Hi I am Craig Phillips and in this video I am going to show you how to build your own
composter using reclaimed pallet wood.
The tools you are going to need are a circular saw, if you don't have one a hand saw is OK,
a set square, chisel, mallet, clamps, and also a workbench.
And it is really simple to construct, just a number of small cuts.
I am going to start to take it apart and show you the first section.
This was one piece of a pallet slat.
It is cut down in size but you can see the small sections notched out of each end.
Now they are the same all the way around, on this piece, this piece and so on.
All you need to now is what size to cut them and how to cut them.
Once you have decided how big you want your composter you can get your pallet slats, mark
them up, and cut them down.
They are usually about 12mm in length, I am going to cut ours to exactly a meter.
Using a set square making sure the cut I am about to do is nice and square.
Using a workbench to clamp it into position and you can cut them down using your handsaw.
Now the way the corners are interlocking together, this is what you need to do.
First you have got to find out the position where they are.
I am going to get a set square, I am going to set it back about 50mm in.
You want to place that on the corner, and I am going to but a mark where that is 50mm
in on the both corners here and also the opposite end here.
Then I want to get a piece of cutoff, because we know the thickness of this is going to
be the same as that.
I am going to put that directly on top of my two marks and mark the opposite side of
it.
That way I have now got four marks on the both ends here and here and here and here.
We now want to set this in, around about 20mm.
We want to place that on the top in between the two marks and draw a line like this and
same again that end.
What that has done is draw me a small square here and a small square here.
I am now going to cut this out, do the same on the adjacent piece and then they should
interlock in together.
Now to cut down your first mark, only up until where the back line is, and then square your
saw upright and stop once you meet your pencil mark, and
then same again on the opposite piece.
That one there, do the same on the back piece.
OK the four cuts now are coming down to your pencil mark.
Bring your piece of wood closer into your workbench, clamp it down so it is nice and
secure and then using your chisel and your mallet
simple notch out that section of wood.
What we have achieved here is two small notches taken out of there, we will repeat that on
the opposite end.
Remember we are going to stack them four pieces high and we will simply interlock them in
around each corner.
That is my fourteen lengths cut to size and all notched out.
That is 12 here and these two I have actually cut right down the centre, I'll show you how
to do them in a moment.
The reason we have to cut them is because the bottom and the top have to rely on them
sections to be put into position so we start to build up the corner by interlocking the
notched out sections we created.
And within a couple of seconds you start to see the box start to create it's shape and
the more that you put together the stronger this actually becomes.
Now that is my finished height that I want to go to.
You can see that I have got four on these two sides but we have only got three on the
back and three on the front so we go back to the two pieces that we cut in half now.
Of course they are going to clip on and finish it off just like that.
Let me show you a quick and an easy way to cut these in to two.
Now I am going to be cutting this using a circular saw.
If you don't have a circular you can use a hand saw.
I have clamped it down to the work bench, I have set the saw guide at 50mm which is
half the width of the timber I am cutting and I have also set my blade depth just to
the depth of the actual timber I am cutting.
And that is our one piece of wood cut in to two.
You can see how the half pieces just finishes it off.
Now that is your composter complete, if you want to see how to make compost please follow
the link below.