Customer Reviews

X-Acto MRI Self-Feeding Automatic Electric Sharpener (1796)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I pulled the sharpener out of the box for the first time today. I sharpened a total of 7 pencils over an hour and a half. It worked great for those pencils. They get sucked in automatically, then the motor turns the blades, and the pencil gets ejected when the sharpener is finished.

However, when I put in a pencil now, it gets sucked in, but doesn't sharpen. The sharpener makes this horrible whining noise, but I can hear that the motor isn't turning the blades. I though maybe I had somehow burnt it out (7 pencils in an hour SHOULDN'T burn it out, but you never know). I let it rest for two hours, after which the first pencil worked (it was already pretty sharp), but the second pencil caused the whining sound again and the pencil wouldn't eject.

I'll be contacting the manufacturer to see about getting a replacement. This think is supposed to have a 2-year warranty.

This is a really good sharpener that does all the work for you.
One downside is that it is pretty loud. Also the design is kind of weird.

All in all, it does it's job as a sharpener, just hope it doesn't break.

As a 5th grade classroom teacher I have seen and used a lot of pencil sharpeners. Students wear down even the most expensive sharpener within a year, if not sooner. Most cheaply priced pencil sharpeners won't last a week in a classroom environment. I approached the X-Acto MRI Auto Feed Electric Pencil Sharpener expecting this to be yet another one of these low end sharpeners. I was pleasantly surprised that it is much nicer. It is well designed and constructed.

Most cheap pencil sharpeners use a blade to sharpen pencils. The downside of a blade based sharpener is that the blade wears out quickly and often breaks if abused. The higher-end models use a grinding system that last much longer. The downside of these is that a grinding system is nosier. The upside is that these kinds of pencil sharpeners last much longer. I was surprised to find that the X-Acto MRI Self-Feeding Automatic Electric Sharpener uses a grinding system like more expensive models. It is noisier than your typical cheap models, but it isn't anywhere near as noisy as the very expensive industrial strength pencil sharpener we have in our school's staff room. This is your trade off. You can get a cheap one that is quieter or you can buy one that is noisier that will last longer.

This pencil sharpener is well made for the most part. The casing is made out of plastic, but it is ruggedly designed plastic that will stand up to abuse. I am a little concerned about the sleeve mechanism that houses the shavings container. It looks like it will break easily but for the most part it is housed inside the sturdier casing. As other reviewers have noted, the shavings container is very small, but I was able to sharpen a lot more pencils than others have been able to, around 20, before it was completely full and had to be emptied.

One other thing to note is that there is a small button on the backside of the sharpener to eject a pencil in case the self feeding mechanism doens't eject it properly. So far, I have used this sharpener with about 50 pencils and the self feeding mechanism hasn't had a problem.

Overall, I am quiet happy with this sharpener. Although it is noisy, I think it will last longer than most cheap sharpeners. While I would like a quiet pencil sharpener (particularly in a classroom environment) this one isn't too noisy. I'm grading it down one star because it uses a cheaper plastic for the shavings container. Otherwise, I would give it 5 stars. Nevertheless, it is a great buy at its current price.

I will update my review if I notice any problems over the coming months.

This is my first self-feeding sharpener, a function I was curious about prior to ordering. After sharpening several dozen pencils, I must say I'm overall pleased with the unit. There are, however, some points to be taken into consideration prior to purchasing. For starters, even taking into consideration it's an electric sharpener, the unit is quite noisy. I have no idea if this is because of the self-feeding feature, but the past two sharpeners I've owned did not have a self-feeding function and were noticeably quieter. Also, the shavings receptacle is rather small. With other sharpeners I've accustomed to sharpening roughly 15-20 pencils without disposing of the shavings. With this unit I can only get through 6-7 pencils.

Which brings me to my next point, while the self-feeding feature is a nice novelty, I've found it often shears quite a bit too much off the pencil - meaning they ultimately don't last as long. I realize some may prefer an ultra-fine pencil point, and with this product they should be well pleased, but children tend to press down too hard and break the point, which typically necessitates yet another sharpening. The instructions note that a pencil shorter than 3 inches should not be used in the sharpener as it can become stuck in the unit. If this occurs, there's a small button on the bottom of the sharpener that reverses the motor which should eventually eject the pencil. I haven't tested this function yet, but again where children are concerned, I'm certain it's only a matter of time!

Considering these points, I feel this product is best suited for adult use. In fact, I'm removed this sharpener from the classroom and use it exclusively in my home office now. I may not be completely sold on the self-feeding feature, but I like the sharpener and could certainly see myself buying another should this one give out.

Painful hand problems have made sharpening pencils in our house a dreaded task. But it's necessary, right? My little ones get sore hands from pressing down on dull points (they are still learning how much pressure to apply when writing).

Our choices so far have been the little sharpeners that you have to turn the pencil around and around for way too long, OR the old-fashioned hand-crank pencil sharpener that was so hard to turn we actually have an old glove designated for sharpening pencils with it! It was time to do something about it.

I recognized the "X-Acto" brand from using X-Acto knives for years in graphic arts. They were always very sharp, and stayed sharp forever. So I had high expectations from the brand name alone.

I was not disappointed, for the most part. This pencil sharpener works wonderfully, as long as you keep a few things in mind. Here's what I've learned so far:
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1. It's pretty noisy. My kids covered their ears because it was so loud. And after just a few pencils, I was bothered by the loud motor noise, too. I would think they could have buffered the sound a little, especially considering the size of this monster.
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2. You have to empty the shavings container after 4-5 pencils. The size of the shavings container would allow for holding many more shavings, but they seem to pile up on one end, causing incomplete sharpening. And the manual warns "Empty the shavings receptacle regularly. The sharpener may be damaged if operated with an overfilled receptacle." Note that it doesn't define "regularly" as in number of pencils. I ran several tests on this, and I highly recommend emptying after no more than 5 pencils. (these were brand new pencils, not previously sharpened ones. If you are only sharpening ones that have already been sharpened, then run a few tests to see how many till your sharpener starts acting funny.)
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3. Despite the product's description, I had to give the pencil a little nudge to get it to pull the pencil in and start sharpening. The manual states, "To start the sharpener, insert a pencil into the opening. Once started, the sharpener will feed the pencil automatically. Do not force the pencil into the sharpener." I put the pencil into the opening, the motor started, and then I just watched it stay there and vibrate without being pulled into the machine for sharpening. This happened repeatedly, as I was afraid to push it at all. Finally, I gave the pencil a gentle nudge, and the machine FINALLY pulled it in to sharpen. I have had to do the "gentle nudge" thing each and every time I've put a pencil in. I don't mind this, but it's something you definitely should know. As promised, when it was done, it ejected the pencil on its own.

Those are really small allowances to make for a machine that does so much. It makes a perfect point on the pencil, works pretty quickly, and most of all, turns the whole pencil-sharpening process into a pain-free one for all of us. I rated it 4 stars. I would give it a 5 if it were quieter, and if you didn't have to empty the container every 4-5 pencils. I would definitely purchase it again, though, despite that. It has a two-year warranty, which is another big plus.

If you have a stack of pencils to sharpen at once this is a great sharpener. Instead of holding each pencil while it sharpens, you simply load the pencil and let the sharpener do its work while you sort out the rest of the pencils you have to sharpen and ready the next one.

Unfortunately this sharpener missed a 5 star mark on a couple points. It is loud and it has a low capacity bin for shavings. Because of these downsides, I wouldn't recommend this sharpener as "the" sharpener for a classroom or office. However if you have the job of maintaining a stack of pencils, the autofeed may be a good choice as it allows you to multitask while the pencils are sharpened. It does take a few extra seconds to autofeed, so if speed is your goal, this may not be the sharpener for you.

If you have kids that may need a little help, or a disability that limits you to one hand, this is a great option to assist the task of sharpening your pencils perfect every time.

Length:: 0:28 Mins

As you can hear, the sharpener is a bit loud. And as you can see, it takes about 15 seconds to completely sharpen a pencil (from new to sharp). Pencils that are already sharpened to some degree don't take as long. (The "shh" "shh" sound toward the end of the video isn't the sharpener, it is my 4 year "shushing" himself because I was making a video.)

You just feed the pencil into the sharpener and it takes care of the rest. You are supposed to take your hands off the pencil, which my kids find difficult to remember. (Even if they do like to watch the "magic sharpener.") As you can see in the video, the pencil is ejected when it is finished sharpening.

The tray for the shavings is tiny. Less than 10 pencils and it is full. That is a bit annoying. If you let it get over full you'll have 2 problems to deal with. (1) The pencils will have little wooden bits left on them. (2) The tray will be extremely difficult to remove and will create quite the mess.

It sharpens pencils to a pretty severe point. (I happen to prefer a smaller point, but that is just personal preference.)

I was able to sharpen regular wood hexagon pencils, wooden round pencils, wooden round pencils with plastic coating, wood round pencils with glitter coating, colored pencils, and smencils (made of recycled newspaper) without any problems. All in all a sufficient sharpener for home use.

This electric pencil sharpener is about as automatic as a pencil sharpener can be. All you have to do - all you can do, for that matter - is put the pencil into the hole and let go. The sharpener pulls the pencil into the hole and into contact with the spinning blades until the pencil is sharp. The blades then stop and the sharpener pushes the pencil back out into your waiting hand. Couldn't be simpler. It's no noisier than any other electric pencil sharpener I've used, and it makes a wickedly sharp point every time.

The sleek chrome-like plastic cover can be removed easily to empty the shavings.

Downsides? Not too many. You can't use it with fat pencils -- it doesn't have an adjustable hole like the manual crank type. It's designed for standard pencils alone.

Like any electric sharpener, the motor probably won't last forever, unlike the old screw-down Boston manual crank models many of us grew up with. And you won't develop strong forearms from sharpening. But if you're looking for a sharpener that does the job with a minimum of effort for an office or classroom (or home if you're just not into cranking), the X-Acto is hard to beat.