How To Make A DIY 2-Bucket Worm Composter For FREE

hi it's time from green shorts DIY and today I want to show you how you can make what I think is the simplest and least expensive worm composting bin out there I call it the two bucket worm composter and I think I can do it in under 10 minutes stay tuned to make the two bucket worm composter we're going to use two five-gallon buckets as the name would imply and a lid that I happen to have around and some old screen the buckets are ones that I've salvaged so this is the old paint bucket and a sheetrock bucket and this screen I actually pulled out of a door that was being thrown away so all these materials actually got for free now if you went out and bought these materials you'd probably spend about you know two-and-a-half to three dollars for each bucket and maybe about twenty-five for the lid you can actually find small screen patches that are used to repair screens and you can use those for your bit holes instead of a bunch of screen like this so you don't need to buy a whole roll tools for the project include a trill 1/2 inch or larger spade bit or hole saw a quarter inch or larger drill bit sandpaper waterproof glue or adhesive caulk and a box knife or scissors because I'm using salvaged paint buckets I'm adding a clean-out step using vinegar and paper towels thicker areas of paint will simply pull off but I'm using the sandpaper to remove any stubborn residue before wiping down with the vinegar don't let the low price of this composter fool you this is a very effective worm composter I've I've been used in this design longer than when using my to tote or a bin system still like this I had a request for a less-expensive worm composting option and so I'm making this video so you can do it yourself let's get started all right so I've got my two buckets prepped I got my tools and materials lined up and now we're going to start the clock the timecode in the right hand corner is real time but I'll be speeding the video up so you don't have to watch it in real time first I'll be adding eight vent holes with my 3/4 inch spade bit nobody done like staying in so I've got eight holes here and now I'm going to cut eight pieces of screen first I'm going to use my sandpaper to roughen up the surface here pull any burrs off just get a rough little texture on there it's going to make this a better gluing surface for our screens I'm gonna cut eight pieces of screen this is a little beat up so I'll have to just avoid the nasty spots which is fine because it's free so I'm cutting a strip a couple inches wide here that's going to be wide enough to extend beyond the edges of my hole enough that I can get a nice strip of caulk around here to anchor it down I'm also going to cut off this little curvy part cuz that'll want to cause trouble look at that like I measured it next I'll add a healthy bead of the adhesive waterproof caulk around each hole staying back about 1/4 inch from the edge I'm going to take a screen and press it in I'm gonna pull the back away from the hole get a nice adhesive surface and not show through to the top it's not the end of the world that it does but I like keeping it clean and add a little bit more here just because I like keeping these edges all the way down the more adhesive surface the better alright alright so we're going to set this aside here's a quick tip off the clock set the lid in the Sun so the adhesive can cure the last step we're going to switch drill bits angle down a little more here basic Bennett drill holes in the bottom of this bucket and we're done just that simple okay so I didn't hit my 10-minute window but if you figure for camera moves and reconnecting drill bits it was probably about 10 actually there is one more step I wanted it the way the worm bin functions is we're going to put our compostables and our worms in the top bucket we're going to run water through that the holes in the bucket allow the water to drain into the bottom bucket that's our compost tea that's one of the best outputs we get from our worm composting bin we can mix that with water in a one-to-one ratio we've got a great organic liquid fertilizer the worm castings are also an output of the worm bin and they're going to be a slower by-product the worm take a little bit longer to sort of digest everything into castings so I don't get as much worm castings out of my bin as I do worm tea one thing I've noticed with my worms in this particular system is that some they're going to find their way through the holes in the bottom of the bucket into the lower bucket which is going to have a liquid in it and unfortunately when they get down there they can't get out and they drown so one thing I'm going to try in this system is I'm going to put a layer of screen in the bottom of this bucket just to provide a little extra layer of protection and keep the worms from going through now they could probably get under that screen because I'm not going to glue it down and want to be able to rinse this thing out when I transfer the worms or cycle it out so I'm going to just cut a circle that sits right down in the bottom of this bucket and I'll see if that helps keep worms from getting through and drowning especially on a rough square here out of the screen I'm just going to hand cut this to match the bottom of the buckets this is a extra step if you end up just buying screen patches and you don't want to buy a big piece of screen you could probably do just fine without having this in there I'm going to give this thing a test and see if health reforms from arming themselves all right so there's our circle I will set that in the bottom of this bucket I will do another video on how to install the worms into this bucket in fact I just got a new shipment forms yesterday from Uncle Jim's worm farm online resource I'll have a link to their website in the description below as well as a 10% off coupon for online orders now full disclosure I don't make any money off that coupon I just love this service I get from Uncle Jim's well there you have it the two bucket worm composter and I made this thing for less than a dollar and you figure I found most of these materials the adhesive was probably the only thing I had to pay for and I've got a lot left for another project where I'm composting is an excellent practice because it reduces what you put in the trash and then turns those materials and kitchen scraps into super rich organic garden soil and organic liquid fertilizer in the warm tea you bought those products at the home-improvement store you'd be spending a ton of money our mission here at green shorts is to help you see green so you can be green and save a little green by doing it yourself thanks for watching please like and share this video and subscribe for new videos every Friday

Channel: GreenShortz DIY

Views: 674,458

Rating: 4.8403745 out of 5

Keywords: worm composting, $10 worm composter, composting worms, composting with worms, DIY, vermicompost, How to, GreenShortz DIY, Do it yourself, vermicomposting, composting, green living, compost, $10 Worm bin, reuse, recycle, upcycle, organic, garden

Id: 5S1YWSdJ_PI

Length: 9min 47sec (587 seconds)

Published: Fri May 13 2016