Pencil Extenders

I have found a great way to extend the life of drawing pencils and colored pencils without having to buy expensive extenders for each pencil you own.  You can buy pencil extenders for about $6.  That isn’t bad, but when you have dozens of pencils and you don’t want to share just one or two extenders… well, the cost adds up.

I found that old disposable pen bodies work very well for pencil extenders.  Some disposable pens are made with very thin bodies and they are inappropriate for extenders.  However many of the name brand disposables are large enough in diameter to be used for extender purposes.  Even so, some have to be warmed at the ends and stretched immediately by shoving a pencil into the hollow tube.  You won’t need to stretch all pen bodies but some need it.  Once the pen’s ink is dry you would have thrown it away anyway.  This way we are simply recycling part of the pen for other purposes.

You will need:

Old used cheap disposable pens of a certain diameter

Pliers to pull out the old disposable ink cartridge

Stove or heating element to warm the plastic for the smaller tubes

Short pencils to place in the extenders as soon as they are warmed

Step one:

Pull out the old ink cartridge and discard. 

Step two:

If the hollow tube left over is too narrow to fit a pencil comfortably, warm the end over a stove element or candle flame for just a few seconds.  Plastic is flammable and will catch fire quickly so don’t let the tube touch the heating element.  After a few seconds, quickly shove the pencil point side into the tube.  If it stretches enough to house the pencil down about ¼ inch, pull it back out and place it into the extender from the blunt end.  If it didn’t stretch sufficiently, reheat the tube rotating between your fingers so it heats evenly on all sides and shove the pencil in again.

Step three:

Enjoy your pencil till it is too short to sharpen.  I use these for my drawing pencils, charcoal pencils, pastel pencils, and colored pencils.  I must have dozens and save old used disposable pens to make more.

Occasionally the old pen tube will become brittle with age and crack.  That’s when it is time to finally toss it and replace with a new extender.

Enjoy.