![]() But, retired for some twenty years now, I had a pangs of nostalgiaĪnd bought a beautiful Neolt drafting table with a Vemco drafting machine. Of course we all went to cad eventually, mostly AutoCad. Anyway, there were thousands of these things. Maybe later they were sold by Du-All Drafting supplies. They were made by a guy named Merz in his garage, and to buy one you went to his house. You could hear those Merzes all over the room. Draw some lines, touch up your lead, draw more lines. Years ago I worked in the Detroit area engineering job shops, thousands of us did, and most had Merz-O-Matics. What I really am sorry about is that I threw away my old battery powered sharpener, the greatest ever made - the Merz-O-Matic. What a disappointment in modern technology. So I've gone back to using an old Boston crank thing. It's like trying to draw or letter on paper with a needle. Hard to sharpen on center unless you're really careful, but then the lead so sharp it can't be used. The lighter weight also means that the X-Acto slides backwards across the table as you push the pencil into it.Ībsolutely agree. You can see the inferior built quality of the X-Acto and most damningly, how poorly and weakly it performs. ![]() In the video below, a repairperson opens up a vintage Panasonic model similar to the one I owned, alongside a newer X-Acto model similar to the one above. There's no pride of design in the X-Acto model and there certainly isn't any pride of craftsmanship. And companies will keep producing garbage like this as long as we keep buying it. Yes, we now live in a time where even something as basic as an electric pencil sharpener cannot be relied upon. You may get a properly assembled one that works, and you may get one that doesn't. Since other reviews suggest that this model sometimes works, my conclusion is that buying this model is a gamble…. I suspect that this model requires precision assembly, so that the cutter is installed at the perfect angle. The cause of the problem seems to be the X-Acto 1818, with its single cutter, doesn't seem to hold the pencil at the correct angle…. Result: the wood-tipped pencil won't write, won't even deposit a mark on the paper…. When you try to use it, the pencil tip comes out slightly lopsided, with the lead covered with wood on one side all the way to the tip - wood beyond the farthest reach of the lead.
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