Don’t Shred Children

Our office manager thought she had killed the shredder when it stopped working mid-shred yesterday afternoon. I told her she had probably tripped the thermal breaker and that it would reset at some point. When I got into the office early this morning, I plugged in the shredder and turned it on. It showed slight signs of life but did not startup. I took it apart and cleaned all the paper shreds out of the shredding teeth, put it back together, plugged it in again, turned it on, and voilĂ , it started up. I looked up the manual online to see if it had instructions for maintenance and lubrication. What I found were warnings about NOT USING the shredder to

Cut your nails

Shred children

Shred ties or loose clothing

Cut your hair

Shred aerosol products

I’m was really happy I found the manual since I had an urge to use the shredder to cut my nails, shed some old super-wide 70s ties, and cut my hair. I had not thought of shredding children or spray cans, but it’s good to know I’m not supposed to shred them, either.