Did You Ever Wonder...

[cabinetman]

How they get the lead (graphite) in wood pencils?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwYTibTbYHQ&NR=1

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[LCHIEN]

cool video. Simple, elegant process.

Now at the other end of the spectrum, I saw a full length documentary DVD on how they make a Steinway Concert grand piano. Now that's awesome with a lot of real woodworking...

available from Netflix, http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/No...?trkid=2361637

[cabinetman]

cool video. Simple, elegant process.

Now at the other end of the spectrum, I saw a full length documentary DVD on how they make a Steinway Concert grand piano. Now that's awesome with a lot of real woodworking...

available from Netflix, http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/No...?trkid=2361637

Thanks for the response, and I'm glad you liked the video. How a piano is made does sound interesting, but not enough for me to pay for a DVD. Is that somehow related to making pencils? Whatever is "real woodworking" to some may be just a boring production routine to others. Here is one about pianos, and it's free.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRBzl9FbJP0

.

[L. D. Jeffries]

One of the best places to see "how" things are made is the cable show called "How's it Made?". All the things mentioned above have been on the show plus scads of other things. Check it out!

[atgcpaul]

C-man, thanks for the link! I didn't realize How It's Made was on YouTube!
Woohoo! (I don't have cable). Whenever we're on vacation and it's on, I
watch it. My wife asks me what is so facinating about the show. I reply,
"Well, you're going to thank me when civilization crumbles and only the people
who watched this show will know how to rebuild it."

I never realized the pencils were glued together. I guess I did know that
because I have seen the seam but didn't give it too much thought. I also
didn't imagine that was how they sharped the pencils. Pretty cool.

[Copper]

Now I want to make jig that will allow me to sharpen pencils on a belt sander like they do at the end of the video.