Pallet Compost Bin

Earlier this year we decided to make a compost tumbler, which I'll deconstruct and post later. But we realized it won't be enough composting room.  So we've built a compost bin.  We used recycled (free) pallets, nails from breaking down other pallets, some 2" screws  from another project, and 2 hinges, (purchased new).  Everything else was recycled. 

I am not including measurements because pallets come in many different shapes and sizes. Just modify what your doing, make sure it stays up, because really... it just holds compost. 

This Jacob moving the bark and loosing the soil, this will help the worms and other ground insects get into the pile easier. Plus we had to move, our drip line so it wouldn't be crushed.

Sorry but this was to cute not to add. Jacob with the axe.

The first pallet we attached to the fence, using the old screws.

This is a small piece of wood we are using as a support to attach the back pallet with the west side wall. Using pallets is a bit difficult because the structure makes them hard to connect. We could have used heavy gage wire but we didn't have that and didn't want to buy anything we didn't have to.

A second view of  the west wall being fastened to the back wall.

Jacob is screwing in 2" screw into the base of  the west wall, thus attaching the bottom of the west wall to the back wall. 

We opted to add additional support for the side walls. Mainly because we needed to construct a gate (dogs think compost is cool) the gate will prevent our dog from having fun at our compost's expense. This diagonal board gives the side walls of the bin extra support. Plus in Cheney we have strong wind gusts.

The gate. We used a circular saw to cut a pallet in half.  This gate took some figuring out again because of pallet construction we had to add something to hook the gate hinges too. 

Below is a picture of the two small boards we had to add in order to attach the gate hinges.

An arial view of the boards. They each stick out 2.5",  just enough to attach the hinges.

The top hinge.

The bottom hinge.

Jacob is hammering in the extra support board anchoring the back pallet with the east wall. 

We again added a diagonal support board. Just to give each wall some stability. We also anchored the east wall at the bottom to the back pallet (shown on the other side).

Ta Da! The completed pallet compost bin. Not much too it.

With the gate open.