compost bin

Step 6: Add compost!!!!

the only other thing you could do is paint it black . they make paint that will stick to plastic. I live in south Florida so thats really not necessary but if you live in northern climates you might need to find a good sunny spot and place it there! the advantages of this barrel composer are quite a few. its quick, cheap and effective. no bugs or rats, almost no odor. you can use it in a very small yard and not bother the neighbors.
I square foot garden ( mel is a genius ) and buying fertilizer and compost can add a lot of expense you don't need. I save a lot of money growing my own food and you would amazed how much food you can grow this way .good compost can double your harvest!

Comments

[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 ;-)

[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

[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?

[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!

[joe speakerz]

great set up. how do you separate the compost from the 'garbage' after the process takes off? how do you remove the compost? how long does it take for compost to form? i have the same drum and will follow your plans as close as i can and also hope to find some black paint that will stick to the drum since i'm in colorado. thanks for a great job.

[natalierose61]

I'm wondering all these same questions. Did you end up making one, Joe? And if so... what are the answers? Especially removing good compost. I don't want to have to sift through rotting food to get the good stuff....

[iPodGuy]

Try Krylon Fusion paint. That's what I use on my barrels.

[Zem]

Awesome, this Instructable is going to help me a lot. I'm making mom a compost bin for mothers day, and we got a barrel for free from the recycling center =D They said we could have two, but we didn't have enough room in the car =/

[AdrianaG]

Nice composter! It would be great to figure out a way to incorporate a crank handle on one end of the center pipe. The catch is to modify the design to avoid slippage.

[Blaik]

Maybe scavenging the pedal sprocket and wheel gear of a kids' bike would work. Would involve a bit more rigging, but then you have ratio turning so you don't have to put as much effort into turning (so everyone can do it, and then when you want to stop, you simple pull back to engage the lock back brake (hence the need for a kids' bike, as most bikes past that have a freewheel sprocket). Once you stop it, gravity would settle the compost at the bottom so there wouldn't be any further shifting.

[ubergeekseven]

I made one just like this this morning. i did a couple of things different. Instead of using a bolt to make sure the barrel doesn't come off, I drilled a hole through the tube and nailed the ends in to the frame. This way the tube doesn't move at all and the barrel spins around it. But other than that, it was easy and a great design. everyone who cares about the earth in my social circle will be getting these as birthday and Christmas gifts. Took about 2 hours ail together. The bolts were the time consuming parts. you have to drill all of the holes and thread all of the bolts. But that only took about 30 minutes. cost me 45 dollars without paint at the local family owned hardware store.

[raskolnikov]

I would like to know 2 things: 1) Where does one get a barrel like that? 2) How much can I expect to spend if I start out with none of these materials? Thanks!

[east88thst]

I went to a local commercial bakery (not your supermarket bakery department) and they gave them to me--at exactly the right price--free! Avoid barrels that may have had cleaning compounds or industrial chemicals. Best kind, of course, are barrels that would have contained food products.

[podup365.com]

Search on craigslist "dot" com in any large city near you for these barrels. I have found a source of them in my area for $10 each. Many beverage companies use these barrels to have ingredients, such as syrups or flavorings, shipped to their production plants. Once they are used, for some reason they can't be cleaned and reused by them, so these companies must dispose of them. I would assume they are recyclable, but having them reused is better. The first time I saw them, a local paintball park had one entire playing field of bunkers made out of them.

[kayann]

Looks like a great design! Nice thing about this one is that it appears that you could dismantle and move it - provided it was empty. That's important to me. Two questions though: What's the approximate foot print in sq ft? And has the whole compost tumbler concept produced good compost? Consumer Reports did a review of various compost systems at one point and they were not a fan of the commercial compost tumblers available. If I recall correctly, their complaints were that it was too difficult to turn and they didn't think it composted as quickly as an open-air pile turned w/ a pitchfork - I think they thought the spinning didn't result in sufficient aeration - the key to fast decomposition. Just curious if anyone who has made one has comments on that. A closed compost pile is ideal for me - even if slower - because my dogs would have way too much rooting around in the open air variety. Thanks! Good work!