Introduction: Wind Powered Composter - the Green Twist , Exactly

About: I'm a senior at Florida Tech studying Ocean Engineering (making wave and wind generators at sea). I'm into electronics, chemistry, all the sciences, alternative energy, welded steel art and lots more. To see…


This is my Epilog Laser Cutter entry so please Vote if you think the idea is unique and worth supporting.

Composting is the easiest thing one can do to help your community. With a wealth of good soil you, your neighbors, and everyone else is stuck with the predictament of what to grow. Imagine such a world.

The problem is that the standard composter doesn't turn itself, and the average human is too everwhelmed with life's callings to take the time to turn the composter once a week.

Hence the self turning composter, wind powered so no additional power is needed.

I just added a laundry basket to the inside to help churn the soil. It was turning a 3/4 full load with no problems at all. I had to empty it out to paint it black, but once the winds pick up I will post a video of it turning soil.

The gear drive supplies more torque than it would ever require, I used vise grips and tried to stop it turning but could not. I estimate that I applied about 150 lbs with a moment arm of 8 inches and still it didn't stop! The gear ratio is 1255:1.

You will need:

A drum, or other round item that will server such a purpose. Note that I did not have a drum but I did have a large bucket I bought for 3 bucks at walmart.

Plywood-depending on how big you want to go will determine how much scrap you need. I used about a half a sheet of 1/2 inch ply for the turbine but I think twice as many layers would be better.

2x4's or 2x6's-The frame and upright uses about 2-8ft lengths of one or the other.

Screws-get a box of 3in deck screws, they last forever and are very strong.

A junk gear motor with a high gear ratio is also needed.

Tools-I used a drill press, angle grinder, hammer, screw driver and jig saw. My advice, you can never have too many tools.

Time: It took about a day to make this. I actually did it over the weekend but actual time was about 12 hours.

Step 1: First Cut Out the Layers for the Turbine

The Vertical Axis Wind Turbine (VAWT) is made up of many identical layers of plywood. First, I cut out a template from foam and used it to mark scrap plywood for cutting.

Step 2: Cut Out the Many Layers of Plywood

Unfortunately it takes a insane number of layers of plywood to make up the turbine. Well actually it takes only 20 or so, but after cutting out 15 or so, you may go insane. Use the guide to mark up plywood and begin cutting. I attempted to cut 3 layers at a time using a jig saw but the progress was too slow so I ended up cutting one out at a time.

Step 3: Drill the Shaft Hole

After you cut them out, stack them up and use a drill to make the shaft hole. You can do this individually or all at once if you have a drill press and a really long drill bit. You don't need to be super accurate at all really since the turbine turns slowly and you will be grinding away a lot of material later on.

I used a 1/4 inch drill bit since I used 1/4 inch thread stock for the shaft. However, in retrospect I could have used a larger drill bit (1/2 inch or so) for the same shaft since the layers are compressed together with the end nuts. This would allow for easier re-alignment of the shaft had I poorly drilled my hole to begin with.

Step 4: Decide on Your Rough Shape

Once you have the layers drilled out and stacked on the shaft, you can play around with the final shape by twisting each layer a little bit forward from the one below it. If you make up a test rig you can experiment with the different shapes outside in the wind to see which one works best. I chose the simple spiral since it was pretty.

Step 5: Make Your Layers Smooth

Take an angle grinder and some sanding disc and begin sanding the layers into a smoother form. This is more art than science, so enjoy the task, and where a face mask if you are smart......note my lack of one.

By the way, this is my first attempt at hand grinding the shape and I think the final form turned out very well.

Step 6: Find a Good Gear Motor

In order to turn a heaping pile of compost it takes a lot of torque, therefore a gear motor is used to convert the low torque the turbine provides to high torque at low speeds. So I went to Astro 2 in Melbourne, Florida, a local surplus store and bought a gear motor for 10 bucks. It has a gear ration 1250:1 so it should provide lots of torque.

Step 7: Hack the Gear Motor

The motor is not what we need, we just need the gear reducer. Instead of taking just the gear reducer, it is smarter to just disable the the motor and use the whole device as it is. This lets us use the bearings and original weatherproof housing as well.

First take the gear motor you found apart. Gut the electrical parts (the rectangular brushings, and remove the magnets with a hammer). You don't care about the motor being a motor and these components only cause friction. Be careful not no damage bearings as you need this running smoothly.

Step 8: Mark the Shaft for Drilling Out

The motor will have a drive shaft running into it, thus we need to have access hole in the housing and a shaft hole. Use a center punch to insure a good shaft hole.

Here you see me attempting to hold the center punch and camera at the same time. The center punch indents the metal when hit with a hammer. This dent will guide the drill bit so your shaft hole is about as perfect as can be made without a lathe.

Then drill the housing with a larger diameter hole so the shaft doesn't rub.

Step 9: Drill the Marked Shaft

The center mark we made before really makes drilling out the shaft easy and near perfect (given you marked it near perfectly!).

If you do happen to miss align the center point mark, you can move your mark a little bit closer to center by angling the centerpunch in the direction you want to move the mark and hammering again. Once the mark is reset, give it a couple of taps of the hammer vertically to clean up the dents.

Now, to drill. I wanted to drill and tap the shaft in place but I didn't have the right tap. So, I drilled the hole to the size of the turbines shaft (1/4 inch) and used a wrap of friction tape to make the connection lock together. The hole I drilled was only about half of a inch deep, but you can pick whatever depth you need per your supplies.

Step 10: Drill the Cap

Like before, the cap needs to be drilled out so our turbine can spin the internal core. I used a 5/16 drill bit but you can use whatever as long as it is larger than your shaft diameter. Making it bigger is a good idea so you can have plenty of wiggle room for murphy and his law.

Step 11: Now Make the Composter Frame

Given that I do not know which motor you will find, I will just give a overview of what you should aim for. Basically, the drum will roll on two tires at one end and will ride on the gear motor on the other end. The motor output shaft is set in a disc of material of your choosing and this disc is bolted to the drum. The purpose of this disc of material is to spread the load over a wide area, since the plastic most drums are made of is usually very thick. I had a 1 inch thick lexan disc from another project so that became my disc. You can achieve the same results from cutting a disc from a 2x6 or some other lumber.


Now make a frame with two tires attached to one end, and a upright on the other end that leads to the gear motor.

The composter rolls on these two tires.

Step 12: Assemble the Beast

Use lag screw or deck screws, or whatever you have around and scrap a test rig. Test for alignment of the shaft with the turbine and see if bearing are needed. I ended up using some old bearings from my inline skates and would suggest there use in furture projects. They are cheap and weather resistance.

Once the frame is prototyped, secure tacks with lags and give it a try. My final design sorta took a weird path of development but that is like my life. Depending on resources, your project may or may not look like mine, and that is a good thing. I would rather have it not look like mine since I truely value innovation over replication. But either way take a look at my result and try to do better!!\


I should note, the gear motor was attached to the barrel via a plate with a keyed hole in it. I failed to note that earlier.

Also, I made a video of the system in operation but I had the camera on it's side. I will post a less neck paining clip tomorrow as well to show it operation.

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