Can someone recommend a shredder for "light home-office" use that will
last for more that 12 months!
The past 3 have all broken down mechanically (never been overloaded
with paper). I took the latest box of scrap apart to see what the
problem is - and what seems to happen is that the actual shredding
wheels are encased in a (weak) plastic cylinder which has comb bits
sticking in between the wheels to clear the paper. These snap off and
the paper wedges inside the cylinder. Eventually the cylinder itself
bulges and finally bursts open.  In fact looking at the top of this
"fellow" :-) in action the top of the plastic case cas be seen to warp
and twist around from the plastic cylinder below. If that cylinder
were made of metal, it'd probably be ok - but then I wouldn't have to
buy another one i 12 months time (cynical = yes).
Anyway, I appreciate is someone knows of a good reliable make.
Thanks

dave coughed up some electrons that declared:

> Can someone recommend a shredder for "light home-office" use that will
> last for more that 12 months!
> The past 3 have all broken down mechanically (never been overloaded
> with paper). I took the latest box of scrap apart to see what the
> problem is - and what seems to happen is that the actual shredding
> wheels are encased in a (weak) plastic cylinder which has comb bits
> sticking in between the wheels to clear the paper. These snap off and
> the paper wedges inside the cylinder. Eventually the cylinder itself
> bulges and finally bursts open.  In fact looking at the top of this
> "fellow" :-) in action the top of the plastic case cas be seen to warp
> and twist around from the plastic cylinder below. If that cylinder
> were made of metal, it'd probably be ok - but then I wouldn't have to
> buy another one i 12 months time (cynical = yes).
> Anyway, I appreciate is someone knows of a good reliable make.
> Thanks

I've got a Fellowes. Seems robust enough and takes a fair bit of abuse, but
only used occasionally. Can look up the model number if you want. Mid
range, reverse option for clearing.

Cheers

Tim

On Thu, 7 Aug 2008 12:37:03 UTC, dave  wrote:

> Can someone recommend a shredder for "light home-office" use that will
> last for more that 12 months!
> The past 3 have all broken down mechanically (never been overloaded
> with paper). I took the latest box of scrap apart to see what the
> problem is - and what seems to happen is that the actual shredding
> wheels are encased in a (weak) plastic cylinder which has comb bits
> sticking in between the wheels to clear the paper. These snap off and
> the paper wedges inside the cylinder. Eventually the cylinder itself
> bulges and finally bursts open.  In fact looking at the top of this
> "fellow" :-) in action the top of the plastic case cas be seen to warp
> and twist around from the plastic cylinder below. If that cylinder
> were made of metal, it'd probably be ok - but then I wouldn't have to
> buy another one i 12 months time (cynical = yes).
> Anyway, I appreciate is someone knows of a good reliable make.

I've had a Fellowes crosscut shredder for several years. Cost about £40 
AFAIR.

Still going strong, has reverse unjam operation.

Only gone wrong once; the sensor flag in the entry slot became choked 
with oil/paper dust. Soon fixed.

-- 
The information contained in this post is copyright the
poster, and specifically may not be published in, or used by
   http://www.diybanter.com

Tim S wrote:
> dave coughed up some electrons that declared:
>
>> Can someone recommend a shredder for "light home-office" use that
>> will last for more that 12 months!
>> The past 3 have all broken down mechanically (never been overloaded
>> with paper). I took the latest box of scrap apart to see what the
>> problem is - and what seems to happen is that the actual shredding
>> wheels are encased in a (weak) plastic cylinder which has comb bits
>> sticking in between the wheels to clear the paper. These snap off and
>> the paper wedges inside the cylinder. Eventually the cylinder itself
>> bulges and finally bursts open.  In fact looking at the top of this
>> "fellow" :-) in action the top of the plastic case cas be seen to
>> warp and twist around from the plastic cylinder below. If that
>> cylinder were made of metal, it'd probably be ok - but then I
>> wouldn't have to buy another one i 12 months time (cynical = yes).
>> Anyway, I appreciate is someone knows of a good reliable make.
>> Thanks
>
> I've got a Fellowes. Seems robust enough and takes a fair bit of
> abuse, but only used occasionally. Can look up the model number if
> you want. Mid range, reverse option for clearing.
>
> Cheers
>
> Tim

Our 'shredder' is a large black plastic compost bin in the garden.........

On 7 Aug, 13:59, "Bob Eager"  wrote:

> I've had a Fellowes crosscut shredder for several years. Cost about £40
> AFAIR.
>
> Still going strong, has reverse unjam operation.
>
> Only gone wrong once; the sensor flag in the entry slot became choked
> with oil/paper dust. Soon fixed.

I also had a Fellowes cross-cut which died after just a few months use
in a similar way to that described by Dave. Their customer service is
a disgrace and the "five-year guarantee" is not worth having. They
guarantee the cutters ie just the metal blades - if the plastic tat
that house them falls apart that's not covered because the cutters
themselves are still intact!

I got a cheap Challenge one from Argos which has been infinitely
better for over a year and cost about a third of the price.

On Thu, 7 Aug 2008 06:15:33 -0700 (PDT), Martin Pentreath
 wrote:

>On 7 Aug, 13:59, "Bob Eager"  wrote:
>
>> I've had a Fellowes crosscut shredder for several years. Cost about £40
>> AFAIR.
>>
>> Still going strong, has reverse unjam operation.
>>
>> Only gone wrong once; the sensor flag in the entry slot became choked
>> with oil/paper dust. Soon fixed.
>
>I also had a Fellowes cross-cut which died after just a few months use
>in a similar way to that described by Dave. Their customer service is
>a disgrace and the "five-year guarantee" is not worth having. They
>guarantee the cutters ie just the metal blades - if the plastic tat
>that house them falls apart that's not covered because the cutters
>themselves are still intact!
>
>I got a cheap Challenge one from Argos which has been infinitely
>better for over a year and cost about a third of the price.
Thanks - I take a look at what they have.
Was begining to think it was just me. btw I did take one of these
things back and the replacement also failed in exactly the same way. I
really do not us it that much and only for the address part of letters
documents etc.
I also recycle the shredded paper to the recycle bin as our compost
bin is full :-)

On Thu, 07 Aug 2008 13:37:03 +0100, dave wrote:

> Can someone recommend a shredder for "light home-office" use that will
> last for more that 12 months!
> The past 3 have all broken down mechanically (never been overloaded with
> paper). I took the latest box of scrap apart to see what the problem is
> - and what seems to happen is that the actual shredding wheels are
> encased in a (weak) plastic cylinder which has comb bits sticking in
> between the wheels to clear the paper. These snap off and the paper
> wedges inside the cylinder. Eventually the cylinder itself bulges and
> finally bursts open.  In fact looking at the top of this "fellow" :-) in
> action the top of the plastic case cas be seen to warp and twist around
> from the plastic cylinder below. If that cylinder were made of metal,
> it'd probably be ok - but then I wouldn't have to buy another one i 12
> months time (cynical = yes). Anyway, I appreciate is someone knows of a
> good reliable make. Thanks

==================================
I've been using a B&Q own-brand for about a year - occasional heavy use. 
At £10-00 it's good value.

Cic.
-- 
===================================
Using Ubuntu Linux
Windows shown the door
===================================

In article ,
	dave  writes:
> Can someone recommend a shredder for "light home-office" use that will
> last for more that 12 months!
> The past 3 have all broken down mechanically (never been overloaded
> with paper). I took the latest box of scrap apart to see what the
> problem is - and what seems to happen is that the actual shredding
> wheels are encased in a (weak) plastic cylinder which has comb bits
> sticking in between the wheels to clear the paper. These snap off and
> the paper wedges inside the cylinder. Eventually the cylinder itself
> bulges and finally bursts open.  In fact looking at the top of this
> "fellow" :-) in action the top of the plastic case cas be seen to warp
> and twist around from the plastic cylinder below. If that cylinder
> were made of metal, it'd probably be ok - but then I wouldn't have to
> buy another one i 12 months time (cynical = yes).
> Anyway, I appreciate is someone knows of a good reliable make.

I have a Rexel v25 cross-cut shredder. It's probably about 5 years
old. Takes credit cards too. I don't remember how much it cost or
where I got it from. It seems to work fine. It claims a duty cycle
or 1 min on, 5 mins off, but I've fed stuff into it pretty
continuously for half an hour without any problems.

-- 
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

On Thu, 7 Aug 2008 14:04:23 퍝, Pete Cross wrote:

> Our 'shredder' is a large black plastic compost bin in the 
> garden.........

Our shreddings end up there but I wouldn't put anything straight in thathas personal information on. It's not unknown for people to go through 
bins and if information is available from the compost bin as well...

We use a crosscut shredder with reverse that came from Tesco for about 
£15. Works well enough, though is really only happy with a single A4 sheet 
at a time. More often than not I shred stuff until the thermal cutout 
trips (>30mins constant use(*)) and three waste paper bin sized bags of shreddings) and it has to rest.

(*) IIRC the rating plate says 3 min use in every 15..

-- 
Cheers
Dave.

"dave"  wrote in message 
news:qkql94t3cdn2e04rtmp70aoasel1v8bnld@4ax.com...
> Can someone recommend a shredder for "light home-office" use that will
> last for more that 12 months!
> The past 3 have all broken down mechanically (never been overloaded
> with paper). I took the latest box of scrap apart to see what the
> problem is - and what seems to happen is that the actual shredding
> wheels are encased in a (weak) plastic cylinder which has comb bits
> sticking in between the wheels to clear the paper. These snap off and
> the paper wedges inside the cylinder. Eventually the cylinder itself
> bulges and finally bursts open.  In fact looking at the top of this
> "fellow" :-) in action the top of the plastic case cas be seen to warp
> and twist around from the plastic cylinder below. If that cylinder
> were made of metal, it'd probably be ok - but then I wouldn't have to
> buy another one i 12 months time (cynical = yes).
> Anyway, I appreciate is someone knows of a good reliable make.

I bought a Fellowes one from Argos - gets a lot of hammer and so far ok.

Mind, the only reason I bought it from Argos was the 3 year warranty they 
offer. It breaks (as it will) and it goes back for a new one.

On 2008-08-07, dave wrote:

> Can someone recommend a shredder for "light home-office" use that will
> last for more that 12 months!
> The past 3 have all broken down mechanically (never been overloaded
> with paper). I took the latest box of scrap apart to see what the
> problem is - and what seems to happen is that the actual shredding
> wheels are encased in a (weak) plastic cylinder which has comb bits
> sticking in between the wheels to clear the paper. These snap off and
> the paper wedges inside the cylinder. Eventually the cylinder itself
> bulges and finally bursts open.  In fact looking at the top of this
> "fellow" :-) in action the top of the plastic case cas be seen to warp
> and twist around from the plastic cylinder below. If that cylinder
> were made of metal, it'd probably be ok - but then I wouldn't have to
> buy another one i 12 months time (cynical = yes).
> Anyway, I appreciate is someone knows of a good reliable make.
> Thanks

I got an "HSM X5 Cross-Cut Shredder" from amazon.co.uk in late 2007.
I use it a lot and it's still doing a good job.  (I think I've put
some oil in it once or twice.)  I see they still sell it for around
£22.

dave wrote:
> Can someone recommend a shredder for "light home-office" use that will
> last for more that 12 months!

I've just hoiked mine out from under the desk. No obvious name anywhere 
on it - it's a uniform beige box. The rating plate on the bottom of the 
shredder part (sitting on top of the bin) says "Specially made in China 
for B&Q". I wouldn't have paid very much for it.

No complaints so far. It says "five sheets max" on it, but I regularly 
shove in more than that :-). It sounds like it's struggling when I do 
that, but it chews through it eventually and keeps on going. If it does 
blow up, I won't feel like it owes me anything and would probably buy 
another.

Pete

dave wrote:
>>I also had a Fellowes cross-cut which died after just a few months use
>>in a similar way to that described by Dave.

Fellowes also stretch the definition of "cross-cut". My P-45C cuts 50mm 
strips, plenty long enough to read the kind of information a shredder is 
meant to destroy. Not recommended.

The previous no-name machine from W H Smith chopped much finer, into 
crumpled 10mm chads; but it worked much harder to do that, and 
eventually stripped a gear.

Price is definitely no indicator of quality or value at this 
domestic/soho end of the market. Next time, I'll buy locally so it can 
go straight back if it doesn't chop fine enough, with a rolling 
replacement warranty to cover the long term.


-- 
Ian White

On Sat, 9 Aug 2008 08:19:42 +0100, Ian White wrote:

> Fellowes also stretch the definition of "cross-cut". My P-45C cuts 50mm 
> strips, plenty long enough to read the kind of information a shredder is 
> meant to destroy. Not recommended.

There are standards and logos for the level of security the shredding 
produces. 

My Tesco cheapy makes similar sized square cut strips but if you put stuff 
through it so that the strips are produced across the text you don't get 
readable bits...

-- 
Cheers
Dave.

On Sat, 09 Aug 2008 22:55:04 +0100 (BST), "Dave Liquorice"
 wrote:

>On Sat, 9 Aug 2008 08:19:42 +0100, Ian White wrote:
>
>> Fellowes also stretch the definition of "cross-cut". My P-45C cuts 50mm 
>> strips, plenty long enough to read the kind of information a shredder is 
>> meant to destroy. Not recommended.
>
>There are standards and logos for the level of security the shredding 
>produces. 
>
>My Tesco cheapy makes similar sized square cut strips but if you put stuff 
>through it so that the strips are produced across the text you don't get 
>readable bits...

If possible put your bits of paper (bank statements, debit card
receipts, envelopes with addresses etc) into the machine in varied
states of diagonality (?) to reduce the chances of bits being jigsawed
together.

And have a bonfire now and again with the chads.

-- 
Frank Erskine

"Frank Erskine"  wrote in message 
news:qk8s94lrosqq88aa23g0132o4vqamj23pl@4ax.com...
> On Sat, 09 Aug 2008 22:55:04 +0100 (BST), "Dave Liquorice"
>  wrote:
>
>>On Sat, 9 Aug 2008 08:19:42 +0100, Ian White wrote:
>>
>>> Fellowes also stretch the definition of "cross-cut". My P-45C cuts 50mm
>>> strips, plenty long enough to read the kind of information a shredder is
>>> meant to destroy. Not recommended.
>>
>>There are standards and logos for the level of security the shredding
>>produces.
>>
>>My Tesco cheapy makes similar sized square cut strips but if you put stuff
>>through it so that the strips are produced across the text you don't get
>>readable bits...
>
> If possible put your bits of paper (bank statements, debit card
> receipts, envelopes with addresses etc) into the machine in varied
> states of diagonality (?) to reduce the chances of bits being jigsawed
> together.

If you do that its possible to separate the different statements by checking 
the angle.
This makes reassembly easier.