problem with paper shredder

[LoveTheSmellofDiesel]

Here is a good reason not to mess with a paper shredder. A paper shredder started this fire, I bet if you mess with it and a fire starts, your insurance might say it you fault.

I can attest to the heat build up... I've given my elder mom with Alzheimer's the job of shredding years of old docs she/we no longer need. The new units (Fellows) have a nice heat regulator that shuts the unit off when about to overheat. [Great timing for her too - just when it overheats is time for a nap, let the dog out, watch some tv...] No calls to SEIU please.:confused3:

 

[Bird]

The new units (Fellows) have a nice heat regulator that shuts the unit off when about to overheat.

My manual says mine has that, but so far I' ve not used it long enough at a time for it to turn itself off.:laughing:

 

[jamby]

Well the new shredder with the "office max" name on it arrived. It ain't like its big brother. Its a cute little thing with casters on its bottom. Its a crosscut but what it produces looks more like a short strip. Oh well the chief purchasing officer is pleased and now I have no time limit on screwing with the old one. So its all good.
Thanks for all the imput, its been fun

Jim

 

[clemsonfor]

Wow this thread is long lasting! Most of you must not really live rural, cause i have a seperate 18 gallon or so trashcan in the laundry room. All old bills CC offers and the like and most anything with an address on it, gets thrown in there and when i burn yard debris or limbs and stuff i pull that trashcan out a few times a year and burn the stuff either in a pile or in a burn barrel then pour the ashes out on the ground after cool.

This works great. I guess if someone breaks in they can go through it, but heck they can get other stuff if there in the house that better anyway. If i had a home office or business this may be different but for us this works and i dont have to own a shredder.

 

[Bird]

Yep, when I lived out in the country, I burned ours, too. But now I have the shredder sitting right here by the desk so I use it nearly every day just a little bit. Once a year, in January, I clean out the file cabinet and that's the only time it gets used for more than a few minutes at a time.

 

[WVBill]

Here is a good reason not to mess with a paper shredder. A paper shredder started this fire, I bet if you mess with it and a fire starts, your insurance might say it you fault.

Your post reminded me of when I was stationed at the US European Command Headquarters outside Stuttgart Germany in the late '70s. We had a huge industrial-size paper shredder in a building on the base for our Classified destruction. It created a huge amount of paper dust.

One time, someone left a paper clip on the stuff fed into the machine and the shredding hammers sparked when they hit it. Spark + paper dust = explosion & Fire.

The Post was served by the Local German fire brigade who were very professional and efficient - but they were made to fight the fire from outside the building because they were not cleared for the classified information inside. Building was a total loss.....

 

[StevenHardacre]

Even the smallest shreds can be recreated, but it costs about $5,000 per cuibic foot of shredded material; --- obviously, beyond the needs or scope of home office users, like me!

 

[oosik]

I've never even considered ANY type of shredder. I have two garbage containers. Anything with any form of identification goes in the one container. It goes out to my burn barrel once a month. The other gets bagged and set out for local garbage pickup.

 

[3Ts]

Ummm - This thread was started 6 years ago, but I'll add to it.

I use a cross cut shredder (Executive Machines 15 sheet crosscut) to handle daily stuff, not sure of the size but is the smallest I could get and is more than 10 years old. I've burned stuff before, but the ash is still readable until it gets mashed or stirred up into small pieces.

 

[Jim Nelson]

I saw a thread about a year ago and one of the respondents mentioned lube sheets for shredders. I had never heard of such a thing so I asked the wife about them and she hadn't either but she looked into it and bought a package of them. They seem to have made our machine run smoother and quieter. I was pretty sure I saw that on TBN and thought this was the thread but apparently not.