My paper shredder motor had stopped working. Buying another one is costly. I was using it for shredding monthly bank statements as well as other mail with addresses on them.

I saw a stamp which will render text unreadable but it's not cheap either. So I decided to make mine for less than $2.00

Step 1: Materials Required

The items required are:
   1. white hi-polymer eraser (or any eraser with surface 65x25mm) from a stationery shop
   2. a piece of wire about 10cm long and 1mm thick (2mm preferred)
   3. a soldering iron
   4. black ink

I chose black calligraphy ink, also from the stationery shop (ink $0.55, eraser $1.00SGD)

For inking I used a pep-bottle cap and stuffed it with a piece of dish-washing scouring pad. Dab the ink on the stamp before use.

Step 2: Making the Stamp

1. (Caution: do not heat up the soldering iron for this step) Twist the wire around the soldering tip and trim the ends to the same length. The wire must have a tight grip on the tip to prevent it from wobbling when drawing lines. If it's still loose, remove and adjust the coil then re-insert into the tip again.
2. Adjust the ends to have a gap of about 3mm or to your preference.
3. Heat up the the soldering iron, be careful not to burn yourself.
4. When the tips are hot (test on eraser), dip them about 3 to 5mm into the eraser to create dots.
5. To draw lines, press the wire tips onto the eraser. Move slowly to engrave lines of about 3mm in depth. Redraw if necessary.
6. Use finger to rub away the unwanted fibres of the melted polymer.

Note: the pattern drawn need not be neat, the messier the better

Step 3: A Stamp Is Borned

Finally, the piece of messy art !!!

Step 4: Stamped Result

As my homemade ink pad is wide enough to cover the mouth of the ink bottle, I just need to shake the bottle and the pad will be wet with ink.

Dab the eraser with this ink pad and it is ready for use.

How's the result.... good enough for me.

No more shredder, lesser carbon footprint for mother Earth. Moreover, non shredded papers are easily sent for recycling compared to bagful of "spaghetti"