DIY casting/worm separator

[WrinkledNugSack]

So yesterday I was pondering how I was going to go about harvesting the castings from my worm bins without loosing a lot of worms and (lets face it) do it in the laziest way possible that moderately suits this feller right here. I have only been building worm populations to this point, so the harvesting wasn't an issue until recently.

Obviously, I'd sooner tumble the worms in a cylinder than to shake them back and forth by hand over a screen... the physical effort only creates a Crisco build-up under my arms and makes it hard to cut a steak later in the evening 'cause I'm so tuckered out.

So I was having an afternoon nap (kinda) and I was wondering, "What is cylindrical that would make a worm casting tumbler??... hmmmmm, I know, a 6" Mountain Air Can Filter with the guts removed... and I have such a beast!

I lay there thinking of the design and much of what I was making in my head I already had somewhere in the garage, so I went to work.

 

[WrinkledNugSack]

So much of the material was pilfered from old projects I had dismantled. All I had for the frame was 5/8 construction grade plywood, but considering that it won't come under stress when in use, I thought it would be good enough.

I had to re-bore the wheels to accept a 5/8" cold rolled shaft, but that was no biggie.

After a bit of thought, I decided to go with the 2 pulley, single belt, 4-wheel-drive system, simply to avoid having to rework the unit if I didn't like the performance of the single shaft drive.

I left both wheel drive shafts longer than I otherwise might, just to ensure that I had "options" in case I needed to make modifications afterward. It also helped having the double drive system when grinding the 5/8" shaft down to 1/2"-ish, because I could jump the drill back and forth from one shaft to the other and make it "somewhat smooth"... it will turn so slowly that the ruggedness of the shaft won't matter what-so-ever... in time, I will chop one of the two shafts off.

This is what I came up with.

 

[WrinkledNugSack]

Here are a couple pictures of the worm bin media, the castings on the table after about 5 revolutions of the drum, and a picture of the larger un-composted pieces with worms, castings, cocoons, etc. ready to be dumped into another bin for further refinement.

Simply put, it works great!... now I know what Dr. Frankenstein felt like.

 

[Kegs]

Neat. Great tool to have. Very neat invention.

 

[WrinkledNugSack]

Thank you, thank you... I'm happy with the thought of burning far less calories than shaking a flat screen.

 

[Teresa]

Stoner ingenuity at it's best right there !!

 

[WrinkledNugSack]

... sheesh... you know, my third grade teacher warned my Mom that my propensity to eat a box of waxed crayons each year would have down-stream effects on cognition... I'm close to retirement; does it look like I have cognition issues!...

... don't answer that.

 

[WrinkledNugSack]

Between tasks outside this afternoon, I separated a 1/2 tote of worms from the "smalls" in the bin. (Bin size 45 litres +/-)

It took about 1/2 hour including the set up and putting everything away afterwards... so IMHO, it's pretty efficient.

If anyone is inclined to copy what I did to make one of their own, feel free to ask for pictures... it's a fairly simple design, but not the only one that would work.

 

[WrinkledNugSack]

Today I added the last of the modifications... other than a belt guard, I think the only other thing that I might do is try to source an old 10" or 12" Mountain Air Can Filter, simply to make a larger tumbler (I'd have to shorten it to fit inside the current frame)... which may or may not work better than what I have. (The 6" one works fine except the load is limited by the shoulder on the open end, because when it's rotating with too much material in the screen and it wants to roll out the opening (It holds about 5 heaping hand fulls each load as it is)... a larger filter housing would have a wider shoulder and thus more material could be added at a time... but, like I said, it works fine as it is, it's my OCD messing with me brain.

So the add-on today is a bit of plastic sheeting that I found (a roll of) on the side of the road one day about 5 years ago... I knew it would come in handy at some point! All it does is funnel the material as it comes out of the screen downward to a central point. And, I added a square of it on each end of the tumbler itself, just to use up the scraps...