0.5mm white or yellow lead refills for mech. pencils?

[Doug Shepard]

Anybody here ever seen 0.5mm lead refills for mechanical pencils in either white or yellow lead?? I've googled for hours with no luck. After numerous eye surgeries over the past few years, I have an awful time seeing standard pencil marks on darker wood and finally decided to hunt down something with more contrast. I found a good source for standard colored lead pencils and have some white & yellow on order. But I'd like to find some 0.5mm white/yellow lead for use with the Incra rules. So far no luck - all I can find is black/red/blue/green.

FWIW - if anyone else is looking for white or yellow pencils for marking dark wood, here's the source I found for the standard pencils. http://www.misterart.com/store/view/001/group_id/1326/Prismacolor-Colored-Pencils.htm

[Matthew Poeller]

I was not able to find anything in the .5mm size but was able to find some in the 2mm size if you are willing to change sizes.

http://www.reuels.com/reuels/product8261.html
(of course at $7.50 shipping you may have to buy a couple tubes for it to be worthwhile.)

I have a feeling that they do not sell too many colored leads for the .5mm because of how brittle the colored leads are. I tried to use red .5mm for marking prints at work for the drafters to change and have since switched to 2mm because of how often the .5mm broke.

[Don Baer]

I quit using pencils when laying out wood. I use BIC "round Stic" fine point pens and found that I get more consistant markin. There cheap and never need to be sharpened.

[Alan Turner]

Doug,
I too have the vision issue on darker woods, and usually use white charcoal pencils, but they are soft and the points, such as they are, break easily. For a cut line, I use a marking knife, and white chalk dust such as is used for a chalk line ti fill in the mark. I keep a small tin of it in my tool tray at the bench so it is always handy. The white dust is even handy on woods as light as maple.

[Kirk (KC) Constable]

Doug,
I too have the vision issue on darker woods, and usually use white charcoal pencils, but they are soft and the points, such as they are, break easily. For a cut line, I use a marking knife, and white chalk dust such as is used for a chalk line ti fill in the mark. I keep a small tin of it in my tool tray at the bench so it is always handy. The white dust is even handy on woods as light as maple.

This might get you a prize if you sent it in to one of the mags as a tool tip...

[Alan Turner]

Thanks, but I read it somewhere, so it is far from original. BTW, my recommendation is either Altoids, or the smallish, mini-cigar tins. When I teach measuring and marking, I give each of my students one of these tins filled with chalk dust. A friend saves his cigar tins, and I am an Altoids user, but if anyone has spare tins, send them along.

We should probably start a thread on the proper use of small tins in the shop. A second use for a tin is to hold a small rag scrap saturated (not to dripping) with mineral oil, used to wipe down a plane or chisel after use as my shop is in a far from low humidity basement. I esp use it after sharpening as the bright steel rusts in a heartbeat. It lives on top of my can of wax.

Small parts storage is an obvious use, and now that I am blathering on a bit, I am thinking that a nice Eighteenth Century styled case, where the tins are the drawers, should be in my future plans. Now I just have to figure out how to hand dovetail a tin. (:

[Doug Shepard]

Thanks for all the feedback.


I was not able to find anything in the .5mm size but was able to find some in the 2mm size if you are willing to change sizes.
http://www.reuels.com/reuels/product8261.html
(of course at $7.50 shipping you may have to buy a couple tubes for it to be worthwhile.)
I have a feeling that they do not sell too many colored leads for the .5mm because of how brittle the colored leads are. I tried to use red .5mm for marking prints at work for the drafters to change and have since switched to 2mm because of how often the .5mm broke.

Thanks. I'm roped into the 0.5mm size though as that's the size of the holes on the Incra rulers. You're right about them being brittle - that's a problem even with the standard black lead. But the Incra T-rules are handy enough that it makes the lead breakage PITA worth the hassle.


I quit using pencils when laying out wood. I use BIC "round Stic" fine point pens and found that I get more consistant markin. There cheap and never need to be sharpened.

I haven't ruled out switching to a pen if I cant find any lead of the right size and a pen with a 0.5mm tip is available. I do have some slight trepidation about using ink though. Do you have any trouble getting the ink removed from the wood?


Doug,
I too have the vision issue on darker woods, and usually use white charcoal pencils, but they are soft and the points, such as they are, break easily. For a cut line, I use a marking knife, and white chalk dust such as is used for a chalk line ti fill in the mark. I keep a small tin of it in my tool tray at the bench so it is always handy. The white dust is even handy on woods as light as maple.

I'm pretty much doing the same thing - darkening in the cut line with a pencil on lighter woods. That's what I got the white/yellow pencils for dark wood on order for. Some layout stuff just doesn't lend itself very well to a cut line though and the Incra T-rules work really well for those cases. One example that comes to mind is laying out the paduak inlay channel on these end tables
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=15882
Here's I wasn't so much interested in following a cut line as knowing when to stop cutting. The router edge guide defined where the cut would go so I didn't need a line to follow for that. I just layed out intersection lines with the Incra for the channel at the corners so I knew where to stop routing and then clean up the corner with chisels up to the line.


...
We should probably start a thread on the proper use of small tins in the shop. A second use for a tin is to hold a small rag scrap saturated (not to dripping) with mineral oil, used to wipe down a plane or chisel after use as my shop is in a far from low humidity basement. I esp use it after sharpening as the bright steel rusts in a heartbeat. It lives on top of my can of wax.
Small parts storage is an obvious use, and now that I am blathering on a bit, I am thinking that a nice Eighteenth Century styled case, where the tins are the drawers, should be in my future plans. Now I just have to figure out how to hand dovetail a tin. (:

I've got stacks of those small tubs that "I cant believe it's not butter" come in. Those things (and sometimes just the lids) are real handy too. They work well for small parts storage, holding glue for application with a brush, holding small amounts of finish for hand wiping, mixing up small amounts of epoxy, etc.

[bennie blackwell]

Thanks for all the feedback.



Thanks. I'm roped into the 0.5mm size though as that's the size of the holes on the Incra rulers. You're right about them being brittle - that's a problem even with the standard black lead. But the Incra T-rules are handy enough that it makes the lead breakage PITA worth the hassle.



I haven't ruled out switching to a pen if I cant find any lead of the right size and a pen with a 0.5mm tip is available. I do have some slight trepidation about using ink though. Do you have any trouble getting the ink removed from the wood?



I'm pretty much doing the same thing - darkening in the cut line with a pencil on lighter woods. That's what I got the white/yellow pencils for dark wood on order for. Some layout stuff just doesn't lend itself very well to a cut line though and the Incra T-rules work really well for those cases. One example that comes to mind is laying out the paduak inlay channel on these end tables
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=15882
Here's I wasn't so much interested in following a cut line as knowing when to stop cutting. The router edge guide defined where the cut would go so I didn't need a line to follow for that. I just layed out intersection lines with the Incra for the channel at the corners so I knew where to stop routing and then clean up the corner with chisels up to the line.



I've got stacks of those small tubs that "I cant believe it's not butter" come in. Those things (and sometimes just the lids) are real handy too. They work well for small parts storage, holding glue for application with a brush, holding small amounts of finish for hand wiping, mixing up small amounts of epoxy, etc.

I Googled "0.5 mm white lead" and got the following link: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/0-5mm-white-pencil-leads-2-cases-36-40-pieces-leads-refill-special-white-mechanical-pencil/32841792763.html
I have ordered some and it will be arriving by slow boat from China.

[gordy haycock]

My guess is that after 13.5 years they probably already found a source for pencil lead.

[Derek Cohen]

Doug, I have different coloured "leads" in 2mm mechanical pencils. I sharpen with a Gedess lead pointer. This is a great combination and creates a fine pencil line ...

http://www.inthewoodshop.com/ToolReviews/Anotsohumblepencil_html_749b2af0.jpg

When it comes to marking dovetails (http://www.inthewoodshop.com/Furniture/ThroughDovetails3.html), I use blue tape. There are times when I use tape and a scalpel to mark areas/other joints that require precise sawing or chiselling ...

A marked out dovetail, along with tape along the baseline ...

http://www.inthewoodshop.com/Furniture/ThroughDovetails3_html_67e151c2.jpg


EDIT: This is an OLD thread! (I did not look at the date when replying).

Regards from Perth

Derek

[J. Greg Jones]

My guess is that after 13.5 years they probably already found a source for pencil lead.
Yes, and given what is listed as his member status, I expect it means that Doug has passed away.

[George Yetka]

https://www.jetpens.com/Lead-Color/ct/2480?&f=bcf12dce3392ac0dcd5fbcfbc64dc408_7f532676bfed449 4

I the Uni Nano Dia are some of the very best leads
but the best i can do for you is Orange in .5

[George Yetka]

On another note the Uni Kurotoga has a system that spins the lead keeping it a little harder to break
https://www.jetpens.com/Uni-Kuru-Toga-Roulette-Mechanical-Pencil-0.5-mm-Gun-Metallic-Body/pd/6547

[John K Jordan]

My guess is that after 13.5 years they probably already found a source for pencil lead.

The OPs status is now given as "In Memoriam"

For the revised discussion, I use these for wood, etc:

Bohin Extra-Fine Chalk Pencil
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004M5BGD4

The are .9mm instead of .5 and don't break easily. I have white and yellow leads.

JKJ

[George Yetka]

Its best not leaving these things unanswered, perhaps he hasnt slept in 13 years. :)