Always remember, safety first! Every time you remove a part from now on, be careful that you don’t strain the cables from and to other parts too much.

So I want to point out again that you are now working in and with the area of your unit where you could possibly cut yourself at the shredder blades or that you run the risk of an electrical shock if you are not familiar handling electronics. In this step you will open the shredder itself. Up until now, nothing really dangerous or harmful could happen. This way you ensure that it sits tight to the shredder top once you reassemble the unit. If the stainless steel plated front panel got bent too far while prying it off, you can easily bend it to the other direction. On my unit, the tape did still stick well enough in the end so that I didn’t have to replace it (again, depending on the age of your unit, it may be necessary to replace the tape).Īfter loosening the front panel, you can just lift off the shredder top. It is fixed to the shredder top utilizing double sided adhesive tape. To finally remove the shredder top from the base, use a flat head screw driver and carefully pry away the stainless steel plated front panel which sits right above the waste bin. Once you peeled off the feet at the base, use a screw driver which is long enough to reach through the waste bin enclosure up to the shredder top. The feet are glued to the base with double sided adhesive tape which you may have to replace, depending on the age of the shredder. They are located underneath two of the shredders feet. The screws can only be accessed through the bottom of the waste bin enclosure. The shredder top sits on top of the waste bin enclosure and is held in place by two Phillips screws. It’s at least better to give it a try (in my opinion) than to open up the unit every time the internal fuse trips. I assume that this will still work in the long term. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get a circuit breaker with the same rating. The wire cross section should be similar to the mains cable’s cross section as it has to carry the same current. You can use single conductors, but as space is sparse within the shredder head, I opted for a two-core cable which makes routing the cable through the unit easier. I used a cable with a length of about 12 inch and later shortened it to the appropriate length. The cable must be long enough to connect the main board with the circuit breaker.

As I couldn’t find a screwdriver with the appropriate length, I used a regular flat head screwdriver which was long enough and filed the size of the blade to fit the screws. The screw heads are all Phillips recessed heads. The screwdriver must be long enough to reach the screws which fasten the waste bin housing to the shredder top (about 6 inch, maybe a little more). You will need the following tools and supplies for this project:Ĭircuit breaker (5A as per PCB, anti-surge type)

If you follow this instructable anyway, you do so at your own risk. The gears inside the unit are lubricated with some nasty grease. Also, the sticker on the bottom of the shredder’s top indicates that the unit is not user serviceable.When handling the internals of the shredder, be careful with the blades inside to prevent cuts.If not handled properly you run the risk of an electric shock. The circuit board has some capacitors which could carry load.The shredder runs on AC, so ensure to pull the plug before opening the unit.Be careful if you follow this instructable and only do this if you are familiar working on electronic circuits.If you have other appliances including a hardwired fuse, this instructable may help getting an idea on how you can improve the affected appliance. So this time I’ll show you how to open the shredder and how to replace the internal fuse with a circuit breaker. It also saves about 37 bucks (the price of a new shredder minus the circuit breaker) and it is environmental friendlier to repair than to replace. I could have just bought a new shredder and I really was on the verge, but I really love my Mailmate. The fuse blew again, and getting the shredder open just consumed so much time the first time that I decided to replace the fuse with a resettable circuit breaker. It took some time to find out how to open up the shredder, but eventually I got the job done and the shredder worked again…. I just love the size and design and the fact that it cross cuts (rather than just stripes) my documents, credit cards and CDs.Īfter some heavy use last year during tax preparation, the internal fuse blew. I bought a Staples Mailmate shredder some 6 years ago while living in the US.

Staples mailmate spl 727mm