Teck 1 shredder

[DrBob]

Randy
I am trying for .0015 to .0025 bed to blade clearance. That is tomorrow's project. I have plenty of shims now, I am just getting a couple of pounds of tobacco into case for a trial run. It should be ready in the morning.
Bob

 

[BarG]

Dam.. you have your work cut out for you. Mine was $100.00 and worked great right out of the box. I took the blades off anyway and sharpened them. What a fine piece of craftsmanship.

Randy B

Best price I've seen in last year or 2. A considerably best price.

 

[DrBob]

Randy
I shimmed the blades this morning to .002 and shredded up a few destemmed leaves. It works just fine now, Thanks for your help.
I might just motorize it with a cordless drill next!
Bob

 

[Jitterbugdude]

Glad you got it working Bob.
Kind of funny but I had a thought to motorize mine too but decided I like the "relaxing" art of shredding tobacco like they did in the old days, besides I have my Kitchen Aid Pasta cutter that will shred tobacco all day long or till the cows come home..whichever is longer



Randy B

 

[Daniel]

This thread is going to be invaluable in the future for others that try to restore a Tech One. lots of detail on the machine. bevels, clearances etc. I hope people continue to add to the details of the machine here over time. Good Stuff.

 

[DrBob]

I have been shredding with a modified paper shredder for the last couple of years. My method of shredding is to shred 5# at a time and then store it in the freezer until I am ready to use it. It is fast and easy but not quite perfect. This home grown thing isnt a hobby for me anymore iit is a money saving thing. I like 20 cents a pack for smokes. The savings are real but I do not want it to be a full time job.
I will probably go to 50% teck 1 shred and 50% paper shredder
Bob

 

[DrBob]

Yesterday afternoon I re-shimmed my teck 1 to .001" blade to bed clearance. It was not all that hard, I just bought me another set of feeler gauges and used them for shim stock. It was kinda fun, and the best part is all my shims are marked so I know how thick they are. It does a nice cut now. Clean and smooth nice shaggy tobacco. Kinda looks like the grass they put in easter baskets, only finer.

The only problem is it takes 150 revolutions to cut 12" of tobacco leaf. My hand might get dizzy meybe even get carpal tunnel, cant have that!

I got my good cordless drill put a 15mm. socket on the end and drove the shredder at 210 rpm. now it will shred at the rate of 16" per minute and my hand dont get dizzy. Besides that the drill has a clutch to avoid overtorque of the shredder. I did remove the handle on the shredder and it spins quite smoothly.

Bob

 

[johnlee1933]

Anybody got any thoughts on the old Cincinnati shredders you see on Ebay now and then?

John

 

[BigBonner]

Anybody got any thoughts on the old Cincinnati shredders you see on Ebay now and then?

John

Those are a grinder . it won't shred the tobacco it will cut it up in small chunks .Pay close attention to the blades in them because sometimes the outside looks great and inside the blades will be rusted badly and missing .I see these at the local flea markets . Out of all I have looked at I may have seen one that was good .

 

[johnlee1933]

Those are a grinder . it won't shred the tobacco it will cut it up in small chunks .Pay close attention to the blades in them because sometimes the outside looks great and inside the blades will be rusted badly and missing .I see these at the local flea markets . Out of all I have looked at I may have seen one that was good .

Thanks BB.

John

 

[MikeUK]

May I say hello to all and ask how shredding is going on with the Teck1, I have recently bought one, but there is something strange about it. It looks brand new, does anyone know if the Chinese have copied it? I think the blades need sharpening but as I have seen in earlier posts this is to be done carefully.
As an aside I have looked at some other topics and am impressed with the level and scope of the content, after 60 years of smoking pipe I am learning something.
Mike in UK

 

[notcrack]

Hi Mike. Where did you get this machine from?? I don't think any Teck1 should look new as they are old machines.

 

[MikeUK]

Hello Notcrack
Thanks for the reply, I got it off ebay (USA) it is, or appears to be exactly like the others I have seen for sale, with the exception of the cast roller holder, and the paint - a light cream - it has a sticker which says 'Made in Germany', quite frankly that kind of sticker (hot foil) would not have been around a hundred years ago. I am not knocking it dubious origin, but if someone is making these they should just come clean and potentially sell a lot of them.
Regards
Mike

 

[notcrack]

I think you're right to be suspicious as it does look like a newer sticker than it should be, but I can't be 100% certain. How I see it is if something is a copy it doesn't mean it's bad. I would send a message to the seller and ask for the story of the machine. If it sounds plausible it might just be a newer version. I don't think the company stopped making them 90 odd years ago it's just they become very unpopular due to the ready availability of pre-made cigarettes. According to this very thread the blades should be fairly easy to remove, but the problem is going to be machining them so the correct cutting angle remains. Now if your machine blades are angled at 23 degrees and you get them sharpened and they end up with a cutting angle of 22 then you will notice.
What I would do is try and measure the angle of the blades and see if they correspond to the previous posts. Then if so you could send a PM to one of them asking for their opinion. I'm sorry I couldn't offer any more advice, but I have never found the need to owning one of these. I just use a small purpose built hand shredder. If you need a source of one let me know, but hopefully you'll be able to get this back up and running.

 

[MikeUK]

Notcrack
I will contact the seller to see if he knows anything, I have removed the blades, which in itself has revealed a question, would you know if the cast mountings for the blades are dead flat and are in the same plane as the wheel itself? After blade removal I could see that the casting on the rear of the wheel is itself angled, very slightly but noticably so. The blade itself sits at an angle to the bed face of the machine. The blades are not super sharp, but I think I can bring them up to satisfactory cutting edge, as I see it it would be better to fit the blades back to front on their respective support and re sharpen in the same manner as a bacon slicer, this keeps everything true. In fact I think they could be sharpend on the machine itself, like the bacon slicer, these blades are sharpened from on side only, yes the radius reduces but a spacer some where either behind the blade, or my preference would be to adjust the wheel itself and put a shim on the shaft. It would all depend on the wheel being dead square to fixed cutting edge, but this could be addressed.
Apart from all this it does slice leaf very well but it does have to be quite dry

 

[MikeUK]

Here are some more images



Regards
Mike

 

[Chicken]

some-onemay have had the machine,,,,, and aqquired something with that sticker on it,

and decided, hey ;
im gonna paint this thing and put that sticker on it, too make it look good,?

 

[DrBob]

most of the teck ones look pretty good. The blades need to be razor sharp to work right. If you sharpen the blades the blade to bed clearance may get looser and it wont work right. I will sell my teck-1 and use the money towards a new powermativ shredder
Bob

 

[leverhead]

The only thing that would make me think it's a rebuild is the nuts and the set screws on the side of the feed roll are painted. Usually castings are painted before finish machining. The blades, rolls and wood work look new. To me it's a toss-up.

 

[Jitterbugdude]

That one looks exactly like mine with one exception. The casting on the side that says "Teck 1" is pained red. The nuts and screws on mine are painted the same as the rest of the shredder. I would say it is definitely authentic but might have been refurbed at some point in time. Mine also has the "Made in Germany" sticker on it but after I looked real hard, it is actually painted onto the machine to make it look like a sticker.

Randy B