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Step 7Possible mods
some random thoughts/variations/modifications:
you can use wider boards if you can find them; ideally, we would have used two courses of 1"x10" boards, but could only find 8" wide. in the end, they turned out to be perfectly adequate.
we will update this instructable over the years to see how the wood holds up. we don't have great hopes for it lasting much more than 5 years or so, but still consider it a worthwhile investment for $15. pressure-treated wood would have cost around $50, and cedar likewise .
if you are building a bin that is much bigger than this, it might be better to use slightly thicker boards for extra support. these cheap spruce boards might not be effective at standing up to the pressure of a bigger pile and the forces exerted on them when you're turning the compost. thicker corner posts would also help in this case.
disassembly is super easy (the opposite of assembly, but you don't need to remove the corner posts), and it might make sense to just take it apart come spring when you want to shovel out the old compost. also, you can move the whole compost bin to a different location relatively easily any time you want.
a triple or quadruple bin is possible. if you live in a temperate region where you can grow (i.e., use your compost) year-round, and have a good decomposition rate for your compost, this could make sense.
we deliberately left our corner posts long in case we have the need to add a third course of boards. if there wasn't a possibility of that happening, we'd probably cut them down to size. besides, they could be useful for hanging things on.
we would have loved to have used old wood we had lying around for this project, but alas, all we had was painted (and probably containing lead, at that) boards, which we deemed unsuitable.
you can use wider boards if you can find them; ideally, we would have used two courses of 1"x10" boards, but could only find 8" wide. in the end, they turned out to be perfectly adequate.
we will update this instructable over the years to see how the wood holds up. we don't have great hopes for it lasting much more than 5 years or so, but still consider it a worthwhile investment for $15. pressure-treated wood would have cost around $50, and cedar likewise .
if you are building a bin that is much bigger than this, it might be better to use slightly thicker boards for extra support. these cheap spruce boards might not be effective at standing up to the pressure of a bigger pile and the forces exerted on them when you're turning the compost. thicker corner posts would also help in this case.
disassembly is super easy (the opposite of assembly, but you don't need to remove the corner posts), and it might make sense to just take it apart come spring when you want to shovel out the old compost. also, you can move the whole compost bin to a different location relatively easily any time you want.
a triple or quadruple bin is possible. if you live in a temperate region where you can grow (i.e., use your compost) year-round, and have a good decomposition rate for your compost, this could make sense.
we deliberately left our corner posts long in case we have the need to add a third course of boards. if there wasn't a possibility of that happening, we'd probably cut them down to size. besides, they could be useful for hanging things on.
we would have loved to have used old wood we had lying around for this project, but alas, all we had was painted (and probably containing lead, at that) boards, which we deemed unsuitable.
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