Built a quickie spring loaded pencil holder for the AltMill today. Thrilled with the results but will probably do a revision on the design to address some things: too much preload on spring, need to sharpen pencil lead more to start, would be nice to have a finger knob to tighten so I can adjust preload while job runs. Will probably even try springless to just use the weight of the pencil…
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Nice. That looks like it was even lower cost than mine. It came to $10 for my first one.
I have since changed my design to accomodate a drag knife…one of those small ones that you’d put in a Cricut machine.
It’s not built yet but I’ll be able to use a drag knife, a Sharpie, and a Pica mechanical pencil. And anything else with a diameter less than 12mm.
And how I wished I had a 3D printer. The amount of parts I could do myself would be a real time saver.
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@fowler Nicely done. It’s fun to see the many ways to accomplish the same objective. This is the first one that I’ve seen using a carpenter’s pencil.
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Nice! I definitely saw your design while reviewing everyone else’s. I would highly recommend a 3d printer for one-off small stuff like this, my Ender 3 is plenty for my needs and could be picked up used for something like $50 on a good day (of course there are much nicer and easier to use printers out these days). The photos don’t show it well, but I printed 1" diameter inserts for the wood that match the profile of the pencil, which were then glued into the holder which had 1" holes drilled in the wood with a forstner bit (fastest/easiest way I could come up with for getting the pencil profile ‘cut’ into the holder). Slicer software said the total cost was $0.14 of plastic 
@fowler I have done 3 different versions now. The last one is a design from another member, which I did on my 3D printer. I didn’t have it when I did the first two versions. I got a bambu A1 mini earlier this year, so the fun has begun.
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@gwilki Very cool! I have heard that’s a great printer. I’m sure I’ll make at least one more version of this as well 
@gwilki did you upload to bambu labs? Would be interested in downloading it. Would boost your print
@Djjenks I didn’t upload it anywhere, as it is not my design. @NeilFerreri , who is a member here, uploaded it to printables. I have made two pen/marker holders for use on my LM, before I had my 3D printer. They both work fine, but Neil’s is elegant in its simplicity.
Here is a link to his post.
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