Thread: Pencil Lead sizes in USA

Pentel leads are 0.3mm, 0.5mm, 0.7mm, and 0.9mm, gripped in a 3-jaw collet.

Try the 0.5mm.

Cheers,
Joe

Thanks for that Joe.
I was hoping someone in US could give me a heads up on popular size.
Yes, I can buy a box of each size. But what I don't need will just be thrown out.
I don't like waste.
Cheers
Col

You do know that places like office works sell 0.3, 0.5 and 0.7 mm lead?

Thanks for that Pac-Man.

Office Works 24 pieces for $4.92 all sizes. Timberbits 60 pieces for $1 all sizes.
After another heap of research I found that the pencil is an el-cheapo and from all reports not worth the effort of buying new leads.
Thanks for all the posts.
Cheers
Col

If the pencil has worked fine for a few years and the only issue is having run out of supplied leads, it is most likely worthwhile to replace your lead stock and keep an otherwise reasonable pencil in use. Do you have a stump of lead left from the pencil, if so, it should be fairly easy to have it measured with a vernier caliper or similar to confirm size. Incra have a range of guages, rulers etc set up so that you insert the pencil tip though holes in the unit to mark out jobs eliminating alignment errors etc. They are made for 0.5mm pencil leads so that size would be fairly common for US woodworkers to use, but measuring the diameter of a stub would be good confirmation.