3 Bay Compost Bin

This is my compost bin (3bins), in which you can see is divided equally amongst the 3 bays. If you build one for yourself, the main things are making the front and back frames high enough to walk through and try to make the openings exactly the same width. Since I use slats guided by 2X2's in slots, if the openings are equal, you can use the slats/front doors in each opening. Mine were a little different in width and consequently had to number the slats to correspond with each opening. I had no plan. I had salvaged the materials from some "dog sledding on the glaciers" venture by the airport. They had a trailer-type building with a wide porch. When the venture sold out or whatever happened to them, they cut the porch into sections with a CHAINSAW. Well, I talked a guy with a towing business (Lief) into hauling the material to my place. (I had sold him the sister to "Susan Hayward" from my first litter) and I dismantled it all and built the compost bin right out of my head. Since the sections chainsawed had 2 2X6 joists attatched to them, I ended up with 3 long tables also, (about 3 feet by 8 feet.) With them, I just got four 4X4's and cut them to height and attached them to the four corners and trimmed off the ragged chainsawed edges with a skill saw.

Click the image for an enlarged view.


This message was edited Nov 23, 2007 7:49 PM

that is a set of compost bins that could provoke a lot bin envy! nicely done - fill em' up

Nice job, I have compost bin envy.

Dean_W

This is the best view I have of my compost bin. You will see hanging top left of each bin the binboards which fit in the slots in the front of each bin

Wow.......now that is a compost bin. My pappy would have built a boat or a new escape cabin for his frequent fishing trips with that fine wood.

Docgipe, the pic at the top of this thread is just after the flood of Oct '06. You can see some mud left in the far left bay, the straw in the middle bay was ruined, the compost in the far right bay was saved just by its bulk, the 1 X 6 's used for the sides and binboards, you can see, the water came up almost over the 4th one-by seen easily in the middle bay. The Pic just above your post is the one I took shortly after I built it.

This message was edited Nov 23, 2007 7:52 PM

Well I declair that you have done yourself proud. I have seen them in books but never in any garden I have visited. Guess my friends are just plain to Dutch to go to that extreme.

Docgipe, what's (I think you meant 'too') "Dutch"?, and thank you for the compliment. Not bad for a 60 year old with a drive to make compost, huh? I like to take things apart and reuse them... just an Alaskan thing, you know, "The land of canned food." We were pretty isolated up here when I grew up and we made do with whatever.

A note about the life of the structure, it's going to be based on the two bottom parts of the front and back frames. They lie directly on the ground. I don't use treated wood with my compost, so I'll just live with the temporary nature of those two pieces of 2X6 on the bottom. If I did another one I would use 2X8's for the front and back frames. (And maybe treated 2X8's for the ones flat on the ground.)
Carol

Carol....sorry about the poor use of the word Dutch. We have learned to take it easy on the Polish jolks. My personal genetics go back to Dutch German. The term "Dumb Dutch" was and may still be common poor use teasing of the farming often uneducated Dutch community. My dad had a third grade education. He was self educated from that point on to become a very much recognized home builder. To his peers he was re-writing the Dumb Dutch play book. :) We kids were likely the most frequent passers of the Dumb Dutch title when things did not go right for us or any friend.

I thought that "too Dutch" meant "frugal", or "plain", as in "not fancy".
At least that's how it was explained to me by some of the Engineers from PA that i work with!
I had no idea it was a negative.

In our german house it meant extra effort to be really clean (as in give that pan a little extra dutch), and sometimes stubborn (meant in a loving way).

Docgipe, I asked my husband, who is first-generation Dutch (father born in Utrecht before he emigrated to America at age 12) and he remembered some of his Dutch relatives in Grand Rapids, MI, using the term "dutchy" to mean extra-frugal--though it was not necessarily said in a negative way!!


This message was edited Nov 25, 2007 4:29 PM

Ahhh, now that I think of it, "going Dutch" meant each payed for his or her meal when dining out. I think it wasn't done much or thought well mannered for a man to expect a woman, he had asked out to pay in that situation. I see. "Frugal" would cover it.
Carol

I keep coming back and looking at these pictures so much you'd think I was admiring a piece of fine art... and in a way I guess that is exactly what I am doing. For a great compost bin is truly a beautiful sight to behold. And these are a beautiful for sure!

Ahh Zany, you're making me blush, I was on some other compost threads and got an Idea to improve this design. Take 3 inch PVC with holes drilled out all the way down it, and cut to the width of each bin. Every foot in height of compost you lay a bunch ( this size bay, about 3 to 4 from front to back), then cover the pipe generously with clean, dry, fluffy airholding straw and continuing building up the layers of compost over that and every foot or so, put another layer w/straw over the pipe and so on to the top. The addition of air all the way through would help tremendously, I think. So, come spring, I'll start my collection of suitable sized pipe and start drilling. We shall see Hmmmm thinking, thinking...

I found a pic of my old compost bin. Behind me is the old monstrosity and in front of me is a temporary bin made on a pallet with sides and covered with screen. (I used it as a temporary bin when removing the uncomposted detritus collected over the winter (covering the finished stuff beneath) and actually made a batch in it that year.) We have use of a fork lift and could move the filled temporary pallet bin when full. This was when I found the scrapped out porch in a pile at the airport and was huckle-dee-buck on emptying out the old bin and readying a site for my new creation.

Isn't it wonderful to look back and see your creation come together and evolve over time! I read about the pipes and it does sound like a great idea. Especially for those who manage to create large piles inside bins like yours that are more enclosed.

I was thinking about that perforated pvc pipe they have for leach lines. It is already drilled with holes that are evenly spaced.

I found a front on view of my old compost monstrosity. I had removed the top layers into the temporary bin on the pallet w/sides of screen and am down to the good stuff. That's a lot of compost I sold that year. When I finally got it empty I dismantled it and found some tree roots that had grown into it, Mountain ash and Mayday or bird Cherry.
The force is with us Carrie
Hmmm already perferated, huh, better and better.

Hmmm, you keep perfecting your production and I will be seeing your kickin' *** compost in stores near me.