Tag: building

Compost Bins: Stage Two

Posted on | by cursingcats.com | 1 Comment on Compost Bins: Stage Two

The Stages

Stage One of building the compost bins is complete. That was getting the corrals up.

Stage Two is now complete! I put the fronts on the corrals!

Stage Two++ is in progress which will be using the metal mesh to corral the leaves and hay from blowing all over the yard. I made the sides which will be the depth of the corrals. Now I need to make the back and door. I can do this in the garage since the width is arbitrary to the wood available.

Stage Three will be the top. This is not planned out as well. My ideas are fluctuating. And I’m in no huge hurry. I mean the materials is still decided. But do I really want one huge lid? I don’t know. We shall see.

Saturday Morning

So last we left off, I had the corrals of my compost bins up. But they still needed fronts. So this Saturday, I decided to conquer Stage Two. This was going to involve my first experience with a circular saw, so I knew it was going to be a lot. So I set up camp. All my materials laid out. A chair for rest. An umbrella for sun. And the VIP of the day: my new Worx WX065 Clamping Sawhorses with Bar Clamps.

Seriously: These sawhorses are fucking amazing. How are you suppose to saw shit without the clamps holding it in place? And the saw horses are built to hold and lock-in the clamps, but you can take them off and use them by themselves. You can also take them off to store them — in the built-in slot that holds them. They fold up. They’re light weight. They hold a thousand pounds (together). WTF. These are amazing. Since you have to use two hands to use the circular saw, I don’t even know how I would have done this without these things. They’re the things I didn’t know I desperately needed.

I also used my new circular saw! I’m not great. For some reason, when I get to the very end of the cut, it wants to kick and not finish that bottom corner. I corrected for this by using a piece of scrap wood behind the pieces I needed to cut to cut into, but WTF? I need a class. Anyway — I got set UP and ready to conquer. I even had a ton of drinks in the wagon.

Since sawing things was intimidating, I started with the rebar. I wanted to secure the front of the corrals with rebar in the ground. I didn’t think this would be a difficult task, but it was. I’m not known for my strength. So hammering rebar a foot into clay was more difficult than I expected. It got easier as they got down to a height that was more natural for my arm — but damn. I secured them to each side with some metal straps.

Yeah, they’re real crooked. Don’t judge me. I did this whole project by myself.

Then, I had to embrace cutting wood. So the front of my bins are stacked boards. To secure these boards, I made a little wood I-Beam on the front of each post. So a little 2×2 spacer sandwiched between two 6 inch fence boards. You can see I secured the spacer and backs to the posts first with some 4 inch screws to really get them in there. I also wanted to easily measure how long my horizontal boards needed to be. I expected each bin to need a custom length or there to be longer and shorter lengths on top and bottom. But I was pretty damn square.

Then, it was lunch time.

Saturday Afternoon

After lunch, I needed to put the fronts on my I-Beams and start cutting my horizontal slats. I measured 35 inches from spacer to spacer and 31 inches from inner to inner post. So I made my boards 34 inches. This gives them a whole inch of wiggle room if the walls shift and makes getting them in and out a breeze. But I still have 3 inches to hold them in there, so no need to worry about centering them.

My first test slats: SUCCESS!

Now to cut 13 more.

Look at my happy fronts! There’s tons of wiggle room for boards to curl, but not so much that two boards could slide over each other.

Also, the front posts are taller so I can place a 2×4 across the top of each side and they will cover it. You can see I had one laid on top in an earlier picture when I was measuring how long to cut those.

LOOK! I DID IT!

Fucking beautiful.

Sunday: COMPOST DAY!

So the next day, I built my compost pile. This had the added benefit of raking leaves and pulling vines off my house to use as composting material for the 3 gallons of kitchen waste I’ve accumulated in the fridge waiting on my ass to actually complete this project. Ok, it’s not COMPLETE, but it’s to a functional stage.

I made my pile with marigolds, a fuck ton of lemon grass, vines, and half dead plants for the “greens.” And crusty old lemon grass, leaves, hay, and cardboard for the “browns.”

Don’t worry, the card board was cut up pretty small, see:

I also cut up the vines.

Next Up

I did make the two sides for the browns corral. I can finish it off in the garage and place it out there whenever I get around to it. It’s a very simple frame that I will staple the wire mesh into. The front will be a gate that matches the bins.

Then, eventually, I will make a lid. Or lids. The plan is in flux. Right now, my compost pile just has a big square of cardboard over the top. It’s fine.

Super proud of myself! GO ME!

Compost Bins: Stage One

Posted on | by cursingcats.com | 1 Comment on Compost Bins: Stage One

The Stages

Stage One of building the compost bins is complete. They are standing. There are three corrals. They look great.

Stage Two will be adding the front faces to the corrals — I hope to accomplish that this weekend. All of the materials have been acquired.

Stage Two++ has been added which will be somehow using the metal mesh to corral the leaves and hay from blowing all over the yard. I’ve got ideas. More coming on that later. Maybe I can work on that this weekend too. But it’s not part of Stage 2. It is an additional and optional task.

Stage Three will be the top. This is not planned out as well. I know the roof design. I’ve chosen the materials and the design from a build I like. Now how I attach it… I would love to have someone with more skills and tools help. I will be building the height of the back of the corrals up a slight bit so the lid will slant forward. It will rest on the front with hinges in the back. However, I would absolutely love for some help to build up the sides (inner and outer) to match the angle so that it lays flat on the structure. Not required, but I would like that.

One Stage Down

So I ended up going for a kit. I used two of the “Greens Fence” brand “Composter” kits. They sell these at big homes stores like Home Depot and I scored mine on sale on Wayfair. You can buy them online on their site too. They’re extendable, and customizable.

I assumed I could get someone to build me something for much cheaper. I was very wrong. With inflation — wood prices have skyrocketed. The only compost bins I could find on Marketplace and local sites were really bad and more expensive than the kit. So I drew up this sketch of what I thought I wanted and tossed it out to three local builders to see what they could do. I mean surely if you use pressure treated pine (as opposed to cedar) and don’t use all the fancy dovetail cuts, it will be cheaper right? Here’s what I sent. I did this really quick in Photoshop, but I’m low key proud of extending that picture to three bins.

The closest one guy could get was two bins in pine for that price. Yeah… no. So I ordered the two kits on sale with free shipping. They got here in like three days. I was very excited to put them together but I didn’t. Like this is adult lincoln logs. There is nothing to fix together — just build and go. No nails, screws, or glue needed. Now, I didn’t do it that way, but still.

I just couldn’t get off my ass and do it. This who menopause thing has me napping every damn day and I just haven’t wanted to go out in the hot garage and put this shit together. As much as I want to play with the blocks, I don’t want to. So I just kept watching youtube videos and getting nothing done. Until…

I embraced the fact that it wasn’t happening. Fuck it, I’m in the living room and they will be too. So I decided to build all the sides in the airconditioned living room while watching youtube. And that’s what I did. I put together the four sides in the livingroom. I had little cedar squares cut for the “feet” so there would be slight protection from the ground. I know they will rot eventually, but lets let my feet rot first and give me a chance to replace those before the posts.

FUN TANGENT! One of the reviewers gave it a bad review. They assembled it in the garage and when they went to move it outside, all the bottom pieces fell out. No shit, Sherlock — nothing’s holding it together. People are so stupid.

So I screwed the feet on on the posts and proceeded to build my giant lincoln logs set. One runner, two spacers — repeat. However, I used wood glue. Not just any wood glue, I used Gorilla Brand Wood Glue. As Adam Savage says, wood glue is amazing. It’s one of the only bonds that is strong than the thing it bonds. And from every experience I’ve had with Gorilla Brand — they are just OP. (That’s Over Powered for the nonnerds). Like Gorilla says “hold my beer so I won’t glue it to myself.”

Seriously, I have a sunsail on the side of the house to cover the pool equipment. One anchor pulled out last year and I liquid nailed it in place. It still pulled out. So this year, I bought bigger and deeper anchors to install it. Still pulled out. So I googled what the strongest of the Gorilla Glues was — it’s the Clear Constructions glue. Surprisingly not the regular one — the clear one. I used that shit. That anchor is part of the house now. If you want it down, you will need to replace those bricks. I squeezed it in the holes, put the anchors in, squeezed it in the anchors, gobbed it all over the anchor plate, then screwed it on. It hasn’t moved. It is part of the house now.

So that was actually kinda fun. The middle sections don’t have all their slats, so I used screws to just prop up a spacer where I needed it until the glue hardened. Four sides complete.

I’m also lining this in metal mesh. Did I mention that? Yeah, quarter inch hardware cloth. Like, yes, I’m not an idiot. I know critters will get in. But I don’t have to give them an open invitation. Also, when I turn this shit I don’t want to constantly be raking up everything that fell through the slats. So I went ahead and installed that inside too. I precut the metal mesh in the garage with my dremel and stapled it on in the house. The middle sections have mesh on both sides to keep a little air pocket between the corrals because compost needs air. A tip from another build I stole.

You can see here that I cut the mesh purposefully a bit wide to account for my not putting it on straight. I just used this metal leveler I had handy to bend the mesh into the corners.

I did actually consider building two of the corrals inside and then attaching them with a back wall outside, but they were getting heavy. With the metal mesh, they were a lot heavier. So the backs had to be assembled in the great outdoors. Boooooooooooooo

I actually did another extra step. Again, critters will live in here — but I don’t have to leave the light on. So I trenched a bit around the inner edges and buried some mesh in the dirt a bit and stapled it to the bins. While doing this I totally put all my weight onto one foot to get the trowel in deeper and totally fell in the mud. It’s fine.

Did I bury it deep? No. Don’t I realize they’ll get in anyway? Yes. But I’m not the Super8 Motel OK, I can do what I can.

So then I glued the back slats and spacers in place and rested. Because it is hot outside and there are mosquitos.

Then I came back and stapled all the mesh up onto the sides and the mesh sheet on the back. WHA LA! Each section is a three foot cube. The three bin system has you using the left-most bin constantly for new scraps and waste. You can turn back and forth between two bins until you get some stuff thats mostly composted. Then stuff that’s mostly composted goes into the middle bin and new compost and still big chunks stay in the left bin. Finished compost (and my overwinter dirt storage) goes in the right bin and is ready to use at any time. Since I have the quarter inch mesh, I can make a really big portable mesh screen to just cover the top of that bin with some scrap wood. That will be my filter. FREE SIFTER, BABY.

Coming Soon

So this weekend (hopefully), I will install the fronts. As in the drawing I used to show the wood workers what I want, I’ll be doing slats. This is all real cedar. To make the slat tunnels/holders/sides/whatevers, I bought cedar fence planks. So it’ll be a sandwich of cedar plank, spacer, cedar plank stuck on the front of each post. The fronts themselves will be cut wood. Specifically treated pine fence planks that were dyed to look cedar. Cause, listen, I can more easily replace rotting sliding planks than pieces of the actual unit. Cedar for the bins, pine for the front slats.

I already have the materials and a spiffy new circular saw to get it done!

Oh and I need a browns corral. I already have my hay bale out there ready to get to workin’! And I’ve already notice the wind blow a bit of it around. I’m also going to want to have leaves on hand (and pulled weeds) to add as I add greens. Well, as I’ve already taken the build specifics from a lot of different peoples bins to make my fankenbins — I’m taking another. One guy had a cylinder of wire mesh next to his that he kept his browns in. Wait, I have a fuck ton of wire mesh now. So I’m gonna buy some rebar stakes and make a little square on the side there for me to dump leaves and stuff in for easy access. It won’t be part of the bin system and lid. Just a corral for my browns. I want to put a “door” on it for easy access when it’s low (also because hay will probably be on the bottom and leaves on top and ill want to grab a mix of browns). I’ve got some scrap lumber in the garage, I might try to outline it in lumber and make a little mesh gate door for the front.

Since I bought two composter kits and assembled them in my own fashion, I have a lot of extra slats. I can use some of the extra slats to make the front gate of my browns corral match the sides of the bins perfectly!

Now we’re getting somewhere!

Phase three isn’t on a schedule. If it starts to rain a ton, I can throw a tarp over the active bins. It’s going to get done. But I can start composting this weekend. Not have to wait on the lid.

IKEA Quest: Attach Bookcases Together

Posted on | by cursingcats.com | 1 Comment on IKEA Quest: Attach Bookcases Together

Are you looking for a way to attach your IKEA Billy Bookcases to each other? Are you looking for how to screw them together? Glue? What do other people do?

As the youths say: I got you, fam’

Have you discovered the IKEA Barrel and Bolt Spare Parts 100402 & 100644? Are you searching the breadth of the internet for what goddamn bit size you need for your drill?

I got you, motherfucker.

You see, I am redoing my hallway. I am decluttering it with a beautiful array of IKEA Billy Bookcases. It’s fabulous. After I ordered all my cases and doors, I knew I’d need a way to attach them together. I figured I would screw them together. But I didn’t have them yet so I didn’t know how wide the sides were and therefore what screw size to buy. So I took to the great internet wasteland. I found a better way.

IKEA actually has a FAQ about this. “How do I link my BILLY bookcases?”

You’re home free, baby! But wait, the link takes you to a place to order spare parts. They want a postcode, but you keep getting an error. Why have the gods forsaken thee? Fear not friend, you are on the IKEA site for the Netherlands. Are spare parts only available to the Dutch? Do they get legal weed and free IKEA parts while the rest of us are relegated to IKEA Billy Bookcase Hacks?

Nay. You just need to find the same page on the US (or your relevant country) site. Go to your home IKEA site and find “Customer Service.” Then find the link to order “Spare Parts.” From there, click “Order Small Spare Parts” Bam, motherfucker. Free parts unlocked!

Barrel Bolt & Screw

So you want to attach your IKEA furniture together? You need a barrel bolt and screw. You can buy these at any hardware store or online. But did you know that IKEA has them for the IKEA PAX system? And you can use them for your IKEA Billy system? Oh hell yeah you can!

Yes, You just need a few spare parts. You need the pair: IKEA part 100402 and IKEA part 100644. You will need a pair for each join. I chose to join my short IKEA Billy Bookshelves with two near the top and two near the bottom of each join. For the taller ones, I added two in the middle as well. Order extra. You’re going to wait a while for them so make sure you don’t need to order more. Also, they’re free!

That’s right, bitches: FREE. Straight from IKEA. You can google these part numbers and find them on eBay and Amazon. But those people probably just got them free and are scamming you. Yeah. Just get free ones from IKEA. I got 16 of each. They arrived about a week after the shelves themselves (even though they were ordered the same day). You’re welcome.

What size drill bit do you need?

This is where I hit a road block. I scoured the internet. I looked at Reddit’s r/IKEA. I looked on IKEA’s own site. I looked at the Amazon and eBay listings. NO ONE said what size drill bit I needed. What the actual fuck? So I had to go to Walmart to hold the damn barrel bolt up to drill bits and try to figure it out. I figured it was a 3/16 inch by eye. Thankfully, they had a super cheap set of drillbits though so I got that instead of the single bit I THOUGHT I needed. Look, it has a tool for this shit!

Perfect fit for… the 13/64 Inches hole.

Why doesn’t America use metric again? What the fuck is this Imperial shit? 13/64s? Really? Anyway, no, I do not know what it is in metric. I only have this little tool that came with my cheap drill bits from Walmart. I’m sorry. Google it. Or better yet, I saw that IKEA sells a set of drill bits and a drill. Why the fuck didn’t they try to up-sale me that? I’d have totally bought it! And I’m sure it has the right size. Every order of furniture on the IKEA site should suggest you buy those tools. I’d have bought them, IKEA.

Thinking you can sneak by with that 3/16? You can’t. I tried. I mean, you can hammer it in with enough gusto. I just ended up using the 1/4 bit because that was the next size up I had. Good thing too because I was trying to line up the holes perfectly, and surprise, I don’t drill perfectly straight and parallel holes! So I needed the wiggle room. Even then, I was jamming screw drivers through to find the matching holes.

The videos I have seen have you drill straight through the two sides and attach. I wanted to be a bit more exact. So I separated the cases and drilled through a matching shelf support hole on each case. This way, I knew I wouldn’t screw it up and have a lopsided set of shelves. Cattywampus as we say in the South. But when I lined the cases back up, I discovered: I suck at drilling straight. So good thing I had a little extra wiggle room. I used a screwdriver to find the other hole and determination got me through. Jam that barrel bolt through any way you can and screw in the screw. TA DA!

You will need a screwdriver for each side. One to hold the bolt from spinning and the other to turn tighten up the screw. You’ll also need a vacuum for the saw dust.

Oh and DON’T PANIC — your hole is gonna look like shit. This is MDF with a paper overlay. The drill is not gonna leave a clean hole. It’s ok! Don’t panic. Just shove all the edges back in the hole before you put the fasteners in. See how clean it looks?

NOTES:

  • Drilling holes in things means you can’t return them.
  • If you ever disconnect these shelves, now they have random holes in the sides.
  • Do not use the two top and bottom sets of holes that are for door hinges. You might want to add those later.
  • Know where your shelves are going to go because the screw now takes up that hole so you can’t place a shelf at that level.
  • Do this before you install the doors. It will be a bit difficult for one person to reach both sides of the shelves around a door.

So there you go. The info I couldn’t find ANYWHERE. Go forth and assemble custom shelving solutions on the cheap. If you are going to build IKEA Billy case’s, shout out to this man:

That’s PP FlatPack on YouTube fucking pwning the assembly. Look at how he spreads the panels like a fucking deck of cards. His way is far superior to the IKEA way. Look how fucking fast and efficient he is! You know that instruction book/guide doesn’t even have words. Just watch this. I had watched it before mine arrived, took one look at the book, and did it his way. I had them together in no time.

And yes, I will totally show you the hall transformation in another post. I haven’t put the tall doors on yet.

I did put the two short doors on and that was a breeze! I thought it would be hard. I couldn’t find any particularly good youtube videos for it so I just used the book. Super easy.

We’re building a deck!

Posted on | by cursingcats.com | 2 Comments on We’re building a deck!

We’re building a deck for the pool! I’m so excited! Like, I’m so excited, I think I’ll clean up the chair hammock and give it’s wooden bar a paint refresh. I’m gonna put both hammocks on the deck so when K2 falls asleep in the new one, I can chill in the hammock chair.

And I can have lots of plants ’cause I can water them with the hose now! First on the list is lemon grass! It keeps mosquitoes away. I can only find tiny little lemon grass plants. But when you see pictures, you see big bushy bunches of lemon grass. How do I get that? Do I have to seed it in Spring to get that? Is that a next year thing? I’ve got a big ass pot so I could have a huge bush of it. Maybe even drop a tiki torch in there! Yeah! I asked on nextdoor if anyone has any lemongrass to spare.

Lavender is supposed to be good for mosquitos too (good meaning, they don’t like it). My first priority is keeping mosquitos away from me.

They’re gonna start on the deck next week!

YAY!