What substitute oil can I use to save me the cost of buying an additional special oil for my Fellowes cross-cut shredder used in my home office? Shredder manufacturers say to avoid WD40.   It seems some shredder oils are the consistency of a light machine oil which is heavier than I would have predicted.   I wonder if some of the newer lubes (graphite sprays, PTFE, etc) would do a good job?  I guess the main requirements are probably (1) to avoid the oil dripping off the blades soon (2) to have enough lubricant powert os top wear (3) to avoid holding paper dust such that over time it becomes congealed. ======================== Advice pages on the internet seem confused: <http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20060830093845AA7venA (1) mineral oil.......food grade (2) Mineral oil or sewing machine oil. (3) We use 5W30 motor oil ours and it has been working fine for a year and a half. (4) use mineral oil. if you use any type of pertroleum _base_d oil it will get on the paper you are shredding, and in turn get into the land fill. i know you are saying it is such a small amount, but how many shreders are out there??? imagine if everyone used regular oil in their shreders.... imagine the amount of oil that would go into the land fill, and then into the water table. (5) They are all lubricants. Any oil is fine, WD-40 or whatever you have. (6) A very light weight oil. sewing machine oil should do it. [AFAIK mineral oil is a petroleoum oil] ================ I have tended to use a silicone spray lubricant or a silicon + PTFE spray like these.  However but they do not seem to provide enough lube to prevent cuttings staying on the shredder blade (and I am not applying so much lube thatthe cuttings stick to the blade). http://www.maplin.co.uk/Silicone_Grease_with_PTFE.search http://www.maplin.co.uk/Multi_Purpose_Silicone_Grease.search

I have tended to use a silicone spray lubricant or a silicon + PTFE spray like these.  However but they do not seem to provide enough lube to prevent cuttings staying on the shredder blade (and I am not applying so much lube thatthe cuttings stick to the blade).http://www.maplin.co.uk/Silicone_Grease_with_PTFE.searchhttp://www.ma... Your problem may be static electricity.  The cuttings from a paper shredder are ideal for the old static electricity experiment of running a plastic comb through someone's hair and holding it over the shredded paper. Look to electrically grounding the moving parts. Tom Davidson Richmond, VA

What substitute oil can I use to save me the cost of buying an additional special oil for my Fellowes cross-cut shredder used in my home office? Shredder manufacturers say to avoid WD40.   WD40 is not a general purpose lubricant.  It is a penetrating oil. Its designed purpose is to ooze into cracks between pieces of _meta_l that have been frozen together by rust/pressure/etc. and provide enough lubrication to allow them to be separated.  The secret of WD40 is in the *volatile* components, which give it a low surface energy (google angle of repose ) so that it spreads out on the _meta_l surface and displaces absorbed water (which leads to oxidation of the _meta_l - rust). You want a lubricant that is non-volatile, even at operating temperatures.  As a GP lubricant my lab used  motor oil (SAE 50 or less) for most applications.  In sensitive applications where microliter amounts were needed, but excess would cause contamination problems, we applied it with an insulin syringe. It seems some shredder oils are the consistency of a light machine oil which is heavier than I would have predicted.   The heat of normal operation will reduce the viscosity of the oil somewhat. I wonder if some of the newer lubes (graphite sprays, PTFE, etc) would do a good job?  I guess the main requirements are probably (1) to avoid the oil dripping off the blades soon (2) to have enough lubricant powert os top wear (3) to avoid holding paper dust such that over time it becomes congealed. Dry lubricants can be very useful.  We used Dow-Corning's Moly-Kote (molybdenum disulfide _base_) for anything requiring high temperature stability, low vapor pressure, or where servicing down-time is expensive.  Downside is that the aerosol cans are messy to use: if delicate application was required we sprayed a small amount into a small container and then painted/daubed the Moly-Kote where needed. ======================== Advice pages on the internet seem confused: <http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20060830093845AA7venA (1) mineral oil.......food grade (2) Mineral oil or sewing machine oil. (3) We use 5W30 motor oil ours and it has been working fine for a year and a half. (4) use mineral oil. if you use any type of pertroleum _base_d oil it will get on the paper you are shredding, and in turn get into the land fill. i know you are saying it is such a small amount, but how many shreders are out there??? imagine if everyone used regular oil in their shreders.... imagine the amount of oil that would go into the land fill, and then into the water table. (5) They are all lubricants. Any oil is fine, WD-40 or whatever you have. (6) A very light weight oil. sewing machine oil should do it. [AFAIK mineral oil is a petroleoum oil] Correct.  Petroleum oil is simply an unspecified mixture of hydrocarbons with a known boiling range: As a rough guide: http://eesc.columbia.edu/courses/u4735/projections/pitman/pet.fractio... http://chemed.chem.purdue.edu/genchem/topicreview/bp/1organic/coal.html I have tended to use a silicone spray lubricant or a silicon + PTFE spray like these.  However but they do not seem to provide enough lube to prevent cuttings staying on the shredder blade (and I am not applying so much lube thatthe cuttings stick to the blade).http://www.maplin.co.uk/Silicone_Grease_with_PTFE.searchhttp://www.ma... Your problem may be static electricity.  The cuttings from a paper shredder are ideal for the old static electricity experiment of running a plastic comb through someone's hair and holding it over the shredded paper. Look to electrically grounding the moving parts. Or run the shredder in the bathroom.  I don't think I'd use mineral oil; after a while it would become gunk and have to be cleaned. /BAH

What substitute oil can I use to save me the cost of buying an additional special oil for my Fellowes cross-cut shredder used in my home office? Here is the real trick, Buy a sub at your local sub shop and tell them extra olive oil. (Ham and Cheese and all your fave other toppings.) but with extra olive oil. The sub shop usually uses a slightly waxed paper and the oil actually soaks into it a bit. Before you shread anything that day, eat the sub and get rid of all the food and any massive drippings of the oil . Then shred the paper sub wrapping, and start shredding your other stuff. I never used any other oil ever and usually only got an extra olive oil sub every third day or so. The wax and oil will keep those blades like day one for many shreds.

What substitute oil can I use to save me the cost of buying an additional special oil for my Fellowes cross-cut shredder used in my home office? Here is the real trick, Buy a sub at your local sub shop and tell them extra olive oil. (Ham and Cheese and all your fave other toppings.) but with extra olive oil. The sub shop usually uses a slightly waxed paper and the oil actually soaks into it a bit. Before you shread anything that day, eat the sub and get rid of all the food and any massive drippings of the oil . Then shred the paper sub wrapping, and start shredding your other stuff. I never used any other oil ever and usually only got an extra olive oil sub every third day or so. The wax and oil will keep those blades like day one for many shreds. But your guts will end up like the black hole of Calcutta.  8-(( Derek

What substitute oil can I use to save me the cost of buying an additional special oil for my Fellowes cross-cut shredder used in my home office? Here is the real trick, Buy a sub at your local sub shop and tell them extra olive oil. (Ham and Cheese and all your fave other toppings.) but with extra olive oil. The sub shop usually uses a slightly waxed paper and the oil actually soaks into it a bit. Before you shread anything that day, eat the sub and get rid of all the food and any massive drippings of the oil . Then shred the paper sub wrapping, and start shredding your other stuff. I never used any other oil ever and usually only got an extra olive oil sub every third day or so. The wax and oil will keep those blades like day one for many shreds. But your guts will end up like the black hole of Calcutta.  8-(( But olive oil is good for you, It oils your insides! But if you don't wish to eat all that, you can always buy some wax paper and a bottle of olive oil. (not cheap but lasts a long time if you are only putting a few drops on a piece of paper every week or so. I will admit though.. I don't know if it was the wax paper or the olive oil that did the trick for that shredder. I think it liked both though.