Mechanical pencils

Central Avenue

The eraser always seems to wear down long before the lead is depleted.

Which basically renders the whole thing worthless, because, well, what good is a pencil without an eraser?

Naas_Human

No eraser refills?

Or just separate erasers?

Stormtroper

I've never seen eraser refills. Though separate erasers are good to have anyways.

There's this lucky mechanical pencil I've had for five years or so after buying it from a bus vendor for almost nothing. The clip's broken, I lost its end cap and I managed to make its handle gum disintegrate out of wear (had to get another pencil's), but it still doesn't seem like it's gonna fail anytime soon.

Nyktos

I usually use separate erasers, but I use the built-in ones often enough for this to become a problem when the eraser gets too small to pull out in order to change the lead.



The ones I have now did come with eraser refills but I'm out now and I can't find more.

glennmagusharvey

This is a problem for me.  Or it used to be at least.  I pretty much use pens exclusively these days, because pencils smudge.  Pens do too but not quite as much.

The better mechanical pencils come with refillable and easily-removable erasers.  For the cheaper ones, I've usually found an unbent paperclip can do the trick.

I'm also annoyed at how this totally wastes part of the eraser.  And I actually use up those erasers, as opposed to the larger independent blocks.

Central Avenue

The ones I have now did come with eraser refills but I'm out now and I can't find more.

I've had that problem too. If you want extra lead, you can buy refills pretty much anywhere, but if you want more erasers, you're pretty much out of luck.

I'm also annoyed at how this totally wastes part of the eraser.  And I actually use up those erasers, as opposed to the larger independent blocks.

This is a flaw with traditional wooden pencils too. I see why it's done that way--you need the pencil to grip enough of the eraser that it can be held tightly, after all--but it's still annoying.

And yeah, pencils smudging is annoying, but...as you've probably guessed, I erase a lot. Let's just say I'm not a whiz at math. :V

Nyktos

im a whiz at math and i still erase a lot

Kraken

Being good at shit doesn't mean you don't make mistakes, it means you make the mistakes that are easily fixable and you know when to recognize when you've fucked up.

Central Avenue

*sigh* I'd forgotten that this is IJBM, where my lame attempts at humor will be met with strangely literal responses.

Kraken

Humor is hard.

Doubly so on the internet.

Naas_Human

^^ I think I sometimes do that intentionally, although my memory fails me.

Central Avenue

I find it a bit amusing, because the people I usually "hang out" online with tend to be able to recognize when I'm being silly or self-deprecating, so I forget that my brand of humor doesn't always actually work.

Raydere

Solution: I just buy a plastic eraser. They're essential for erasing large areas anyway.