30 gallons is about 4 cubic feet. The 3x3x3 pile is 27 cubic feet.

I've gotten hot compost in a bin that holds about 11 cubic feet, but I think 4 cubic feet is pretty small to expect much.

A cylinder 3 feet tall and 20 inches diameter has a volume of 6.54 cubic feet.

It would only take an extra 6 inches diameter (26 inch diameter), 3 feet tall to have a volume of 11 cubic feet...

I would say give it a try and let us know!

So now the question is, is your bin 30 gallons or is it really 3 feet by 20 inches? (which would be 40+ something gallons)

If you added enough water to that container so the material is as wet as your worm bin it is too wet to compost and will not heat up. That the original mix did not heat up in around 24 hours did not mean there was a problem, maybe just that the bacteria that will generate the heat are a little slow. But the size of your container does not permit enough volume for those bacteria to get really active and to generate much of that heat.

Here is a link that might be useful: Florida's Online Composting

I think airflow is going to play a part in the heating process. I have seen very small piles of grass clippings heat up, not much but it does/will compost. You didn't mention any air holes?

It takes a couple 3 days for my pile to heat up. I say be patient, give it time. Do you have some to check the temp?

Good Luck,
Gumby_CT

I have a 33-gallon garbage can that I recently converted into a composting bin (drilled 3/8" holes all over it, top to bottom) and my shredded leaves, coffee and kitchen scraps are starting to heat up nicely.

Make sure you get the kind of can where the lid clamps on somehow because being able to kick the thing on it's side and rolling it around the yard makes turning the pile so much easier.

I still don't know if it's *supposed* to work, but it is working. :D Yesterday I sacrificed some of my bloodmeal, cottonseed meal, dry molasses, and a couple handfuls of vermicompost fresh from the wormbin, to "jumpstart" the pile. I mixed it up good and then sprinkled a couple cups of soil from the garden over the top.

I checked it this afternoon, and it is definitely hot. I can feel the warmth on my palm from an inch above the top of the pile. I can feel it through the sides of the can. I don't have a thermometer to check, but I know it's hot enough that if I had worms in there, they'd be either dying or escaping.

Pepper rancher, I'll try to get some better measurements for you. :)

Arjo, one of the reasons the cans were cheap is that they don't have lids. I have just a square of cardboard loosely covering the top. This is good for air access, because I don't have a drill and I was too impatient to get started to wait until a friend could drill holes in it for me. I was hoping that stirred up well, loosely packed, with a loose top, the pile would have enough air to at least get started, and it seems to be working so far. I'll figure out a way to punch some holes in it within a day or two.

It doesn't bother me to stir it up by hand. It might be harder with one filled to the brim. I'll find out with the next one. :)

Kimmsr, what I have read about composting recommends the same moisture level as a good wormbin, "like a wrung-out sponge." A wormbin will heat up too, if I put too much food in at once. The main thing that keeps the heat down is the high proportion of "brown" carbon bedding to "green" nitrogen food.

I seem to have gotten the moisture level right, and the air supply sufficient. Now I just have to keep it right. :)

I went out with a tape measure and got a better figures than my eyeball estimate. :) The cans are 32 inches tall and 20 inches diameter. They are probably 32-gallon capacity. The one I have started is only filled up 14 inches, though.

And it is heating up!!! ;-)
Compost Happens

I think my math must be off because I'm getting much different numbers for the gallons based on the bin sizes.

Pepper rancher said:
"So now the question is, is your bin 30 gallons or is it really 3 feet by 20 inches? (which would be 40+ something gallons)"

But if I'm doing the math right:

3.14*3.14*10*36 = 3549.456 cu in (I'll round up to 3550 to get back some of the truncation of pi). That works out to 15.36 gallons (used google calculator to convert from cu in to gallons).

Anitra said:
"The cans are 32 inches tall and 20 inches diameter. They are probably 32-gallon capacity. "

If I'm doing the math right:
3.14*3.14*10*32 = 3155 cu in or about 14 gallons.

Did I forget how to calculate volume? How did you guys come up with your numbers?

I did underestimate the gallon capacity. It's 10x10 (100) times 3.14 - pi times the radius squared - times 32. That works out to just over 10,000 cubic inches, which converts to about 5.7 cubic feet according to a conversion chart I found at http://www.metric-conversions.org/cgi-bin/util/conversion-chart.cgi?type=4&from=33&to=14

According to a reference guide at http://dictionary.reference.com/writing/styleguide/weights.html one cubic foot = 7.481 gallons.

5.7 * 7.481 is more like 42 gallons. I'm now pretty confident that the full barrel will work for composting.

Filled up to 14 inches should be just about 2.5 cubic feet, only 18.7 gallons. But it worked! :D

Doh! I used pi squared times r. Backwards.

Thanks for pointing that out. I kept repeating the same mistake every time I did it. I knew I was doing something wrong.

please check your math jargons at the door please. ;-p

They did check my math jargon at the door, Arjo. I got a B+. ;D