How to Grow Tobacco

"Tobacco Leaves" and "Fresh Choice" Have come out with a new tobacco shredder. Fresh Choice calls it the "Mark 1 Shredder" http://www.freshchoicetobacco.com/buy.lasso#shredder and "Tobacco Leaves" calls it the "Mark One Tobacco Chopper" http://www.tobaccoleaves.net/ But I'm sure its the same machine.

They sell it for $100 and from what I can tell from the pictures, It looks like a paper shredder with a redesigned top to make feeding the tobacco in a hole lot easier. it looks sort of like they made the in-feed slot onto a hopper.

I have heard about a lot of people using paper shredders to shred tobacco. Most say they get good results with the only major complaint being the difficulty of feeding the tobacco leaves into a slot designed for paper.

"Tobacco Leaves" and "Fresh Choice" used to sell a paper shredder (I think it was the mail mate 5) for the purpose of shredding tobacco and It appears that they have been listening to their customers because it looks to me like they developed a tobacco shredder with the mechanics of a paper shredder and an in-feed designed specifically for tobacco.

I called "Tobacco Leaves" and asked how well this tobacco shredder worked. They said it worked very well but best if the leaves were put through twice. When I asked what the shred looked like they said they would send me 2 samples, 1 that had been through once and 1 that had been through twice.

This is what I found. "Tobacco Leaves" calls this the "Mark One Tobacco Chopper" which is far more accurate than calling it a tobacco shredder. Neither sample was shredded both were in fact chopped. Even though the sample that had been through twice was smaller it still looked to large to me. I wasn't very impressed.

Now here's the surprising part. I first tried stuffing the tobacco that had only gone through the shredder once. I wasn't expecting much, but it stuffed the tube well and smoked OK too. At times it burnt a little uneven due to some large pieces of tobacco in the mix.

The real surprise was with the sample that had gone through twice. I stuffed some tubes with this and they stuffed really well, nice and tight without any tobacco falling out of the ends. They smoked great too. Even though the cigarette was tight air passed through easily for a real nice drag. All of these smokes burnt perfectly even from start to finish.

The thing I was most worried about with the fairly short and fat pieces of tobacco was the heads falling off, but that wasn't a problem either. I tapped the crap out of a couple of the smokes and I couldn't make the head fall off and believe me I tried.

So from what I know about the machine so far I'm pretty impressed, but without actually having one I cant speak to things like durability, ease of use, cleaning and so on.

If any body has one I'd be interested in what you have to say.

I bought a 'tobacco shredder' from my local tobacconist. Turned out it was just a coffee grinder re-named. Funny thing is, it works good. The tobacco is chopped up and you have to be careful or you'll turn it into snuff but it burns and stuffs great. Pictures in the gallery. Since it works fine for me, I'm no longer on the great shredder hunt. I don't care what the tobacco looks like as long as it stuffs and smokes like it should.

(edited to add) It cost me about 23 bucks.

Well, Yea

But can you shred your mail with it?

I have a mark 1 shredder and it is indeed a mailmate m5 paper shredder with a hopper attatched to it.
It works pretty darn good. I have found that 3 passes through the machine produce a very usable tobacco for cigarettes. It looks a lot like sawdust but it injects well and smokes well also.
I like it and would reccomend it to others. It will shred a pound of tobacco easily in 5 minutes that is three passes. It does not produce dust like food processors do. Stems do not plug it .
so far so good.


Dr.Bob

Thanks for the comment "drbob" I was curious about all that stuff. Although I already have a shredder that I made (THE MINI WINICKER) and am very happy with, There are times when having a Mark 1 would come in handy. Like when I have been lazy and haven't shredded enough tobacco and would like to make a few quick packs.

While My Mini-winicker does a great job and produces a nice fine shag, the mark 1 stuffed and smoked just fine in spite of the fact that it isn't like your typical store bought RYO shag cut and I'm beginning to think that (store bought RYO shag cut) might be a little bit overrated anyway.

Not to mention that your stated speed 1lb in 5min is a lot faster than my Mini-winicker speed of about 1 half lb in about 15min. So as long as it is well made and durable I can definitely see adding the Mark 1 to my collection of tobacco tools. I'm kind of a tool nut anyway!

It's also nice to have good choices out there for people who can't or just don't want to build their own shredder.

more on mark 1 shredder;
It has a duty cycle of 8 minutes on / 80 minutes off. That is not a problem if you are only shredding a pound at a time. Aparrently it has no cooling fan, I guess for dust reasons as paper shredders do create paper dust or meybey for fire issues. Shredded paper is darn flammable.

I prefer its cut over the shaggy shred of factory cigarette tobacco. It injects better in my topomatic.

I have been shredding the whole leaves ribs and all. After the first pass I pull the large rib pieces out. I could de rib first but it seems more efficient the way I have been doing it.

I have always hated the idea of making bricks to shred tobacco. This is easy compared to the cuthof shredder.

Dr.Bob

Yea, I have to agree with you Dr.Bob I don't understand why more machines that give you that nice fine shag cut aren't more closely modeled after shredders that the big boy's have like the The "WINICKER guillotine cutter":http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjrZXqWgJWo (At 4min into the video it shows the cutting mechanism.)

The tobacco isn't compressed until just before it's ready to be cut and even then it's not really made into a brick. It is instead held tightly together until it is cut after which it easily separates again (something I mimicked with the mini-winicker)

When you watch the video for the cuthof shredder it looks pretty easy, but you have to make a brick first and everything involved with that is quite time consuming.

First you half to moisten it (far more than the moisture you need for stuffing), then you have to layer the leaves, then press, then wait, remove from press, then some add water again (some don't), then shred. And then there is the part you don't see in the cuthof video - A lot of your shredded tobacco will be stuck together 2,3 or more layers thick, so you get to fluff, shake and heat your tobacco as many times as you need to achieve the limited success that you can live with. I say limited success because in my experience there was always some still stuck together.

So the end result with the cuthof or any other process that requires bricking first is it could take hours before you have even 1/2 lb of tobacco ready for stuffing.

With the mini winicker all you do is cram 1/2 lb of tobacco into it, tighten the clamps and start shredding. And if the tobacco was at the right moisture to be stuffed when it went into the machine then its ready for your tubes as soon as it comes out.

The same is true for the Mark 1 except it's even easier. You don't have to do any thing except feed in the tobacco 2-3 times and it's ready to be stuffed.

The tobacco from the mini winicker looks a lot prettier, but (and I really do hate to admit this) so far I think that the Mark 1's tobacco stuff's a little better. It is easier to stuff a tube so tight it's hard to smoke with the mini winicker's tobacco but with the "Mark 1" samples I received I have no problem with a tight stick, in fact I prefer it.

the mini winiker looks interesting and I bet it does a nice shred. I might build me one.
I wouldnt have the patience to use it very much though. The mark 1 is quick and easy and works good enough. The end result is the same, smoke and ashes.

I bought a mark 1000 shredder last year from fresh choice. It was not very good and jammed and plugged up easily. They credited what I paid for the mark 1000 towards the mark 1 so it was a no brainer to get the new one.

I also got 5# of thier tobacco leaves as I am getting low on home grown. The stuff aint too bad. $20.00 a lb including 12 cartons of tubes. It makes growing the stuff hardly worth the effort.

Dr.Bob

Ist - Once built the the mini winicker's really pretty easy to use although not as fast as the Mark 1 which is why I'll probably end up buying one of those too. I appreciate all your comments, but if you could please comment on how you feel about the durability and cleaning of the Mark 1 that would probably clinch it for me.

2nd - As unpopular as it seems to be to admit (I must be to dense to understand), I own the fresh choice electric cigarette machine and I love it. It wasn't cheap, but then again it isn't cheap. Some times you really do get what you pay for! WOW, I'm glad I got that out of my system!

Anyway it doesn't surprise me that they that the credited you for the mark 1000. They have great customer service and a real desire to keep their customers happy. As much as I like their cigarette machine, I have never been too impressed with their shredder offerings, but I think they might have gotten it right this time.

3rd - Hears a couple of my quote's from another tobacco forum that I regularly post on:





That kind of sums up how I feel about their "Tobacco Leaves". I already like their stuff, But this is their first shredder that I have been interested in!

Hi
I was thinking about this line of posts. I also bought a cigerette machine from them. Wife has been using it for a week today. She can make a pack of smokes in about 15 minutes and that includes setting it up filling it setting the compaction , and cleaning up afterward. If the tobacco is to moist it packs a little hard. so it is experamental the first few times . now she has it setting on little bookcase with cans of tobacco , trays (for the mess she makes), boxes of tubes etc.she has made as many as 3 packs at one setting. she doesn't set long at a time because of stiffness. She just loves it. Now back to my shreader, I discribed it in (MY CHEAP SHREADER), it is supper cheap and easy to use. I did cut and remodel the opening feeder again. It makes a cut that stuffs well. It is hand cranked so if IF it jams I just crank it backwards cleans itself fast. I think I can shread about as fast as the mark one and has no off switch for x number of minutes. But it does take two hands. One to feed and one to crank.
That is where I thinking about next up grade. I may take handle bar crank of and put on a pully and attach a small motor from sewing machine to it that is foot operated controlled so can have both hands free. I need to go to thrift store to look for cheap sewing machine. Seems as if it did jam could slip belt off and turn backwards by hand easily. lee