Shredder - can it be fixed?

I have an el-cheapo Challenge shredder that we originally bought from Argos (I think - maybe Homebase....) - anyway, it has proved to be one of those tools that you didn't really know how much you needed it until you bought it.

A couple of weeks ago, we were shredding some stuff as we were making a start on the garden, and I wasn't happy with the way it was shredding so deduced that the blade was probably knackered. I bought a new blade which I fitted yesterday and off we went today, but to be honest it is still not shredding stuff all that well. I had another look at it, and the gap between the blade and the back-plate is big enough for me to get my finger through; now I am no expert, but that is surely too big a gap to successfully shred stuff? The new blade is the right one, and the right size/shape (I checked it against the original), so is it the back-plate that is worn? Can they be replaced?

 

Good morning @Fat Controller not sure if this will be of any help or not

http://documents.4rgos.it/v1/static/7176092_R_D001

 

Thanks @wiseowl - my shredder is sadly not as good as that one

@Jiffy, not that I can see. The back-plate is a circular disc that looks to have had a slot cut in it for the blade to sit in, and then folded over to create the gap for the material to go through - and the bit that confuses me is that it does seem to be made of fairly thick metal and looks to be straight. The only thing that I feel isn't right is the gap that the cut material will go through as I can quite literally stick my finger through the gap.

I will try and get a photo shortly

 

Well, we went out this morning (I stayed in the car) and picked up a new Qualcast shredder with a rotating crushing drum style mechanism and set to shredding again - all went well until we got to the lavatera and it then ground to a halt. So, it now appears that my original shredder may be just fine and it was in fact the glue like nature of the lavatera that was the problem! Ho hum...

 

DOH!
I'm with Jiffy though - look for adjustment screws. They can be deeply hidden so have a good poke about (switched off, of course...)

 

Not very big - they both handled the loganberry just fine, but for some reason the lavatera has stumped them both; it just turns to a sort of gluey mess that sticks to the mechanism or the chute and gums everything up. We've got most of if done, so the rest can dry a bit and we will burn it - we've got an old sideboard wants burning at some point anyway.

@Loofah - I can't see any adjustment screws on the original one, but there is an adjustment on the new one, however it is not the pressure plate adjustment on that one that is the issue, the lavatera gets stuck in the teeth of the roller blade and packs in quite hard to the point that it has to be picked out of each tooth gap bit at a time.

 

Yes, the old one was a noisy thing - rotating flat blade that is essentially an over blown lawn mower blade mounted onto a backplate.

 

I confess I forgot to take a photo earlier, and it is all tucked away in the shed now, so I will take a photo later in the week.

The blade itself is this one - Genuine ALM FD2402 Rapid Challenge Powerbase Metal Shredder Blade QT179 5016531917903 | eBay

That fits onto a back-plate that then gives a gap between the blade and the back-plate itself that stuff passes through.

As I say, even the new shredder won't do the lavatera - both shredders seem fine on just about everything else (the new one can handle some surprisingly thick branches), it is just the lavatera that has thrown them a curve ball

 

The whole plate spins with the blades mounted in the middle