momoese

Martin, Bob is right about the design flaw. With no gussets those two upright 2x4's could either break or simply bend pulling the screws right out of the wood. If you plan to continue using it I'd beef it up some by adding some diagonal gusset pieces to both sides front and rear and possibly another cross support as well. Better to be safe than sorry.

djmb74

Thanks Mitchel I totally agree on it needing more support and had mentioned that previously that I had planned on bracing it just hadn't gotten around to it.
Guess I was just taken aback at his snide comment about me forgetting about posting a picture of it.

I am no carpenter nor portray myself to be one, heck maybe it doesn't work right because of my poor carpentry skills. I just put something together to see if it was something that would work out for me and my needs. In my opinion though its more of a gravity and leverage thing. So much weight is settled at the bottom of the barrel and not enough leverage to turn it easily. Perhaps putting some kind of a pulley system with a bicycle pedal set up as mentioned previously would help.

Once I started thinking about it and how a compost pile actually works I released that its not just the matter of being able to turn the pile in the barrel but its how tall a pile is that causes it to compost properly and heat up. No way to get your pile 3ft to 5ft high in side a barrel turned sideways in order to get the middle of the pile to heat up as any site you go to research composting it says a pile should be no smaller than 3ft x 3ft x 3ft.

Perhaps taking the barrel and standing it on end with rod through it then you would be able to get the pile high enough inside. But then you have even more of an issue with gravity and leverage trying to turn the barrel.

I am just going by my experience with and knowing what results to expect from my standard compost piles and the large composter that my step mother has and have determined that barrel just isn't working out for me so I will probable take it apart and cut it in half and reuse it for an idea I have for another worm farm and see how that works!

Thanks,

Martin

And Bob no hard feelings, I am not angry or hurt nor was I ever things can be misconstrued from a string of words based on your frame of mind at the time perhaps.

__________________
*PEOPLE WILL FORGET WHAT YOU SAID.
*PEOPLE WILL FORGET WHAT YOU DID.
*BUT PEOPLE WILL NEVER FORGET HOW YOU MADE THEM FEEL!

wordwiz

Actually, two of my compost "piles" are 1' x 1' x 1'! But that's the ones in my greenhouse and grow room. Nothing of any size goes into them, usually just leaves (green and brown) and table scraps.

It works pretty well, plus gives me some tea!

Mike

djmb74

cool, how long does it usually take to get some usable "dirt"?

__________________
*PEOPLE WILL FORGET WHAT YOU SAID.
*PEOPLE WILL FORGET WHAT YOU DID.
*BUT PEOPLE WILL NEVER FORGET HOW YOU MADE THEM FEEL!

wordwiz

I really can't say - for two reasons! The first is just the simple reason I never really paid any attention as well as I keep adding to it. If I had to guess I would say a couple of months at the bottom.

The second reason is that I LOVE using material that has not completely composted in my containers or even garden. I don't use a deep layer of it, maybe something equal to one part of compost to two parts very loose dirt and one part potting mix.

Mike