It shreds!

I think we use our paper shredder more than the average household. Other than documents we shred mostly food boxes, like cereal boxes and the like. The shreds go into a box next to the compost bucket. When food waste goes in the compost bucket we put a handful of shreds on top. The shreds keep the smell down and help the composting when the bucket gets emptied into the bin.

Compost on the left, shreds on the right.

Our old shredder, a Fellows 8 page unit, had served us well for 10 or 11 years. Then a month or so ago it started to make horrible screeching noises. About 2 weeks ago I took it apart to see if I could fix it. I lubed everything up and put it back together but the noises weren't any better. Last Sunday I had it apart again...

This is the drivetrain of the shredder. The motor spins the kind of reddish brown gear on the left. You can't see the motor's gear, its hidden behind the big gear in the center. This picture is taken after removing a cage that holds the gears on, at this point the gears slide easily off their shafts.

This is the front cage off the motor, its got two of these cages, one front and one rear. As near as I can tell they're identical and together they hold the spinning part of the motor. The bushing in the center is held in with a thin steel frame thats staked to the larger frame. I drilled out the stakes to release the bushing.

Well theres your problem lady! This little devil is a "spherical bushing". As near as I can tell its made from a mixture of graphite and PTFE (also known as teflon). It looks like the side load of the shaft was too much for it, that hole in the center is all wallowed out. I like this shredder enough I spent some time looking for a replacement bushing but had no luck at all. I did find something similar but the center hole was too small and you had to buy them in lots of 1,000.

A trip to Amazon got us this Bonsaii 14 sheet shredder. It arrived today and cost more than double what the Fellows unit did. Not only does this unit have greater capacity than the old one its rated for 30 minutes of continuous shredding. I don't know what our old one was rated for but it overheated pretty easily. I don't exactly love shredding so we generally let the paper build up for a week or so and plow through it all at once, the old shredder would always need a break partway through the job. This new Bonsaii shredder chewed through a MONTH of delayed shredding with no problems at all. The secret? Its got a fan. Why all shredders don't have a fan I don't know. Its also quiet, like really quiet, like half the noise of the old one.

I'd like to think that if a $40 shredder can last 12 years then this one will last the rest of my life. In reality I expect that isn't going to happen but if we get at least 12 years out of this one I would be happy...