I think my pencil sharpener experiment is over. A $40 sharpener is not tough enough to withstand middle schoolers. The sharpener comes with some sensor that decides if your pencil is already sharp enough. If it says “yes”, the cutting blades retract and stop sharpening. It appears to be malfunctioning and not letting you sharpen at all. The kids have been complaining about it quite a bit, so I tried it on a new, unsharpened pencil. It only took the edges off the flat head. I jammed it in harder and was able to almost get a point.
I’m kind of disappointed. I thought it would last longer than one month.
I will have to try a more expensive model next. Will it be the crazy expensive ones Lloyd suggested? He suggested this one and this one. Maybe I’ll just go back to buying a manual wall-mounted crank model…
Didn’t Lloyd suggest one with a warranty, so that when the Middle Schoolers (God Bless Brad) break it, you just get a new one, and so on, so that you always have the first one? Or do these have such a warranty?
I think it’s time to play with Office Depot (or whereever you got your sharpener). Just keep taking it back and exchanging it for a new one.
In anticipation of having to send them an email of my own later in the year, I sent this message to X-acto this morning at about 6:45…
I got a replay sometime before 8:30
Very nice, if you have a copy of your receipt handy. Otherwise, maybe the place you bought it from could print a new one.
Wow. That took effort Lloyd. Impressive.
Since you don’t have to return it, this sounds like a good way to get a second sharpener!
You could keep it as a back up, or have two in the room.
By the way, you must have some tough kids in Baltimore. I think Mine’s been in use longer than yours, and it’s still going strong. My guys love this sharpener. They even come from other rooms to use it (between classes).
But I did have to bust out my pocketknife to remove a lead splinter from an 8th grade boy’s hand.
Uh, Baltimore does have a rather tough crowd. It’s the 6th most dangerous city in the US: http://www.morganquitno.com/xcit06pop.htm#25
I think Robot Sharpener is just angry with you. Did you forget its birthday?
DEFINITELY RETURN IT!!!! I will return it for you if you have no intention of doing it … or I’ll at least accost someone in the parking lot to do it.
Heh.
Just do what I do to/for/with the 6th graders in P-3: “Requirements for success each day in this class include…2 sharpened pencils” – there is no sharpener in P-3. How, where and when they do get them sharpened is up to them/their parents (translation “no longer my problem”).
It’s a cruel world.
they have $50 sharpeners? i never knew that!! :-0