compost bin

I've seen a few compost bin designs online and took a little from each one and came up with this.
you can take yard clipping ,leaves and kitchen scraps. any organic material will work ,just never put meat in a compost bin. when its done cooking you have nutrient rich soil that you can use for all kinds of gardening applications

Step 1 Materials

3 2x4 x 8 pressure treated
1 galvinized chain link fence post
4 3.5inch 1/4 bolts with washers and nuts
6 or 8 6" 60d nails
one 55 gal barrel (must be food grade)
4 latches
one piano hinge
one box of 10-32 3/4" nuts and bolts ( make sure they fit your hinges and latches)
paint if you want . I use barn paint from tractor supply co . its cheap and it doesn't require primer!
now I bought most of my materials but you can use what ever you have on hand also. the whole project only cost me 50 dollars so its not that expensive any way

Comments

[moreforles]

just wondering if 3" pvc tubing would be strong enough to use in place of the post, if say filled with the right stuff foam......? I only ask because I happen to have it on hand, along with an old wooden swing/club house for the wooden frame and a blue barrel just like the one pictured. and a second blue barrel should be available shortly, so I can make one for my father in law too... maybe his first (for practice) then mine...

[jblanton1]

I used 2" sched-40 PVC as rollers when I was moving my 1600 lb (empty) gun safe to my new house. Usually had 4 pieces under the safe at any one point in time and the weight is distributed across the entire length of the 2" roller instead of just along 2 points like you would have in this project. Still, it seems pretty strong...

[ajensen bjorgaard]

did you use the pvc? did it work?

[DogTubs]

Great plan! I built a couple, but now wondering if it the best way to compost because it dries out so fast. Any ideas on keeping the compost moist?

[crzyuilter]

I've been filling my bin for a couple of months now. Pretty heavy to turn, but doable. How full do I fill it? When is a good time to stop adding to it and just let it decompose so it can be emptied and started again? Thanks!

[yuemei87]

This design is working splendidly in my backyard in the tropics. Our house puppy used to always eat the food out of the compost corner but this is no longer a problem. I added a few extra venhilation/drainage holes to ours because its monsoon season now, but overall thank you for sharing!!!

One Question- How full do you usually keep it? Halfway?

[crzyuilter]

We just finished our compost bin and are thrilled with the design. We did make it higher off the ground (hoping the wheelbarrow will fit under it for easy of moving of the compost). We used one of the comments about drilling all the hinge and latch holes before cutting out the door, and it worked like a dream. That was probably the easiest part of the project. I used a Sharpie marker and drew a door using a magazine (flexible, but with straight edges) as a template. Note: After marking the top, bottom and one side I slide the magazine over before marking the last side so it would be wider. We then taped the piano hinge and all the bolt fasteners on with masking tape straddling the Sharpie line. Drilled all the holes, removed the hardware and cut out our door. It was easy to attach all the pieces to the door then put it on the barrel at the piano hinge side. All lined up perfectly, tightened, and on to setting it in the garden. We will load it with compost I've been collecting in a cardboard box and see what happens. It looks great. Thanks for the great project help.

[wridgeway]

i built 2 sets of the A-frames, used white pvc (2' i.d.) for the end barrels, and a piece of grey conduit (2" o.d.) to slip in between the 2 end barrels, adding a third barrel in the middle. 2 end barrels are blue, center one black.(gets somewhat hotter).I drilled some 1 1/4 holes about 2 inches from the end of each barrel and turn them with 2 pieces of 1" pipe 24" long. stick the pipe in a hole, catching the pvc and turn down, and grab the next hole with the other pipe, keep turning for a full revolution. my first batch will be done in 2 days, and i'm staggering the barrels so i'll get a batch every week. Also the 1 1'4 hole at the bottoms will drain off excess "tea" into a 5 gallon bucket-dilute 1:1 with water.

[merlehanna]

Inspired by your Instructable...Thanks again!!!

[STF]

Here's one I built. I had some old 4x4's lying around so I thought I would use them. The one picture is what I drew up in Inventor. I guess stacking it is endless if you have a ladder :) Instructable to come with dimensions.

[STF]

Here are the pics:

[merlehanna]

very nice!

[SpinWard]

Here's the one I built. Great instructable! I used 2 hinges instead of one piano, I couldn't find a good one. Instead of the big spikes, I used a bunch of wood screws that we had and haven't used.

[merlehanna]

Fantastic adaptations made in your version.......

[merlehanna]

Great instructable! My son and I hope to make this into a father and son project today...Thank you very much for sharing :)

[miguel64]

Does it leak or drip? I want to make and put mine on a tiled urban terrace and I wouldn't like to dirt it...
The post is great. Thanks!

[Pizzapie500]

Can you put fins onto the barrel so that if it's windy the fins will catch the wind and spin the barrel? Like a turbine? Also would this work in the winter?

[BucketBasher]

What if we were to take that idea a step further? Adding a generator to one side of the rod so that when the fins spin the barrel, it generates electricity too!

[lee_schnitz]

Great instructable... We built ours this weekend.

[Kindlekat]

Loved this instructable! Built it this past weekend.

[crismel]

i need some files about how to make a roatary drum composter or methodology in building a rotary drum composter. please send me some files about soon as possible. i hope somebody can help me

[hav2sing]

Reading all the comments on how to acquire the barrels... cut them in half and have a circular container garden.... another way to recycle the barrels. Love the article, and am hopeful we'll have a compost bin by mid-autumn. And in Arizona, no worries with the heating ;-)

[Napole]

Great instructables. Needs a turning wheel/handle on one end and a handle on the lid :-)

[steveF5]

i made one of these, and it works great... i first stocked it with a bunch of newspaper and paper shreddings from a cross cut shredder, and mixed in some dirt that was from a pile of leaves from the fall. i read a page on compost and it was talking about the N P K levels, and if you have alot of fibrous brown (paper/dead leaves etc) material, you need to add something high in nitrogen, such as bloodmeal. i added some of this, and then the rest of the scraps, and it produces alot of heat  and has worms living in it.

Great instructable

[pinoymale]

I'll be trying to make my first compost bin. Will it still work if I don't add worms?

[Sketchabit]

No, leave the worms out of it.  Composting creates heat and could kill them.  Best bet is to make the compost in the barrel until it's well broken down and then have a second place in your yard to let it finish composting, let the worms at it there.  We did that and things like orange peels that take longer to break down are great worm food.

[SteveSch]

 I just finished up one of these. I have one question, Would it be beneficial to paint it black and if so what paint do you recommend?

[hollylynh]

I called around to local food company's to find a barrel. I ended up getting one for $8 from a molasses company, it had a little of the sweet stuff in the bottom, but I kept it in to get my compost started off.

[ewah]

I tried to build a compost bin using bamboo fence.  Just fold the fence and use copper wire to clip them together so it looked like a tube with both end open.  I stick to the ground in the backyard and put compost in.  Of course, it didn't last and it a pain to stick the pitchfork in to mix the compost.  I tried using an auger to mix the compost but it was a lot of work.  Also, my bamboo fence compost bin eventually deteriorated.  After that, I told myself hell with it and bought a NatureMill compost bins.  It’s fully automatic, no mixing, no turning, no mess, no more rats and raccoons in my backyard and it produce great compost.  Wish I have done it sooner.

[firecraker222]

hey great idea very simple stant and every thing, man great idea , hey should i still paint it black if i live in CA

[danlab]

The process decomposition occurring in the barrel will generate it's own heat. A black container will likely speed up the process some but likely not significantly. So it ultimately is up to you but I doubt it would be worth the additional work/up-keep. 

[qman007]

using an aerosol spray can isn't good for the environment.  I would refrain from painting it all together.

[glenn.craver]

Surely there are alternatives to spray though? I find it hard to believe paint meant to bond with plastics comes only in an aerosol... Hmmm, This is something worth checking out next time I'm at the home depot. Has to be something out there. If nothing else, perhaps just abrading the surface (coarse sandpaper maybe? Steel wool? Something that would scuff up a heavy plastic) so normal paint has something to bond onto?

[marysescapades]

where did you get the barrels?

[rsamtmann]

Great project. I will be making at least one. What do you think about using rivets in place of the nuts and bolts? Do you think they will work and be strong enough? Thanks!

[Jaxoat]

I'm looking at making one of these and was wondering what is the purpose of the ventilation holes. If heat is what is need to "cook" the compost, I'd think the holes would not be wanted, Also, if one mounted a spigot, you could capture the "tea" that would otherwise drain out of the vent holes. Any insight?

[meganscottage]

If you don't make ventilation holes, the whole thing may become anaerobic and stink to high heaven... While there are a variety of microbes, critters, worms, etc at work the vast majority don't make the process stinky, unless the anaerobic (critters that live without oxygen) critters take over. This is also one of the reasons to turn a compost pile... Hope this helps!

[Aaronicus]

Compost also requires air, which it won't get if you don't have any vents. It heats itself, so don't worry too much on it. Even my open-air compost heap is very warm over the cold winters here in Wyoming. Compost tea also needs air, by the way. In fact, you don't want tea to get very hot as it needs the enzymes to do its job, which are killed if it heats up too much.

[Jaxoat]

So would it be better to have vent holes on the side of the drum or throughout the drum as done in this project?

[Aaronicus]

Since the drum is meant to rotate, I'd say they'd be better off being throughout. On commercial compost drums of this type, the vents are evenly spaced and all over the bin. Some of the more expensive ones have little sliding doors or plugs to change how many holes you have in the drum. Basically, the more full the drum is, the hotter the contents are going to be.