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| I'm thinking of making a 3' diameter x 4' long drum composter for small batch compost.
For those with experience using drum (barrel) composters, does the material get hot enough, minimum of 131 degrees? Thanks |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| Mine does. Lloyd |
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| Nice looking tumbler. Can you give me details on how you made it? What guage is the metal? Are the sides plywood? Can't tell from the picture. How do you turn it? I would think that is pretty heavy when full. Anything else you can tell me about the construction.... Thanks |
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| We used 1/2 inch angle iron for the ribs of the drum. The ends are galvanized sheet steel and the X on the ends is just 3 inch flat steel. The 'skin' is left over roofing tin from a shed we built riveted and screwed onto the ribs. The crank on the end is attached to a steel pipe through the centre that the whole unit pivots on. The frame is two A-frames with some angle iron for bracing. Different pictures here. When full, it is very easy to turn, one hand will do it. Once it gets to the end of the heat cycle and the material only half fills the drum, then it needs a little more oomph to turn it. I'm a big guy so no problem for me. Lloyd |
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| I saw a note on the pictures you have that you gave up the large composting bins. Why was that? |
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| A neighbour needed the feeders for his cattle so we sold them. Had nothing to do with composting. Lloyd |
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| I used a tumbler for two years. It was about ten cubic feet in volume, got up to 160F. But it was too much work for the results, now I use two large mesh bins. Cheaper, easier to move, easy to put together (the instructions for the tumbler said two hours to assemble, took me three), less problems with odors, not as much clumping as tumbler, better with problematic ingredients like smelly fish parts. And large mesh bins do better in the winter. Both my mesh bins, 4'deep by 8'wide by 2' high, have been above 100F for six weeks, after an initial core temp of around 140F. If I had shredded the leaves to a smaller size, the composting process would have gone even quicker. But ever since I blew the engine on my shredder, the lawn mower had been my only choice. When I was using the tumbler it took three tries to get the temp way up to 160-165F. On the third try I measured the C:N ratio very carefully. Year four the center bar rusted thru and I gave the thing away.
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