Since most people reading this are probably smokers, I will dispense with the "mea culpas" people seem to expect when you do something they personally disapprove of. :)As near as I can calculate, I've rolled over 1500 cigarettes with this machine with nae problems that weren't my fault.I've cut my smoking casts from $.25 to $.04 per cigarette.In fact, if the machine broke tomorrow, I could replace it and still have saved money. A *lot* of money. I am a professional level smoker, people. :)Some tips for you, if you are new to RYO (Roll Your Own)that have worked for me, but, your mileage may vary:Buy the machine online. locally, they sell for $20 to $40 more than from Quality.Do NOT use the powdery tobacco from the bottom of the bag. it WILL jam the machine. That "pop" you her when it jams is the (probably plastic) gears that drive the "spoon" that injects the tobacco into the tube trying to "strip". This is, from what I've read, the #1 cause of machine failure. I have never had a jam since I learned not to use the stuff from the very bottom.Don't over fill the loading tray. Over time, you will learn how much tobacco you need to pack in it. Over filling = potential jamming, and undue stress on the "gate" that closes over the tray. If the lever that activates the machine is hard to pull, you have too much tobacco in the tray. Don't pack too tightly. Read the instructions, fill from the center, and you'll consistently get a full, "tight" cigarette. Every. Time. If your fingers are less than slender, I suggest buying a $6 manual machine , and using the packing tool from it. This unit does not come with one.Occasionally, you will have some strings of tobacco hanging from the end of the finished cigarette. If this bothers you, you can get a tobacco cutter here on Amazon. I used to cut mine, and I used a $9 coffee bean grinder. From what I can tell from pictures the blades used in both look identical or very nearly so. If you do used a bean grinder, just 'bump' the switch once, then check your tobacco. The first time I used one, I wound up with a bowl of useless tobacco powder. Lesson learned. I no longer cut my tobacco. I assume with experience, that I learned something unconsciously that makes it an unnecessary step.If you *really* feel like you are wasting tobacco, go ye then to a big box discount store, and buy a hand held strainer/sieve, and you can put handfuls of tobacco in it, and sift out a lot of what causes the problem. I also put my tobacco on a paper plate, then transfer it to the machine, and over a rolling session, a lot of the junk will gravitate to the bottom. The unit does come with a nice, handy, cleaning kit for un-jamming it. Follow the instructions.If your kitchen table is not handy or appropriate for rolling, get a good quality folding "TV Table". I keep my equipment stored out of the way. I generally roll a carton at a time and can set up for rolling in about 2 minutes. I takes me, with this machine, approximately 1 to 1.5 hours to roll over 200 cigarettes. You can probably do it faster, as I don't really get in any hurry. If you can get one, a cafeteria type tray to place the machine on will help with the mess. You WILL most likely wind up with tobacco everywhere.RYO cigs are larger in diameter than ready-rolls (commercial cigarettes). You will need something to keep them in. Most of the plastic "pocket boxes" I have tried are junk. I smoked cigarettes that came in hard packs before going rogue, and saved ten or twelve of them. They've held up well, but will only hold about 17 RYO. Amazon has many choices for storage. If you look, you'll likely find something you like. A friend of mine buys boxes intended for storing crayons from a big box discount store (You know the one I mean. Don't make me speak of the devil.), and says they hold ~ 35, and have a good."seal". I bought a couple of pocket cases, Tpingfe Smoking Cigarettes Aluminum Cigarette Case, intended to hold hard packed commercial smokes, and they work well, hold 20 cigs, but, a *bit* uncomfortable in the pocket.Shop around for tobacco. you can, around here (NW LA. Louisiana, not Los Angeles.) get a 5 ounce bag for around $6, and a 1 lb. bag for about $13. Try several 'till you find one you like. Amazon doesn't sell most things that tend to kill people, but there are plenty of online sources. You can find tobaccos that approximate the commercial brand you smoked before. For instance, there is a brand that claims to taste "just like the world's most popular cigarette", or, what we used to call "Cowboy Killers". (You know the one I mean.) Just don't think you're stuck with one brand. I use a brand called "Good Stuff' because I like the way it tastes, and it has a pleasant odor when burning. It took trying several brands to find it. In a pinch, as in, I've been a poor planner, the is a brand called "American Club" that I also use and like.Buy your tubes ( the paper and filter in a single unit) in bulk if you can. They don't spoil. Locally, tubes sell for ~ $3.80 to $4.50 per box of 200. I buy a brand off of Amazon called "Zen". You can get 1250 tubes (5 boxes of 250) for between $16 and $17. Also, these tube have a "full length" filter, and some of the other brands have a shorter filter. I.e., the filters in the Zen bran are the full length of the brown-colored part of the tube, as oppose to about half that.I mention this here only because I have had people to whom I have explained "rolling your own" to comment that they could make money with it. For the record, I am NOT a lawyer or a Law Enforcement Officer or in any way connected to either, but, I pretty sure if they catch you selling cigarettes without a tax stamp, it won"t go well for you.As a disclaimer, I am not a paid spokesperson or associated with Amazon.com or any of the products I have mentioned by name in any way. These are just some things I thought that if, like me, your were insane enough to still smoke, you should know, as they might benefit you.I hope this review has helped you in some way.What more to say? When I first started rolling tobacco because I refused to pay double overnight ($300 monthly vs $150) I settled on something cheap. The TOP slide machine, which for <$10 has done me solid for the last 10 months with minimal issues. The few issues I always struggled with hand rolling cigarettes was getting the tobacco packed to the filter and getting a consistent circular thickness throughout the entire cigarette. Two things hands down everyone can say is what makes a pack of smokes superior to hand rolling. I overlooked these for the clean tobacco that actually made smoking tasteful and enjoyable again rolling yourself and I could look past the ends always being loose by packing each using a philips screwdriver and pinching the ends, but it did get rather annoying and started to take an hour to pack each cigarette and pinch the ends for a pack of smoke.Enter the savings of money since then and finally taking a look back at the Powermatic II+ and seeing a sale price. After reading the reviews I was heavily skeptical but I figured I have some extra cash why not pull the trigger. No big loss. I can now say whole-heartily that many of the top reviews are correct and not just people geeking out over technology. These are experienced users and are just stating the facts. This machine hands down is the closest you'll ever get to rolling a cigarette with near perfection like those you buy at the gas station. In 5 minutes of testing immediately after arriving I rolled a pack of cigarettes needing minor packing on 1 or 2 and filling the entire width of the tube (Golden Harvest) to perfection with a strong pack near the filter. I was amazed at how I have the tendency of doing things the hard way for the last 10 months but just chalk it up to a rite of passage.I then decided to test how much I could roll at what speed and pulled 40 tubes out and within 10 minutes all were packed with again one or two issues largely my fault learning the machine as each one is different. The tools they provide make it easy clearing a jam in which I tend to pull the tube out first and then run it to spill out the tobacco before restarting. Sometimes you have to scrap the sides where the jam hits but its all so intuitive. Even with a jam, 10 minutes!I'll just leave it at this after 10 months of rolling my own with a $10 TOP hand machine that still works like a champ and perhaps doing 10,000 cigarettes with. This is the final level. You want the best? This IS THE BEST. Seeing people updating their reviews as they pass 10,000 then 20,000 and up to 30,000+ is a very positive sign and I believe it. Old school American engineering where they make a product that's meant to last and not just designed to break so you become a constant customer to boost their spreadsheets.Go on. Throw out those electrical machine debates out of your head. This ends the conversation. Period!I’ve been using this roller for about 5-6 years now. I had the 1 and I had to replace it, free of charge. I upgraded to the 2 and I can’t say enough about the quality and easiness!There are a few tricks to using rollers!- Make sure you pack (not too hard) the left side, which butts up against your filter (of your cigarette filter(- The looser you pack, your cigs are gonna fall apart and drop hot ashes/tobacco on you- mildly press on the end of the cig, while it’s injecting the tobacco. It seems to pack it more tightly.-Clean your machine with the brushes and inside the chamber of where the Tobacco inserts itself into the filters about every 2 weeks.- if it’s hard to pull down the lever, you either have too much compacted tobacco or it’s clogged up!- tobacco dries out or gets too damp, depending on your climate. if it’s crunchy, add 1-3 slices of apple in your bag and mix it for a couple days. If it’s too wet, leave the bag open to dry it out, for a day.- Always mix up your tobacco before making your cigarettes! It helps get the damp and dry tobacco mixed together for a better cigarette.I hope this helps!With the price of cigarettes sky rocketing my husband and I started looking at cheaper alternatives. Living in Ireland that translates into tobacco pouches and hand rolled cigarettes. Which we tried and hated. We found the rollies to be extremely thin, the filters very small (which let to burning either our fingers or our lips or both) and the tobacco is wet which means that, after you've already spent time getting that cigarette right, it keeps going out.So again we looked at another alternative.And we found this machine!Yes, this is the way to go!Now we are buying dry tobacco and cigarette sleeves and the rest is childs play. Not to mention the end result, which is enjoying a cigarette that looks and feels just like the overpriced ones that are sold in packs but at the fraction of the cost.The machine is easy to use and you get your ciggies ready in no time.We asolutely recommend it!I have been using a Top O Matic machine for a few months but I found it troublesome. That's why I thought I would give this one a go. It is very easy to use and it uses tobacco that the Top could not. The top would always jam on fine tobacco, this does not. As long as the tobacco is dry this machine will make a good cigarette. The only minor issue I have been having, the paper and filter holder. The part that holds the paper in place seems to tear a piece of the tube away as it releases it. This seems to happen occasionally only whether the area is clear of tobacco or not. Overall I am happy with the machine so far, and out of the 4 packs I have made so far everyone has filled correctly, using tobacco the top could not. I have given it 4 stars because of the paper tear, otherwise, it would have got 5.Update...............the problem with it taking a chunk out of the paper (see pic) is getting worse. It is nearly every cigarette now. I have also found that the machine copes with finer tobacco better than course tobacco.I still like the machine, but I just wish it was not tearing chunks from the end of the paper.After having this machine for a while, it is still tearing chunks out of the paper, it is every cigarette I make now. It works best with dry finer tobacco.This is great for producing my own normal looking cigarettes but using much cheaper tobacco. I don't like having to roll a cigarette or using cigarette papers. Using the rizla roll you own filter tubes and gold leaf tobacco my weekly tobacco spend is massively reduced and the taste is better, in my opinion. Far less chemically tasting and more like cigarettes used to taste in the 70s and 80s. The tobacco needs to be quite dry to stop in from clogging the filler mechanism, but now I have found the perfect level of moisture in the tobacco as I let it dry out slightly in a large cake tin for week before using it. A quite expensive purchase but has sped up the whole process so I can now make 100 or so cigarettes and put them in older packets or a metal packet and keep some "in stock" ready for the week ahead. Hope you enjoy using this as much as I have.I should of bought this years ago.I am useing volume tobbaco from the supermarkets.Every cigarrette as come out perfect.The machine is easy to use and very sturdy.The cost off the tobbaco is about £20 for 50 gramms . I manage to roll about 50 ciggys so i am not saving a great deal.I am going to visit a tobbaconist shop this week to see if i can find a cheaper volume tobbacco.All that said i would recommend this machine. Delivery was fast from germany.Afterloosing the use of my left arm i found it difficult to roll cigs with a normal roller so i looked for an alternative.bought a rolling tin but it was just as hard to use, then i saw this product.It seemed an expensive way of making cigs but i was desperate to get my roll up i am so glad i bought it as it makes a perfect cig every time without any hassle.i got carried away using it and made a whole days supply in five minuets..