"Mary Fisher" wrote in message
t...

"John T" wrote in message
...

"Mary Fisher" wrote in message
t...

"Pete C" wrote in message
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Has anyone here designed and built their own rotating composter? Looked
at commercial ones, but I can't afford a second mortgage!

They are ridiculously expensive aren't they!

My reply is no, but if I were starting again - i.e. without the three or
more bins we have and don't want to be mde redunandant, we probably
would.

You know those rotary bins they use (or used to use) for tombola
tickets? One of those could do the job ...

Mary

I did consider building a rotating composter, because of the very high
cost of the commercial ones.
I sketched out a hexagonal cylinder, with wooden ends, an axle, and a
crank handle, all set up on a trestle arrangement.

Trouble is, if you make it big enough, the engineering gets either
complex if you make it in wood, or very difficult unless you have an
engineering machin shop or a millwright for a mate.
There are not to many millwrights around, so the commercial rotating
comosters suddenly become more viable!

Spouse could make one but there are more pressing things to do ...

My current solution is to use three plastic bins, stir it with a good old
fashioned pitch fork, and if i need fine stuff to put it through a
rotasieve, i can recommend the rotasieve, it seemed to be all wrong in
principle, but it does work.

I didn't know there was such a thing - I've been using a large riddle to
do that for years :-)

But I might consider getting him to make one on legs, with a handle ...
thanks!

Mary

If you look in Harrods website,
http://www.harrodhorticultural.com/H...ry/Composting/
you will find pictures of the rotasieve, they are not the only suppliers of
this item.

I thought hard about the rotating sieve, and realised that it had other
uses, and although expensive, was easier than developing the design, then
making one and learning the hard way. I have only moved home last year, and
got a much bigger vegetable garden, but less workshop than the old place!

On the rotating one, i worked out how big the bearings had to be for a
proper engineering job, bearing in mind how big it has to be, then i worked
out the axle stresses, and decided it was a millwrights job as above.

I understand you can get an electric rotary soil sifter from Draper?

Good luck to anyone who tries, would be interested to know how you get on.
My e-mail address isnt encrypted or messed around with.

John