I had wanted to tackle this project for quite some time and for quite some time, I never got around to it. Now that I'm trying to leave a smaller "footprint", aka mess, on the earth, I decided there was no better time than the present to get this accomplished. The reason I wanted a rolling bin was because it speeds up the process. A compost pile on the ground can take up to two years to do its thing. At my age, I'd forget what the pile was for and try to burn it. No, I want my compost and I want it now.
I read several articles about a rolling compost bin and watched a few videos on how to make one. I figured I already had most of the materials needed for this except one. Rolling compost bins usually have a fin or two inside them, much like a clothes dryer. This helps to mix the contents and incorporate air into the compost for faster composting. Compost is a funny word, you can compost the compost in a composter. Anyway, a good compost mix will eat just about anything organic that is put into it, over time. I had come to the conclusion that if I made my fins out of some material besides wood, they should last a long time. I could have used treated lumber but all the composting experts said it was better to keep that out of the bin because of the chemicals leaching into the compost. One of my sons-in law had a piece of composite decking material left over and I thought that would be perfect for the fins.
The decking board was the only thing I didn't have to start on my project so I decided to go and retrieve it first. It was too big to fit in the trunk of my small car, so I rolled the back windows down and stuck it all the way through. This gave my car the appearance of being a small aircraft.
I "flew" back down the street and was lucky enough not to meet any traffic. Then I began to gather the rest of the needed materials.
My barrel.
You will notice that my barrel did not have a lid so that was the first thing on the list to construct. I cut out a circle of plywood on Mr. Bandsaw.
Mr. Bandsaw is my friend. He likes me and I like him and we get along quite nicely. There is another bandsaw in the background and I do use it on occasion but it scares me, while Mr. Bandsaw does not. It is always a good thing to have a bit of fear when dealing with power tools of any kind. They deserve to be feared and respected. Take Mr. Tablesaw, for example, I'm very scared of him and he knows it.
Since my plywood circle was not treated lumber, I figured I would cut two circles out of a large plastic sheet and cover each side with those. This is what Mickey Mouse would look like if he didn't color his hair.
I glued the plastic to each side of the wooden circle and put a few screws in for added strength.
I might mention that this entire project was going to take me about 3 hours, maybe 4. The plan was to finish this shortly after lunch and then move on to the next idea.
Everything was going smoothly. I had the access hole cut in the barrel and used an old hinge to make it easy to open and shut. Then it was time to put the fins in. The composite board ended up not being thick enough, so I had to use short pieces of a 2x6 and I attached them to the inside of the barrel. I can use the composite board on the next idea.
Somewhere around this time, while I had gone back to the kitchen to refill my glass, my husband came in, opened the refrigerator door and said he believed something had died in there. I assured him nothing had, but explained that was why it was so important for me to get the composter done. What he could smell was the ingredients for the barrel. I had been saving scraps for a couple of weeks and he was right, it really did smell like something had died and invited friends over for the wake.
Next on the list was to attach the lid. This did not go as smoothly as expected. First it was too big, so back to Mr. Bandsaw I went. It still wouldn't fit, no matter how hard I tried. I beat the snot out of it with a hammer.
Then I resorted to using this,
Just when I thought the whole project was just a crock of
cat,
I finally relented and went back to Mr. Bandsaw one more time.
Once the lid was secure, I made the frame to hold the barrel and made the final assembly.
It was 5:40 when I finished. My 3-4 hour project had taken nearly nine. I had just enough strength left to get the smelly bag of goodies out of the frig and load up the barrel.
The other idea will just have to wait for another nice day.
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