How To Build a Compost Spinner
by Collin Dunn, Corvallis, OR, USA 
on 10. 7.07
Vloggers The Urban Homesteaders, from Rochester, NY, have put together this handy how-to guide for building your own compost spinner, to help you accelerate the composting process. They built it entirely from recycled and salvaged materials, making it a pretty green process, and costing them exactly $0 and an afternoon of labor. Watch the video, about 10 minutes, for specific, step-by-step instructions; the basic instructions go like this:
1. Get a compost bin -- plastic drum, old garbage can, etc., as long as it has a secure lid.
2. Drill vertical holes in the bin, to provide proper aeration.
3. Put a pole (they recommend aluminum) through the center of the barrel, as an axis for the barrel to spin on.
4. Build a base upon which to suspend the barrel.
5. Install the barrel, and spin, spin, spin. ::YouTube via ::Hugg
Difficulty level: Moderate
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Their homepage is www.TheUrbanHomesteaders.com .... This article didn't mention it.
What waste of time and energy.
Why not just roll the bin around on the ground, then after a while roll it over to where you want the finish product then tip it up.
What is wrong with an old-fashioned compost heap? Why the haste?
The reason for "tumbling" is to aerate the compost better and get a finished product sooner. Nice design, thoughtful display. My idea would be to mount the barrel horizontally in a rack using something like roller skates to allow it to roll. I am afraid that the barrel will suffer rotating on the shaft when it gets full. The horizontal method puts the strain on the rollers which will have more surface area.
This may give me the impetus to finish my design.
Thanx
very helpful. i've been bringing scraps from work (a preschool kitchen) and my compost tub is overflowing. so a faster break-down time would be great. thank you urban homesteaders!
If you live in an area that has a winter frost, you are going to want to make sure that the posts go at least a foot below the frost line (can be anywhere from a couple inches to a couple feet, depending on how long and cold your winters are), otherwise the posts will slowly inch their way out of the ground.
Other than that it is not a bad idea. It is always great to see people reuse old stuff to make new cool things. Even if it doesn't work (I have never tried a compost spinner) it is still a cool idea, and I am sure they would learn lessons that would make the next design even better. Good job.