Composter (Drum Style)

Step 5 Finishing Touches

You will need an opening to facilitate adding organic material (and later removing finished compost). The wire mesh is sharp at the opening so wrap it with duct tape or make some other accommodation to avoid cutting your hands. Also, you may want to fashion a door for this purpose. With a door, you should be able to completely rotate the drum.

NOTE: I am working thru how to do this step. PLEASE chime in if you have ideas.

Comments

[HenrikOlsen]

Quite late to comment I see, but I'd make the mesh as a spiral as in the attached doodle.

Turn the drum one way and the compost is mixed and aerated, turn the other and the drum is emptied.

[ERCBIENG]

 Clever!

[ruthy nov]

To make a door you can simply leave your wire mesh longer about 2-3, staple as described, (leaving an opening), attach velcro to the flying end and to the secure end so you can close and open easily.
To keep your fingers from getting hurt by the wire, take a long enough plastic tube, cut a long cut and insert the wire mesh in it. It will hold nicely.
Thank you for all your wonderful projects!
old lady.

[WalkaboutTigger]

I am going to recommend a slight modification. I live on the coast in California and in order to maintain appropriate temperatures within the pile, I wrap my bin with a blue or black poly tarp and secure it tightly to the drum with black rubber bungees. I added a gromet in the middle of the tarp to insert a thermometer but you need not do this if your needs to not extend to using a thermometer. The other advantage of the tarp is the prevention of leakage of fine particles (such as coffee grounds) during rotation. The tarp can also be completely removed and cleaned if necessary. Do not use a cloth tarp as they tend to compost very readily. Pre-cut round sections of plywood can be purchased from most home improvement stores. I also added 6-inch semi-pneumatic tires to my compost drum so I could move it around with my lawn tractor to the various areas of my property.

[jdlink]

WalkaboutTigger...good suggestion. Composts have different needs depending on your environs. For example, if it rains a lot, you may need to have a provision for limiting the moisture. If it is a dry climate, you may need to water the compost on a regular basis. As WT points out, you may need to provide for cold or hot conditions as well. My compost setup allows fine particles to fall thru. It would be a good idea to put a pan below composter to catch the particles...they are now ready for use.

[babybackribs]

suggestion- Wouldn't using clear plastic be more viable? Kind of like the greenhouse effect where the sunlight goes in but cannot escape, that should keep it good and warm no?

[WalkaboutTigger]

The challenges with using clear material are that clear material becomes opaque over time due to scratches and embedded debris, ages much more rapidly in the elements so it cracks and fractures, clear material that is IR transparent in one direction only is expensive, some of the microbes in compost piles experience significantly reduced reproduction in visible-spectrum light. Another 'attraction' to the black polyvinyl tarp material is that it can hide the less attractive aspects of the composting process so you don't have hide the compost drum, in limited space yards, when having friends or guests over - yes, vanity has its place!

[djsc]

I like this idea, could do it to any compost heap too.

[galadriel]

For a door, since it it wire, take a look at the doors on wire rabbit cages. The door itself is wire, it's held on with wire loops, and another bit of wire forms a locking latch. You could easily cut a door area out of your wire and make a wire dor to go over that cut out area.