Comments on: Jamming Paper Shredders

By: Jelle de Haas

Jelle de Haas — Sat, 18 Sep 2010 20:00:06 +0000

The irony now is that they’ve removed the two remaining shredders and put secured bins in their places. ElfinSafety gone overboard.

By: WordNerd1979

WordNerd1979 — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 18:02:20 +0000

The comments about oiling the shredder is spot on. It really is the best way to keep a shredder running well and prevent jams. Shredding the right amount of paper is essential as well. Trying to shred too much will definitely cause problems.

By: Mark Shead

Mark Shead — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 16:49:30 +0000

Glad to hear you rescued a good shredder from the trash. I’m guessing that the volume in a commercial environment might be a tad higher than what you do at home. Regardless, it is good to see you are still able to get some use out of it.

By: Jelle de Haas

Jelle de Haas — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 09:07:52 +0000

I have an office-size shredder that my company threw out because it kept jamming.

Took it home, cleaned it out, lube it up, and she’s working a treat. Every two weeks or so when I have a purging session, I spray some teflon-based bike lube into the rollers, and off we go. Hasn’t jammed since, and I’ve not told the company that they’ve thrown out a perfectly good shredder worth about £400 new.

(and don’t be misled that the teflon-based lube is anything special, it’s the same stuff I use for my bike chain and other moving bits. Spray in, shred, leave for two weeks, repeat.)

By: arvin kelley

arvin kelley — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 20:12:20 +0000

It’s really a problem. You just need to lubricate it.

Arvin Kelley

document-shredders.info

By: Jed

Jed — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 16:18:44 +0000

I have one of the Fellowes jam-proof shredders. It works very well. There are two parts of the system – first is a gauge that tells you if the amount of paper you’ve fed in is too much, based on green, yellow, and red lights. Second is a mechanism that stops shredding prior to a jam, so you can reverse it out and continue. The really nice thing about the shredder is that it has a bigger capacity than it ‘thinks’ it does, so every time it has stopped on me, I let it sit for a moment, and then override it with the ‘forward’ button. I have never had a jam over at least 5000 sheets shredded.

By: Smitty

Smitty — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 08:27:45 +0000

It your shredder is jamming more frequently, the fastest, no-mess route is to bring in a roll of waxed paper from the grocery. Tear off a foot or two, and feed it through the shredder every week or so. That will keep the mechanism sharp and functional.

By: Roman

Roman — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 02:15:55 +0000

Definitely lube it up. They sell oil for just such a purpose. I ruined my last shredder by never oiling it.

By: adora

adora — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 22:44:51 +0000

There should be a way to make it so that you can load a stack of paper there and the shredder just take only the thickness it should take. Like a fax machine. Oh well, they jam too.

For me, my shredder usually jam when the paper is not loaded perpendicular to the opening. They should have a little guard rail on the sides like the loading dock in printer.

By: infmom

infmom — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 19:49:18 +0000

Before you lay out money on a new shredder, try lubricating the one you’ve got. You can buy special sheets that you feed through the shredder that clean and lubricate the cutters. You should do this on a regular basis if you shred a lot.