PSA: don't spray lithium grease in your shredder.

[Catzilla]

I sprayed "GUNK" white lithium grease in my cross-cut shredder as a lube. Bad move, I feed a couple of sheets in the the thing and it blew up. My hands didn't need a haircut.

[OWC Jamie]

Whoa. Dust + propellant = grain bin explosion.

[Buzz]

useless w/o photos/video :-)


glad you survived.

///

[space-time]

wow, are you OK?

[decay]

will it blend shred?

[Chakravartin]

For future reference:

Shredder lube is just mineral oil.

Buy a small bottle of mineral oil from your local drug store or supermarket. After you empty the basket, spread some mineral oil on a sheet of 8.5x11-inch paper and fold it in half, then run the paper through the shredder. (Don't use so much oil that it drips off the page.)

That's all there is to cleaning and lubing a home or small-office shredder.

[Z]

My MIL apparently tried a can of compressed air on a paper shredder one time and was soon thereafter an eyebrow short of a full set.

[Acer]

Good thread. I think I might just have been stupid enough to try this, only with WD-40. Thanks to Cat' for taking one for the team.

[Sam3]

Vegetable oil. Specifically Canola oil / soybean oil.

Read the MSDS regarding Fellows shredder oil: http://www.fellowes.com/Fellowes/materia..._35250.PDF

SECTION 3: COMPOSITION/INFORMATION ON INGREDIENTS
Chemical Name: Canola Oil
CAS No. 120962-03-0
EINECS No.
MaximumWeight : >99%

[Chakravartin]

Sam3 wrote:
Vegetable oil. Specifically Canola oil / soybean oil.

That's just Fellowes.

Everybody else uses mineral oil. Some of them add a bit of Naphthalene to the oil. (Don't add napthaline to your mineral oil.)

I'd avoid vegetable-based oils as they are prone to denaturing and gumming up the works.