After a few helpful youtube videos, I decided to build my bin from pallets, which I knew I could find free on craigslist. I called my husband to head to a local business and pick up pallets for me. Darling that he is, he laughed and soon delivered my pallets.
I repurposed old wire coathangers to wire the pallets together. It was slow-going at first until my hubby decided to help me, and we quickly had the bin constructed. I had a half-roll of landscaping fabric in the garage so we stapled that around the bin. I'm hoping the landscaping fabric will work, the pile needs to get air and most sites recommended chicken wire or something similar, but I used what I had on hand. The only costs I incurred were a box of staples for our staple-gun, and 2 hinges for the door of the bin. In hindsight, it would have been sufficient to wire the door as well instead of using hinges. I also purchased a latch, but we realized it was unnecessary and did not use it.
Ultimately I intend to add on until we have a 3-bin system, and we'll probably just wire the doors for those. No rush on those until we fill up the first one! (see second video below for 3-bin system)
So here's the quick and dirty on making your own diy simple, low-cost practically-free compost bin.
Time: Approx 1 hour to build
Cost: Free to $40+ depending on what you can repurpose
Materials:
- 5 wooden pallets similarly sized (check craigslist and construction sites for free)
- 12 wire coathangers (more or less)
- a few nails to repair or reinforce pieces on older pallets
- chicken wire or landscape fabric to wrap around bins to hold in the compost
- staples to attach the chicken wire or landscape fabric
- hinges - optional for door
- latch - optional for door
- hammer
- staple gun
- pliers of some sort to twist the coathangers tightly around the corners
- wire cutter- optional - wire hangers break quite easily if you bend them back and forth a few times in one spot
- hand saw - to cut one pallet in half for a door - see first video below
- Lay one pallet flat on the ground where you intend to have the bin
- Stand a second pallet to one side of the ground pallet, and line up the corners. Wrap wire around a board on each pallet in each corner where they meet.
- Stand a third pallet to the back of the ground pallet, and line up the edges with the ground and side pallets. Wrap wire at bottoms as in step 2. Also wrap wire around boards at the top corner where the two standing pallets meet.
- Stand the fourth pallet on the other side of the ground pallet, and wire as in step 3. Now you should have a box with 3 sides.
- Cut the fifth pallet in half as shown in the first video below.
- Line up one half of the pallet with the standing pallets and wire it to the other pallets on all four corners.
- Line up the other half of the pallet on top of the first half, and wire one side of it to the side pallet. Leave the other side unwired so that it may be "opened" as a door.
- optional - test your "door" to see if it stays shut on its own. If it does, nothing further is needed. If it does not, you may want to add another wire, or a latch.
- another option - some people prefer to have their "door" at the bottom in order to get to the bottom compost dirt easier. I guess that's good if you only plan to have one bin, but unnecessary if you plan to have a 3-bin system.
Here's links to a few videos I found helpful:
- This gal makes it simple, and I love her hinged door: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmacDrosrcg&feature=related
- This guy shows a 3-bin system: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYUAXfVQFfM&feature=related
- This guy's great idea is to use wire coathangers to tie them together: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWEvqfERPMo&feature=related
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