As we have a garden of our own, we're getting some garden waste we would need to get rid of. In addition to this we have a bokashi composter in our kitchen which would need a post-composting spot, where we're mixing the compost in some old soil. The fresh food compost mass from the bokashi has so much nutrients it's not good for plants, so it needs to be mixed in some old soil.
So I decided I could build a simple but sturdy post-composter which can also be used for the ton of leaves we get in our garden every fall. Every god damn fall.
The plan is simple. We kill Batman The composter is 80 cm wide, 44 cm deep (40 cm long wood on sides + 2*2 cm because the long wood is 2 cm wide) and the height was to be determined when I was building this. Ultimately it was approx. 70 cm high, but I didn't know it at this point.
I had some old impregnated wood and bought 20 meters of new wood for this project.
The bottom piece is made from old impregnated wood I had. The longer pieces are 80 cm and the shorter ones were cut to make sure the total depth is approx. 44 cm.
As it still contains food compost, it's good to add a metal net in the bottom. The bottom is otherwise open to make sure that the microbes and worms from the soil can reach the compost. The net was attached by wide headed screws. To make sure rodents will not dig their way in from the sides, remember to use enough screws.
I built the first layer of the composter and attached the bottom piece with screws in it.
I built only the first layer and then added the first bar on the inside. There's 3 screws holding it, so it will not fall down and will allow me to start building the composter around it.
To make the construction simpler, the screws are pre-screwn in the wood.
It's easy to lift the pre-screwed wood (haha.. it's screwed) on it's place and screw it. I'm only attaching it from one side to make sure I can adjust the height easily.
I attached 6 layers of wood and as the wooden bar used was longer than it needed to be, I measured how high it should be. I held the 7th layer piece on the side and held a piece from the future lid to see the required height of the support bar.
The bar was cut. Not straight but fast.
Then I attached the 7th layer. The support bar is now left lower than the side wall is, but this is to leave some room for the lid. The lid will be restin on the side bars.
I cut the remaining bars to same height and added them in each corner. It was quick to attach the screws on the second bar too.
One side ready, but now already at a good phase.
The second wall was added in very similar way than the first one, but now I could attach both sides on the same time. This could be possible for most people too if you know how high composter you'll build. I didn't know so I had to see it before I knew what I want.
When attaching the longer side, remember to pre-screw the screws further away from the end of the wood. If you're not pre-screwing them, this is not an issue.
First long side built. This is also a real fast job.
Now you can easily put the composter to lie down and attach the remaining few pieces.
The remaining pieces were used to build a lid. One piece had to be cut in half as otherwise it would have been too wide, but it was no issue.
I used two remaining pieces of the wooden bar I had and attached the lid pieces together.
As I wanted proper handles for this, I used regular timber to make two handles. I used a single 15 cm wide piece of timber and used a jigsaw to freely cut a handle shaped piece of it. The only markings I made was how far I can cut and how much space I'll need for my hands on the handle.
I've never made handles before so I had no idea what to take in consideration.
The shape was pretty simple, I wanted the ends to be flat and long so it'd be easy to screw. The hole in the middle has to be large enough that it's easy to open even with gloves on.
As the first handle was good, I drew a rough sketch to get the second handle as similar as possible.
The jigsaw is not actually moving in the photo, I just wanted to get a photo of the work.
Never use power tools and take photos the same time.
To give a finishing touch to the handles, some sanding paper will do wonders. It'll help to get the rough edges off and makes them pleasant to touch.
I'm doing my best to be humble, but I think this looks nice.
Especially as I'm actually quite crap in woodcrafts.
The compost is finished. Now it's just waiting to be used and I'm hoping it'll stay in good shape for years to come.
