After a large batch of scanning items into my paperless office, my shredder seemed to be jamming more than normal for my assistant. After helping her clear the stuck paper I got to wondering if there is a way to minimize the jams. Fellowes claims they have created a jam proof shredder. It look like it basically just stops before the paper gets packed in so tight that you can’t remove it. Has anyone used one of these? Do they work very well?
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.
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.
Definitely lube it up. They sell oil for just such a purpose. I ruined my last shredder by never oiling it.
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.
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.
It’s really a problem. You just need to lubricate it.
Arvin Kelley
document-shredders.info
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.)
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.
The irony now is that they’ve removed the two remaining shredders and put secured bins in their places. ElfinSafety gone overboard.
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.