how to make a compost tumbler for around $20

Today’s post is a guest post by Jeff. He wanted to share with you how he made a 55 gallon compost tumbler for around $20. We had seen compost tumblers in gardening catalogs for over $200 and Jeff was inspired to make his own. We have a compost pile out back and putting our kitchen scraps there (that the chickens don’t eat) would attract wild animals and rodents. Not ideal at all. I wanted to reserve our compost pile for just garden debris and have a compost tumbler for all our food bits. Jeff was so excited to make it, we didn’t even wash off the dirt on the barrel before he got started and I began snapping pictures of the process. Afterwards, we placed our compost tumbler right out the back door, conveniently located not far from the kitchen. After we put the stuff to be composted inside, we roll the barrel with our hands. Compost tumblers are good for urban areas as well, much tidier than a traditional compost pile. I’ll hand it over to Jeff now.

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I’ve always had a Compost Heap.

The soil here wasn’t even soil when I moved in.

It was clay.

So right off I hauled in Truckloads of Chicken Manure

and Hay and Alfalfa

and Rock dust.

And Piled it up 10 feet tall…

Right on top of the Well.

OOPS

Well, we found the Well.

And the beauty of a compost heap is..

It feeds the Garden

from Kitchen

and Yard waste.

And since I’ve always kept a big compost heap,

I’ve always had an incredible Garden.

Big fat healthy Vegetables and Fruit.

Problem is,

after Bracken was born we got rid of our dogs,

and cats…..

Now, not only are our vegetables big and fat,

But the neighborhood rats, and skunks, and mice

and Bear…. all fat…

And Livin High off our compost heap.

Well, when you don’t have dogs and cats…..

You get varmints…

And the compost heap was just feeding those varmints

in High Style.

Then they decided they wanted to co-habitate

with us here in this home of ours.

Taryn didn’t much like this arrangement…

And constantly was…

…Inspiring me…

to make a Compost Tumbler to help

eliminate our Varmint problem.

As when we priced compost tumblers online

and in stores….

Well we decided we’d rather eat….

An extra few hundred bucks..

We NEVER have…

SO, it became a Jeff Project.

We started out with this 55 gallon plastic drum

we got from GloryBee Foods in Eugene,

for 10 dollars.

Score !

I marked the Door on it

Drilled the corners.

Then Borrowed a neighbors saw,
(since mine chose this day to quit working)

Cut out the Door (it doesn’t have to be real tight.. Airflow is good)
I was going to use 3 Palettes
in a U shape
for the base.
And mount wheels on top for rollers for it to roll on.
Then Taryn said,
“What about that thing”.
Well “that thing” was a perfect fit…
I was going to use it for another project,
(an industrial sized Food Dehydrator)
But I think I actually have another.
These were the bases of some machinery
where a friend worked.
They just left it when the closed down
and said he could have any he wanted…
So I traded something and got two of these bases
with machinery on them.
For Free.
Fits like it was made for it.

I got wheels from Harbor Freight

The cheapest were a couple bucks each ..

and I had a coupon..

I put a 2 by 2 across the top of the stand
to mount the wheels to.

Then drilled holes for hinges and hasps

(gotten from Garage sales in the past for pennies.)

Drilled the end for air flow.

Attached hinges and hasps
A lonely goose came by for a visit.
YAY, he made a friend!!!

Here it is rolling on the wheels