Compost Hopper

[Munroast]

I was wanting to build a hopper to keep compost in, put it in the top, shovel it out of the bottom, if it is straight sided it will just stick to the sides and lock itself into place, two sloping edges would help it fall naturally - but what angle do i use - anyone have experience of this

Needs to be approx a cubic meter internally, so it will be big!

 

[morqthana]

Try the gardening forum?

But I always got good results from building basically cuboid structures from old pallets (a plentiful resource, always available for free). They provide ventilation, which compost heaps need. You can make one side, or the bottom half of one side, easy to remove to get at the compost. Or if you want to get really fancy, buy a couple of T-strap gate hinges.

Eventually they rot away, but it takes quite a few years to become useless.

 

[King Billy]

For a small domestic situation, a quick and easy solution is a couple of rubber/plastic bins with the bottom cut out.
Fill one for a month or two, then swap to the other while the first rots down and is ready.....ad infinitum.
When ready you can simply lift the bin off the compost.

 

[Stivino]

You could copy one of these. Or, just buy one, sometimes they are going cheap on Gumtree and the likes.

 

[blup]

Just make it square , it will stick anyway

 

[Ivor Windybottom]

I never found the hatch at the bottom to be of any use, it just blocks up and is impossible to shovel from. At best you'll get a shovelful then the rest will stay above it. You only need a couple of twigs to make it stick.

We used to just have two large plastic compost barrels. Fill one, when it's full transfer its contents into the second (mixing/inverting it) then start filling it again. When both are full, empty the entire second one around the garden, transfer the first into the second, and so on.

 

[Munroast]

I never found the hatch at the bottom to be of any use, it just blocks up and is impossible to shovel from. At best you'll get a shovelful then the rest will stay above it. You only need a couple of twigs to make it stick.

We used to just have two large plastic compost barrels. Fill one, when it's full transfer its contents into the second (mixing/inverting it) then start filling it again. When both are full, empty the entire second one around the garden, transfer the first into the second, and so on.

you are confirming my doubts

 

[Ivor Windybottom]

The standard plastic compost bins are fine, just ignore the hatch at the bottom. You can lift the entire thing, it slides up off the compost and leaves you a heap of half-rotted stuff. It takes a few minutes to shovel this back in (inverting it, leaving the newest stuff at the bottom), then you start again.

Google compost bin and your local council name. You should be able to buy a couple delivered for very little, they're usually subsidised by the council. Get the biggest size they do, the little ones aren't worth bothering with.

 

[morqthana]

You could copy one of these. Or, just buy one, sometimes they are going cheap on Gumtree and the likes.

OK - these sorts of things are smarter than old pallets (may not be an issue - depends where it will be), but very similar in basic appearance

The DIY (and why not?) version:

pallet composter - Bing

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Or if you want to get really fancy, buy a couple of T-strap gate hinges.