[La lamy]

This thread and its successful ending totally made my morning.

[davephan]

I would feel uncomfortable about having sensitive documents shredded at Staples, unless I could see the documents being shredded, and knowing that the shredder was a cross-shredder. Some shredders have very large pieces in the output that could be reassembled much easier than tiny pieces.

If you end up needing to replace the shredder, I recommend buying the replacement shredder at Costco. Make sure to save the receipt in a place where is not lost or thrown away. I bought shredders from OfficeMax wore out in a little over a year, and had to keep buying new shredders at OfficeMax. The shredder I bought from Costco lasted almost two years, and Costco replaced it for free.

I bought a Fujitsu IX-500 scanner to scan all my documents, statements, and receipts. I also scanned hundreds of magazines and books. The scanner can scan one sheet at a time or a stack of 50 double sided sheets. It’s like a printer in reverse. I store the scanned documents, statements, receipts, magazines, and books on my MacBook and a copy in the encrypted cloud. I removed boxes of paper and many bookshelves of paper from my life. The unbound magazines and books filled up my recycling dumpster several times. I ran boxes and boxes of documents, statements, and receipts through my shredder.

That decluttered my life of a lot of paper. I keep a few documents, statements, receipts, magazines, and books in the original paper form. I learned about digitalizing the clutter of paper from your life on YouTube videos. Most of the paper, from the books and magazines were directly recycled, but there were many boxes of paper that needed to be shredded. You also need to let the shredder cool down after about 5 to 10 minutes of shredding.

Decades ago, I shredded old paper work and boxes of tractor feed paper printouts through an industrial sized shredder, which was the size of a washing machine. That shredder could shred many layers of paper for hours, non-stop. The corporation had to shred old documents and records that were older than a certain date. In the corporate world, it’s possible to have a court ordered discovery. If you keep too much data on paper or digitally, the court ordered discovery can bankrupt even a large corporation, if you save all documents, paper and digital, forever.

[Scorpyo]

Originally Posted by New Englander

I have a cross-cut shredder that has developed issue. Before, when I put paper in it would shred it and then shut off by itself. Now, even after it has finished shredding the paper it keeps running. So I have to manually shut it off.

Last night the shredder was set to auto and I was in the other room it turned on by itself with nothing in it.

I've looked, but don't see any paper stuck inside so I'm wondering if any here know of a simple fix?

My suggestion: Unless you're working for the CIA buy a new cheap shredder or simply live with the problem. I had a similar problem. My Fellowes DM15C would shut off after about 3-5 seconds of shredding. The bin full light came on. You would have to shut it off and turn it back on to shred once piece of paper. So, to shred say 10 items separately you would have to turn it off and then back on 20 times. Really frustrating. I did my research. Took it apart a few times. Cleaned everything. No success. I spent hours on it. Finally I found a solution that kept it on. So, now when I shred I turn it on (it doesn't go off automatically after shredding) I shred what I want to shred then I turn it back off. Not the perfect solution but it sure as heck was better than what is was doing before. Your problem - maybe it's a blocked or dirty sensor. Maybe it's a bad sensor which you could replace ($) or maybe it's the motherboard which is complicated to replace but can be done ($$$). So, turn it on when you want to shred and off when you're done or buy a new cheap shredder. Or spend a lot of frustrating time trying to fix it. Maybe you'll be successful, maybe not.

[mike70756]

You can buy oil for shredders at any office supply store. I have read that you can also use canola oil, works just as well and is much cheaper. You just put it on a piece of paper and run it through the shredder. If you shred a lot of paper, oil it about once every 250 sheets of paper. Simple and an easy way to maintain your shredder. Hope this helps.

[BumpaOompa]

Originally Posted by New Englander

This is a two piece shredder. Meaning to empty the bin, you unplug is and lift odd the motor part.

So I lifted it off and plugged it in and with a toothpick pressed the saftey switch so I could see the rollers turning. The is nothing blocking it.

So, I have a can of this stuff Blaster silicone spray lubricant.
Woud this be okay to try?? Or would this make matters worse?

Robot Check

DO NOT use any aerosol lubricant like the silicon spray you mention, WD 40 or even canned air. This could cause the residual gas to ignite and result in damage to the shredder and possibly personal injury. Use a liquid lubricant designed for shredders which can be found at any office supply or department store.

[Travelingal702]

Originally Posted by New Englander

I have a cross-cut shredder that has developed issue. Before, when I put paper in it would shred it and then shut off by itself. Now, even after it has finished shredding the paper it keeps running. So I have to manually shut it off.

Last night the shredder was set to auto and I was in the other room it turned on by itself with nothing in it.

I've looked, but don't see any paper stuck inside so I'm wondering if any here know of a simple fix?

I've had the same problem with my cross cut shredder after I shredded name labels. Apparently, some of the gummed labels got stuck someplace in there and affected the automatic shut off. No big deal to stand there and manually shut it off.

[Neils]

Careful not to use spray oil on the blades while running!!!!
I did and blew mine up. The oil is fine but when in spray mist it is very combustable.