Well via a recommendation from one of our members ( Hi Randy)I took the plunge and ordered a manual shredder from Poland.
It arrived today after only 2 weeks which is really fantastic.
I have had the bolt to the bench shredders that look a little like a mincer and they are chalk and cheese in comparison to this unit. And been down the using scissors, knife, herb cutter, pasta cutter, and trying to re manufacture the cheap manual shredder into a function unit paths.
Now I have only used this machine once so far but here goes on my review.
It is really well made, well engineered and performs perfectly.
It is a really solid lump of metal. This is no flimsy, light gauge construction, it has been built to last.
The cut is 0.80 and the tobacco just flows through it as you turn the handle it will shred as fast as you work the handle and feed it and never a single hint of jamming.
It has bearings turns beautifully.
It is quite wide and accepts a good sized leaf.
Its first use I fed a 100 grams of leaf through it in 5 minutes. It is a touch tight to turn but this was its first outing and seems to have been machined to a fairly fine tolerance.
The PowerMatic Shredder is still probably the go for you in the US but with the exchange rate on the US dollar and the horrendous postal charges out of the US it ends up around AU$800-00 and then you still need to buy a 240 volt to 110 volt transformer to run it so round it out to AU$1000-00.
I know postage and currency conversions will be different at different times for every country but it ended up for me
600 Polish Zolty to buy the unit which converts to AU$206 and 125 Polish Zolty for postage which is AU$43 so an all up total of AU$249 and I have to say it was money well spent.
His name is Lucas and his contact email is
lukimatys@wp.pl
His phone number is 0011 48 535 733 500. Not sure if all countries use the 0011 to get international but the numbers after that is country, area code and actual number.
Something that completely amazed me he actually called me back on the phone to confirm the order. I don't think I have ever had someone from overseas call me to confirm an order before.
He answers emails promptly and keeps you up to date on the manufacture of your unit and when it is posted and sends you the tracking number and link to follow its progress through the mail system.
You can ask for a specific size shred if you wish as he makes the units to order but I was advised here on the forum that 0.80 was idea for me to load cigarette tubes with my Powermatic 2
Payment was via Paypal so that is quick, easy, safe and fairly instant.
The item on eBay is
http://www.ebay.pl/itm/PROFESSIONAL...3?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_212&hash=item4d309a990b
The only point I have made to him as a suggestion is that I found the handle a touch short and thin and that a longer handle would make using the shredder a touch easier.
So all up I give this item a thumbs up and a hearty recommendation for anyone looking for a shredder that doesn't have access to the Powermatic Shredder at a reasonable price and is happy to manually turn the handle and watch the fruits of their labours turn from leaf to a very smokable shred.
And finally after all the effort using the earlier mentioned methods I wish I had saved my time and money and taken the plunge for one of these and I probably would still be mucking about with non efficient methods if it hadn't been for one of our members and his recommendation so I thought I would add my recommendation as well.
