Paper Shredder Tooth Replacement(s)

Dentures for your cross-cut paper shredder! If your shredder is like mine ( Omnitech ) it can occasionally break a plastic tooth which results in paper being packed into a slot in the chopper assembly. The result is the shredder will nearly rip itself apart.

These little flimsy plastic teeth on the unit sit in contact with the axle of the slicer from one side, and clear the paper away. Once one is gone, all hell breaks loose.

Luckily I noticed I could fashion a 3Dprinted tooth that could sit over the edge of the housing and accomplish the same task. This past summer I had a knee-high stack of fascinating but cluttering papers to destroy and this failure stopped me in the middle of it.

Once I got my design right, I plowed through hundreds of sheets without trouble. Just hot-glue it in place hanging over the edge as shown in the pictures.

HOWEVER, note that the teeth are consumable. At some point you'll chew one up with a pleasant grinding noice, and will need to gently pry the hot-glued part away from the housing and put a fresh one on. But given that the alternative is $80 or so for a new shredder, it's not a bad deal. The part prints for pennies and lasts for hundreds of shreds if you position it right.

LATER: A second tooth failed right beside the first one. Anywhere else, I could've just glued on another single tooth, but two neighbours requires a double tooth. So I've merged two together in my design and included that here as well.

PRINT at a high density for best results. My 50% fill ones seem quite robust.

I recognize that very few people probably have the same paper shredder, but perhaps this will give a few of you an idea (and a starting point) for fixing a similar problem with yours.

Notes:

No supports required and only a few grams of filament. Ensure you print with a rather high infill - e.g. 30% or so for best results.

Category: Office