Sounds interesting! I can't wait to hear how it works out!
Photos too, if you can.

I think you are so going in the correct direction. You may change paths but the direction is right on and correct. Correct meaning viable. Especially for a homesize easy maintenance, low cost vermicomposting system. One that should be in every home. So I support you 100% (and others) and thus took interest and commented extensively. Also I am a certified quality auditor. Give me a clipboard and I can tell you the most likely place for anything to fail, or is holding them back. And where they are doing very well, way above their competition. Anybody can cheer. But you don't want cheering, you want somebody to mention where the leak is in the boat so it can be handled. We are not as popular as those who cheer. :-)

I think free is the way to go.

I think flowthrough is the way to go.

I am not convinced the purchased worm cans or factorys have any advantage (other than prettyness) over small homemade flow thrus. Especially once we all perfect them a bit more. I am also convinced it will beat the inns but they will be runner up due to their non durability only. I could be wrong. A newbie I would suggest the inn instead of the can or factory due to its ability to handle lots of waste and non shuffling of trays. I don't think they are engineered to last years or even a few years. But they have many things going for them that us small plastic flow thru designers should try to copy.

This morning I decided to examine my FT's. I found a small amount of dry castings in the tray of the second (newer one). I got my wife's makeup mirror and a flashlight to look up into the bottom and saw the single layer of newspaper had breached where the head of the screws are but was otherwise intact.

The first bin, set up May 28 was a different story. I could only see a few scraps of newspaper hanging. I decided to test my harvesting system (pvc rods with screws). I was very impressed with what fell out. Outside of a little bit of newspaper it seemed to be almost entirely moist castings. At least I could not feel anything big with my fingers. I was not ready to sift it so I just dumped it back into the top and then turned the rods again. This time I got far less out. I felt up inside the bottom and it seems the harvester pulled everything down as far up as the screws would reach. It remains to be seen if and how long it takes for the material to fall down further.

I did not disturb this bin since I set it up. The bottom layer was originally material that would sift through my 1/2 in screen but not my collander. On top of that I put the stuff that was held up in the 1/2 inch screen. And then fresh bedding, a little kitchen scrap, and compost from my outside bin on top of that.

"mirror and a flashlight" I so was going to use like a dental mirror but you did it first. I wanted to see what the "worm falls" look like before they fall.

"dumped it back into the top" I am convinced this is a good thing to do once in a while. I don't know exactly why but it just feels right.

"It remains to be seen if and how long it takes for the material to fall down further." That's the thing. It may start to feel like "The Carrot Seed" book.

Was turning the handle and watching the compost fall funner than scraping at the compost by hand? I would think it would be.

With those rods and screws, I could not scrape at the compost by hand anyway... well except with a screwdriver. When I got home from work, I stuck my hand up and felt the bottom of the compost. It had come down a little- not far enough to rest on the rods but definitely in reach of the screws. Hopefully it will continue to move downward and not just collapse all at once (which is what I had expected it to do.)

My bins are a little moist but not too bad. I have a little condensation on the lid but no leachate, which I find is a good level of moisture. I fully intend to leave the bin undisturbed until Friday morning and then I'll see where the bottom of the compost is.

Well, I turned my rods again this morning and got about 1/2 a tray worth of castings. I have determined that the screws reach up and grab about a full tray's worth- this was totally by accident not design. But I was pleased that the compost has moved downward over the past 2 days. That is what a flow through is supposed to do- flow..

My other bin had newspaper across the bottom still but I decided to harvest it as well. I got the full tray I mentioned above, plus a little more when i turned it again but that was just scrapings. I had not been as careful when I filled this FT, simply piling everything from previous buckets into it. Because of that I got alot of unfinished compost with the castings. I returned it to the top since I do not need the castings for tea yet.

It looks like I can do a harvest up to twice a week as I need the the castings. This may speed up as the population density increases.

everything is working just like it was designed to.

The slightly sloped sides of the buckets might be helping to gently lower the compost over time and not slide straight down all at once.

I have been turning my harvesting rods a couple times a week and collecting what falls in a gallon ice cream bucket with lid. Under the indoor lighting the stuff looked great. Under sunlight I could see better. Other than the small amount of obvious cardboard the rest was pretty good vermicompost. I was a little disappointed at the ratio of castings to compost though- about 1:8 by volume. My goal is castings for tea so I returned the compost to the top.

My 2nd flowthrough, the one where I just dumped the bucket bins had larger pieces of unprocessed material but a much higher concentration of castings, probably close to 1:3. I think this is a result of my having not sorted or layered the bedding when I dumped my old tubs into the FT. I also did not harvest castings beforehand.

I am getting enough "pure" sifted castings to keep my tea production going.

On a side note, my worm keeping is 'out of the closet'. I took my visiting 11 year old nephew fishing yesterday and he saw my worm bins. So that lead to a discussion of worm keeping. We (he did the work under my direction) sifted a bucket of compost and then he sorted the castings looking for coccoons. I just referred to them as eggs. He found the whole thing fascinating.

Way to go pj. Never too young/old to introduce them to worms.

If there's an 11 year old boy that doesn't think stuff rotting and worms eating it is really COOL, I haven't met him yet. Most girls, too.

It's a great way to get kids interested in life sciences, ecology and just becoming aware of the kinds of waste they produce.

Kids and worms..... It is a great combo! There is nothing quite like catching a fish on a homegrown worm. My granddaughter loves to feed my worms to my newly aquired chicks. The population is keeping up so far! ;)