When shredding documents, DO NOT do this!

[Brandane]

Been having my annual clear-out of bank statements and other such documents worthy of the shredder. It is (was!!) a home shredder from office world or some such place. It was starting to struggle with the shredding, even just 3 sheets at a time with the bin empty, so I thought I would give it a helping hand by squirting some GT85 onto the blades, while they were turning of course to get better coverage.

Seems like this is not a clever thing to do, as my shredder exploded in a ball of flames . I got away with singed trousers and eyebrows, luckily I was wearing glasses. Got a wee bit of a fright at the time, but was lucky not to cause more damage. The shredder is now only fit for the skip. Oooops; lesson learned .

 

[Crackle]

I award you a mini-Darwin for that.

 

[Rickshaw Phil]

Any pictures?

 

[fossyant]

Beats getting your eyebrows plucked

 

[Brandane]

Any pictures?

 

[welsh dragon]

Doh.

 

[Spinney]

I thought the post was going to mention ties...

 

[Melonfish]

see you should just cut out the shredder and buy an incinerator (a metal dustbin with holes in) and burn all your sensitive docs.
heck buy a chiminea and you can use them as kindling.

 

[glasgowcyclist]

I rip mine up by hand and soak them in a bucket of warm water until mushy (a good couple of hours). Give them a good stir to mess things up even more and then pour out the water, before compressing the remainder; it's now impossible to reconstruct any of the information. Finally, the mashed up, ripped up paper goes into my compost bin.

No electricity wasted and no fire hazard!

GC

 

[swee'pea99]

Thank you for sharing

 

[ColinJ]

And apparently there are some idiots about who try to clear jammed shredders using sharp kitchen knives, while the shredders are still switched on!

(Allegedly ... )

 

[Spinney]

Did it (allegedly) make a horrible grinding noise, or did it fling sharp knives around the room? (allegedly!)

 

[ColinJ]

Did it (allegedly) make a horrible grinding noise, or did it fling sharp knives around the room? (allegedly!)

It (allegedly) ripped the sharp knife from the hand of the idiot, almost taking a couple of fingers with it, and then started making horrible grinding noises as I the idiot stood back in horror and thought "OMG - did I really just do that"!

 

[Spinney]

It (allegedly) ripped the sharp knife from the hand of the idiot, almost taking a couple of fingers with it, and then started making horrible grinding noises as I the idiot stood back in horror and thought "OMG - did I really just do that"!

So both, then!

 

[ColinJ]

So both, then!

Not only has the shredder not fully recovered, but the knife now has a damaged serrated edge which is a pain when cutting with it.



(Allegedly ...)