Back again …. Other modifications made on the OSCR plans were to line the bed with black plastic. Again, I had read that the wood rotted out after a few years of servce for others. Plastic is cheap, much cheaper than replacing the wood in a couple of years, not to say anything about the hassle.
I wanted to preserve the wood as much as possible and found 3/4″ washers that would fit over the emt pipe. They are sold by the lb at our local Tractor Supply. The washers cost me about $5.00 plus the cotter pins of about $1 as shown in this picture:
Use of black plastic to line the bin and use of washers and cotter pins on emt pipes
The plans call for a lot of ventilation holes. I’m guessing that my perfectionism caused me to search for alternatives to the cheaper window screening recommended to be installed over the vent holes. I found 2″ and 1″ aluminum siding vents (louvers) with screens online. I bought some. They were about $1.50 each plus s/h. Here’s a photo:
Aluminum Siding Vents with screens
I used the sliding action noted in the plans. These vents are 2″ diameter. 2.25″ holes were drilled into a 1×4 and into the plywood of the bin. The vents are held in the 1×4 with screws though there’s not much of a lip and a couple fell out until I tried a couple of times to secure them.
It turns out that the bin lid is open most of the time so the vents don’t do much. I have the bin in my garage for now. When I put it outside the vents will become more important.
The final step was to apply paint. I picked up a gallon of primer and a gallon of latex paint at Lowe’s. I chose the color ‘taragon’ as you probably noted from some of the pics. The only thing I’ll say about painting is that putting on two coats of primer and two coats of paint to the inside and outside of the bin takes a LOT of time.
The next installment will be about heating the bin. I’ll get to that hopefully in a day or two.
