style automatic pencils. Also they don’t come in 0.3mm or 04.mm sizes. The larger sizes, 0.5mm to 0.9mm, have COR’s of diameters ranging from 0.22” to 0.35” in diameter. Household items such as small paperclips and various sizes of straight pins fall within these diameters. So making a COR for one of these pencils is not much of a problem. I’ve done so in the past using these objects. But making a COR for a 0.3mm or 0.4mm pencil is very hard to do unless you can find and purchase piano wire rod from 0.012” to 0.016” in diameter. This is neither easily done nor inexpensively acquired.

Why make such a fuss over a tiny piece of wire? Because without it cleaning out broken and jammed up pieces of lead from a drafting automatic pencil, especially the smaller diameters, is hard to do or next to impossible. Why not use another piece of lead to clean out the lead sleeve? After all it’s the right diameter. There is a very good reason for not using another piece of lead as a COR. Pencil lead, that is graphite, is not very strong, even in the larger diameters. There is always the danger of breakage, complicating the problem. I’ve had lead jammed up in a 0.3mm pencil so badly that I would not have been able to un-jam the lead sleeve without the metal COR. This is a rare occurrence but it does happen. Even when the lead is not jammed up tightly inside the lead sleeve using apiece of lead to clean out the lead sleeve of a 0.3mm pencil is a delicate operation at best, I know because I’ve done it. More often than not the lead COR breaks and a second piece of lead is lost and the problem still exists.

If the lack of a COR with a new drafting automatic pencil was just one companies doing I would not be so upset. But I’ve noticed that with 2 other major brands of 0.3mm pencils that I purchased recently lacked a COR. So what do these automatic pencil makers expect us to do when there is a lead jam in one of these small diameter-drafting pencils? I don’t know what they would suggest we do but as for me I plan on finding some suitable piano wire rod and start making my own CORs.

10/17/2008 I stand corrected. Pilot makes a non-drafting automatic pencil in 0.3mm size. It's called the AirBlanc Mechanical Pencil and is available from JetPens. But the lead sleeve is shorter than a conventional drafting pencil. I seriously doubt that it comes with a COR.