Worm Farm in a wheelie bin, instructions?

Discussion in 'Designing, building, making and powering your life' started by emptyfield, Dec 16, 2009.

  1. emptyfield

    emptyfield Junior Member

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    We want to make a couple of Wheelie bin Worm Farms but our google searches aren't coming up with anything very helpful?

    Does anyone have a good link on how to make a Worm Farm out of a Wheelie bin?
     
  2. emptyfield

    emptyfield Junior Member

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    Or books or anything?

    We want to make one for our IL's for Xmas too!
     
  3. emptyfield

    emptyfield Junior Member

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    I found this on another forum:

    WHEELIE BIN WORM FARM

    You will need:
    • Drill with a ½ cm bit and a 2 cm bit (could be manual but electric is easier!)
    • A jig-saw (electric is the only way I am afraid!)
    • A tap to fit in the 2cm hole (with the washers etc, because you will be fixing it into the wheelie bin)
    • Two ½ cm bolts about 5cm long with nuts and washers (x 4)
    • A permanent marker pen and a ruler
    • Two dead wheelie bins – You need an almost intact bin, preferably with wheels still in place and with a lid. We used crushed or dented ones that we manhandled to pop out the dents (it can be done, takes elbow grease and some leverage). The second one can be much more damaged – we used ones that people had been silly enough to put ash in so had melted part of the side, but one with lost lid and wheels can also be an excellent choice.

    MAIN BODY OF WORM FARM
    Once you have got the dents out, then the next step is to mark up the cuts and the holes you are going to make on the lid and the sides you are going to want air holes – the worms need these to keep well – and it prevents the stuff fermenting and decaying.
    On the lid and sides mark a shape like below and use the ½ cm bit to drill holes about every 4 cm along each of the lines – it will look like this star made of lots of holes (about 10-15 on each line) See picture 1
    https://groups.msn.com/iVillageGoingGreen/wheeliebinwormfarm.msnw?action=ShowPhoto&PhotoID=382
    Then on the front of the wheelie bin you want to make the emptying hole for getting your beautiful worm compost out of – this should look something like this Picture 2.
    https://groups.msn.com/iVillageGoingGreen/wheeliebinwormfarm.msnw?action=ShowPhoto&PhotoID=377
    Notice, it is in the bottom 1/3 of the wheelie bin, but is not at the very bottom – make it about 15 cm up from the bottom of the wheelie bin.

    Next you will want to put in your tap hole for getting “worm juice” or liquid fertiliser out. This is done using your 2cm drill and is as close to the bottom of the wheelie bin as possible. Put your tap in (we used steel taps that we had sourced cheaply, mainly because others were prone to rust! One clever spark suggested you could just use a length of pipe and a bung – which would work but we haven’t tried it! See Picture 3 for positioning of the tap
    https://groups.msn.com/iVillageGoingGreen/wheeliebinwormfarm.msnw?action=ShowPhoto&PhotoID=378
    Now you have the body of your worm farm made you have two more parts to make – the internal base of the farm and the hatch.

    INTERNAL BASE OF THE WORM FARM
    With your second dead wheelie bin remove the wheels and cut out the base about 4 cm from the bottom, so you have a shallow “tray” like Picture 4
    https://groups.msn.com/iVillageGoingGreen/wheeliebinwormfarm.msnw?action=ShowPhoto&PhotoID=379
    Make the holes in the bottom of the base like shown on the main body pattern. Then drop this in the main body – this will fit together BEAUTIFULLY (they are designed to stack without their wheels, giving you a space above your base to the bottom of the access whole of about 10cm, and below it a gap of about 3-4 cm for worm juice. If it is not dropping in easily you may have tried putting it in back to front – where the wheels were, need to be at the same side as where the wheels are on the worm farm.

    HATCH
    This is probably the hardest bit of the whole farm to make (and it is still not too hard at all). You need to make a paper pattern to draw round, which will look something like Picture 5 – you will need to do some measuring to get it right!
    https://groups.msn.com/iVillageGoingGreen/wheeliebinwormfarm.msnw?action=ShowPhoto&PhotoID=381

    The black curves need to be cut about ¾ cm wide and are ¼ of a circle going from about 3 cm from edge of the bin at point A, to about 2 cm from the side edge and 5 cm from the bottom at point B.
    Once you have cut around this shape and cut the curves then hold the shape against the main bin, it will look something like Picture 6
    https://groups.msn.com/iVillageGoingGreen/wheeliebinwormfarm.msnw?action=ShowPhoto&PhotoID=381

    With the black pen, mark through the curved slots point C on either side.
    At each point C, drill a hole and put a bolt through holding the flap in place on the side of the main body of the worm farm. This will allow the flap to be opened and closed making it a chute for pulling the worm compost out onto.

    USING A WORM FARM
    You have now finished your worm farm and can start using it. Because this is very secure from rats and cats and other vermin you can put meat scraps and cooked food in as well as the regular worm farm bits. It is best with a mixture of food stuff and not too much in the way of grass clippings. Don’t put in weeds like oxalis because it doesn’t ferment and cook like a compost heap does! Tiger worms were the recommended species in NZ. Buy about ½ a kg of worms to start your farm – you will also need about 20cm of scraps in the bottom of the bin – so you may have to do a neighbourhood collection for that first amount of scraps. Keep adding scraps on top of your worm farm- the worms eat their way up the stack and the compost drops to the bottom. At about 2-3 weeks you will be able to drain off the first lot of worm liquid which is EXCELLENT on high nutrient need plants such as tomatoes. In about 4-6 weeks, you will be able to start taking small amounts of the worm compost off at the bottom. Generally the compost will be relatively worm free, but if there are some of the wrigglies in the mix, then you can pull the compost out onto the landing stage and they will wriggle their way back into the main body of the farm away from the light
    This Aussie council website has the best set of tips I have seen on maintenance of your worm farm, and how to solve common problems.
    https://www.darebin.vic.gov.au/page/page.asp?Page_Id=1661&h=0#BM4772
    The great thing about it being on wheels is in this country you can shift it round depending on the weather AND you can also wheel it to where you need the compost! Piece of cake.

    Thanks to Ben at EcoMatters in Waitakere City, New Zealand who invented this but didn’t write it down!
     
  4. aaronboultbee

    aaronboultbee New Member

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    Hello I am interested in making one of these but all the links to the images are broken, can these be emailed or re linked. Would love to see how it was done.
     
  5. briansworms

    briansworms Junior Member

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    There is a commercially made one avaiable in Australia but I only just deleted the link I had on the weekend along with about a dozen others. Brians Worms would be happy to supply the worms if you are in Australia.

    Found it https://www.wormsdownunder.com.au/wormhabitat.html
     
  6. Homesoil

    Homesoil New Member

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    Hi
    Are these images still available. I cant access them
    Thanks
     

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