When I first got the shredder and took out the motor section from the box (the silver top part in picture) I could tell it was a sturdy motor. Nice and heavy.However, the lower section was a little disappointing as the plastic is cheap. This causes the whole thing to shake when you remove the waste basket.As far as shredding goes, it is GREAT! 12 pages no problem and ran it for a good 5 minutes without an issue. Manual says 12 minutes consecutively is max. I did a 4 inch stack of documents with no problem at all.My third shredder, first one that I spent over 50 bucks for, should be the last one I buy.