Electric Pencil Sharpener

Project:
To fix my wife's electric pencil sharpener

Difficulty Level (Easy, Medium, Hard, Insane):
Easy

Process:
My wife's pencil sharpener stopped working and after a new set of batteries did not do the trick I figured I'd have to take it down to my office to have a closer look at it.

Once I took it apart I put in the batteries (held together with an elastic band) and tried to make contact but I just simply didn't have enough hands so I figured I'd whip out my DC power supply and hook it up so I'd have enough fingers to make the necessary contacts.

I saw the sparks when I connected the contacts but the motor still wouldn't turn so I gave it a little boost with my fingers and it started right up so I figured it probably just needed some oil. Using a trick I've learned during my lexmark printer maintenance course waaaaay back in the 1990's I put some oil in a syringe and oiled the little motor through the two small holes at the top (see video below). That seemed to have done the trick.

I put it all back together but when I put in the pencil it barely moved so I hooked it back up to the power supply to try it but even with a solid power supply it didn't work so I had to concede that the motor was at the end of its life.

Although I wish I could have fixed it and I spent about half an hour for nothing I still wanted to to do up a blog sharing my unsuccessful stories as well as the ones that pan out because in all reality, some things just cannot be fixed, or are just simply not worth fixing at all cost.

Videos:

Pictures:

The small but convenient pencil sharpener

Taken all apart

When you stick in the pencil without the case on the copper strips do NOT make contact

But when the case is on, they do

The hidden gears when I tried getting it to work with the 4 batteries

After I ended up hooking up the power supply the motor would start turning if I gave it a boost

Putting some oil into the motor to try to get it to un-stick

Tools:
Screwdriver
Syringe with oil
Power supply

Materials:
A little bit of oil

Cost:
$0.00

Time:
45 min

Savings:
$0

Conclusion:
Couldn't fix it. Or rather, chose not to continue to fix it at all cost because a new one is only about $20 bucks.