So I had this crazy idea, now that I’m Johnny Appleseed, to build a home composter. So I found the instructions at the Lowe’s website, and away I went.   You’ll notice the instructions say this is a 5-hour project.  It took me 4 weeks on and off due to kids, PTA, weather, and did I mention we have kids?

Good tools to have: 

• A sliding miter saw with a laser line.  I only had a miter saw, so I actually had to cut boards as far as I could, then flip them over.  The circular saw worked OK sometimes, but a more expense and cool sliding laser line miter saw would have been much faster (and more expensive!)
• Clamps:  Clamps really came in handy for holding boards together while attaching with screws
• A combination square really makes it easy to cut square and to scribe a line when you are always losing your pencil like me.
• A mini cordless circular saw really helps when making notches for stuff.  I even cut some planks with this when i was too lazy to take out the miter saw from the shed again.
• Screws:  These instructions called for lots of nails.  Maybe it’s because I was an English major, but I really cannot drive nails very well–they always bend, go in sideways, etc.  So I ended up using screws for everything.  The more macho-inclined people at my work told me they always use screws as well, because A) it’s easier, and B) if you make a mistake, you can just unscrew it.  I confirmed this when it took me about 15 minutes to remove the first nail I put in.
• An air compressor is a very handy thing to have, especially when you are driving in tons of staples to hold down hardware cloth.  I tried a regular heavy-duty hardware stapler, and it barely worked at all.  I’m glad I dragged this outside–it took about 10 minutes per screen.  It was also a good way to threaten the kids.  (And please don’t mention it took me about 15 minutes to figure out how to get the staples in…)

Mistakes I Made:

I am but an rank amateur woodworker, and I always make mistakes that haunt my every waking hour, whereas professionals would just shrug and move on.  Among my mistakes with this project were:

• Cut the wrong wood:  My kids were distracting, I was just trying to make some cuts, and i ended up cutting the wrong wood — 12 pieces of it!  Luckily, I cut it longer than it needed to be, so I didnt actually waste any of it.
• Tried to use nails when I am not macho enough
• Got two different kinds of hardware cloth — you’ll see one side is 1/2″ and the other side is 1/4″.  Once again, distracted by children.  Damn their hides!
• Not exactly square:  I having a framing square, but was too busy to use it, and the right side of the composter ended up being slightly higher, due to a floor board that was slightly higher, due to the instuctions not being clear about the space between the floorboards.  When you are working with wood like this, it really breally helps to check and double check, because one mistake begats another down the line.  But , like my neighor would say, it still works, so what am I worrying about?

Total cost, in case you’re interested, was about $150.

Next up:  An arbor and sitting area.  Or a picnic table.  Pray for me.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 19th, 2008 at 7:03 am and is filed under Brad the Builder. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.