For those of you who skip to the end.......it's a pencil sharpener.
For years, I have tried to come up with a good place to put an old fashioned wall hung pencil sharpener. No matter where I tried, I didn't like it. It was in the way mounted to the bench, awkward to reach on the wall, etc. So...a year ago I got a cheap electric one, and put it with the battery chargers. It was OK, but I never liked it much, being a cheapie. Being a cheapie myself, I couldn't bring myself to get a good one.
It quit working the other day, and I took it apart but there was nothing I could fix so I was back to square one. Walking through Lowes yesterday, I happened onto a package of Hanson pencils, made in the USA. Remembering the thread on good pencils I took a look, and found it included a small pencil sharpener like kids use at school, except this sharpener was heavier duty and had a hex shaft on it that fits your screw gun or drill.
I bought it for the pencils, and when I got home I tried out the sharpener. WOW! It's like an electric sharpener on steroids, and it takes up no space. I sharpened 27 pencils in no time. It worked well on my 500 RPM screw gun, but smoother and quicker on my 1500 RPM impact gun. The single blade on it will not last forever obviously, but it is held in with a screw and could probably be honed a few times.
Like I said, it's my favorite new tool......for $4.
Rick Potter