timnbama
User
A Protected Species Earthworm
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tin bottomed bins - 2008/10/11 21:46
Since I had about 154 linear feet of 7' and 14' tin left from building my barn this spring I'm making worm bin bottoms out of it. It's 36" wide with 5 ribs counting the 2 on the edges with 34" in between those. I cut my ends 34" wide and the sides 3-1/2" shy of 7', set the saw to about 42-1/2 deg. to match the rib angle and clamp several boards together with clamps. Then measure and draw a staight line across all boards then make 2 angled cuts. The little angled wedge usually pops out or a 1" wood chiesel drove in pops them out. The frame gets put together with very long screws. Then a heavy bead of caulking on the ends before the tin is set into the v's. The tin is screwed down with screws then nailed in between with ring-shank nails.
I'm drilling 12 small drain holes in the bottom then covering them with a piece of window screening held down with a couple of pieces of tin riveted in place. The extra width of tin on the sides is then ripped off with the recipcrocating saw with a bi-metal blade then ground smooth with the side grinder. A piece of 1x3 is angled and nailed onto the upper corner of each corner to reinforce that. A couple of 1x braces across the bottom should prevent sagging.
I have 4 of them finished now, stacked up in the barn. When I get them all made I'm going to put legs on them and start setting them up. It doesn't take too long to put one together compared to making it all of plywood. With the boards being 1-3/4" & some 2" thick poplar and sweetgum lumber they should last for a while. With 14 bins of worms now I hope that I'll soon need some of these. I'll shoot a few pics and post them when I can. This and I ground about 3 pounds of egg shells to a fine powder today, those are rough on the sinuses.
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