NakabayashiCo.,Ltd 3 Ways Manual Shredder for Paper&Card&CD/DVD,One Piece of Letter Size/A4 Size,Capacity of 3.3L(White)

The slot in the top is just a bit too short to accommodate a 8-1/2" sheet of paper (A4 size paper is slightly narrower at about 8.27"). Was hopeful it would digest full width letter sheets given the close sizing, but no luck. Didn't detract any stars for this since its labeled as A4 size.I tried folding letter in half both long and short ways and it will digest both, but it does feel like the double layer is more strain for the machine. Handles single layer 20lb printer paper (torn in half) easily. Digested some thicker mailed out W2 tax forms as single layer but the thicker stock was obviously more difficult for the machine to digest (vs 20lb printer paper). I don't think it would be able to do a letter in an envelope (like unopened junk mail) as it would be too many layers. For the thicker tax forms the cranking force was quite low, but you still want to keep you hand on the top for stability. The shredder is top heavy, since that's where all the weighty metal cutters are.It took 21 full crank turns to shred 11" of paper, but it didn't feel excessive and the cutters pull the paper in as they grind (its oddly satisfying). The sweep of the crank goes beyond the front and back of the shredder construction (can not put it against a wall and crank). There is plenty room at the bottom of the hand crank sweep to use on a flat surface without hitting your hands. The bin is a decent volume. About 18 single sheets shredded and the bin was mostly full. Post shredding, a few extra cranks - say 5 or 10 - seem useful to clear the remaining shreds in the cutter head. It was a little messy to empty, since the shreds cling to the bottom of the head, but that's pretty much the case for any shredder.The handle slides off the turn shaft easily (I'm storing it in the empty bin). Trying to remove the head from the bin with the handle in place will cause the handle to fall off. Other people mentioned this as a negative, but I don't mind it loose. It stayed on fine during use, and the head is much more manageable and safe to handle without the crank attached because you can set it down without the crank being in the way or turning the cutters as the weight of the head comes to rest and rotates the handle from some odd position during set down.Makes nice cross cut shreds (about 1/8" wide by about 7/8" long), so security wise it seems adequate for most needs (provided the longer dimension is oriented across rows of text instead of along individual rows). This is a key advantage for this model (why I chose it over others) as most hand crank don't seem to do cross cut shredding.Can confirm what others said about instructions being in Japanese. No English. Its not rocket science to assemble or operate this thing, so I didn't really mind. I used the Google Translate App's Camera feature on my cell phone to convert the manuals and instructions and overcome the language barrier sufficiently. Spoiler alert: no big revelations.Shredder seems well made and durable for paper. At the price point, with its low noise, and small shoebox size its about perfect for shredding a few of documents every week. My impression is it will hold up for a long time if you stick to single sheet and don't try to overload it. Happy with it, and would recommend it to anyone looking to buy this "class" of small, manual, single sheet, cross cut shred device.

Great shredder for small office. I live in an efficiency condo from November until May. I have a very very small space. This is perfect for a small space. It works beautifully by turning the handle. Pros: is small and compact. Cons: You can only shred one page at a time. It would be nice if it came with a clamp so I didn’t have to hold the top of it with my left hand while I turned the wheel with my right hand. This is for right handed people only. I had a number of things that I needed to shred, but didn’t have the space for a large shredder. If I have a lot of things to shred, I just take them to the UPS store.

This was the only mass produced cross cut manual shredder that I could find online. The instructions are all in Japanese, but the assembly was intuitive. I can read a tiny bit of Katakana and Hiragana Japanese and made out words for "staple" and "tape". Are they saying to take out staples and tape before shredding? I don't know. I know there are apps that you can point a smart phone to and do some translation.Got this because I was tired of buying electronic shredders who's motor eventually stopped working (Do shredder companies intentionally do this? Why do motors break so often in shredders and not in fans?) Had a Fellowes shredder that did last 20 years though. Most other shredders tended to last only a few months to a few years.I was able to shred normal sized 8.5x11 paper in this despite it saying it is A4, although the edges did curl a little when shredding. So maybe better to cut it in half if you don't want that.There is a lot of plastic with this. I wouldn't leave this in the sun, or near a hot or cold environment because plastic does get brittle over time. No idea how long this will last, but if it breaks, it won't break because of a bad motor. I'm not planning on using this to cut up CD's or cards as I suspect it might strain the device. I'm just going to use scissors or other tools for those.Made in China.

The media could not be loaded. This is exactly what I was looking for. A small, inexpensive paper shredder that I could use to shred my personal mail. I like that it shreds it into small pieces rather than strips. I like that it also does cards, but the card is cut is much larger pieces than the paper shredder, so I ended up cutting it both directions by taking the pieces out and running it through again. Something to note is that it is very top heavy and the lid doesn't snap into the base, so the lid might slip off when you're using it. Pretty easy to just hold it by the lid with one had and crank with the other though, so not at all a deal breaker for me. Easy to empty and clean, pretty quick, and does a good job. You can crank through about 4ish layers of paper pretty easily, but I wouldn't go much higher than that as it tends to get difficult to turn the crank. Easy enough to do if you're patient and just do a bit at a time. It's definitely not for larger jobs, but I assume if you're looking at this paper shredder you don't need a heavy duty electric shredder. Works perfectly for my needs. And it's satisfying to actively shred the paper yourself. My boyfriend made a good point that it could be a therapeutic way of releasing things that have been holding you down by writing it on a paper and shredding it. So fun also. Would recommend!