Okay. Today I am going to show you how to fix a clogged paper shredder. This often happens.
Most often cause is not emptying the paper shredder. What happens is it gets too full and as the paper rises the shreds get dragged back up into the motor and then it won’t work properly.
Try this one with a piece of paper. Here we go. See if it will eat it. Ugh oh. Here it there. If you let it go it will overheat. Then you will need to wait for it to cool down in order for it to work again.
Let’s see here. Okay. Well before it overheats. Let me show you what is going on here. Underneath it has got a safety switch so it won’t work without that but it is a lot better to unplug it so that you do not get electrocuted. So I am going to go ahead and do that there.
Then what we have got is all these papers here just need to be pulled out. I usually use my leatherman to do this here. Just go along and pull all the papers out that are jammed. What has happened is it is jammed both ways. And as long as we can get those. The majority of them clear. Than everything will work out and it will clear itself the rest of the way.
It has a reverse function but once it reaches this particular point reverse function won’t unclog it. And in fact if you try to reverse it without emptying the bin first sometimes that can make the problem worse as it can get clogged on both sides.
If grabbing it with pliers isn’t enough you can take a small screwdriver and just kind of work up the majority of the deals. It just takes a little patience and a little time working at it.
I think we are going to be okay here. Pull these out. Yeah. Paper jam. Paper jam. No big deal.
Anyway once you get enough of them the machine will be strong enough to turn the rest of them.
I think that is going to do it there. So we put our lid back on. This just has a safety switch sensor. Little switch basically. Not a sensor on the side. Got it backward. Here we go. Okay. Plug it back in and we will test it out.
Okay. Here goes. Set it on auto. Now feed the monster. Everything is clear. And there we go. Going good. Good to go. Test it in reverse and everything is good.
Now I will get a regular standard size paper. I am sure I have something to throw away. And here we go. Alright! Back in business doing it’s thing. Good to go.
That’s how you can fixed a clogged paper shredder. A shredder that won’t turn on. Again sometimes it will overheat so you may need to let it cool down first. Most of the time that is the way to go.
You can actually buy replacement heads. Just the head so it’s a cheaper alternative if your motor was completely fried. But a lot of them do have a heat sensor built in so just letting it cool down will get it back and going again. Get it unclogged.
The way to keep this from happening is just empty it regularly. That is the best thing is just to empty the bin when it gets about half full and than you won’t have to go through all that.
Anyway. Good to go!