Happy St. Patrick’s Day, all!
Refuse disposal is a problem as old as mankind, especially keeping hungry wildlife away from it until it can be moved away from your home. In my area, lots of people put their trash bags out in homemade scavenger-proof bins for the weekly pick up. This is our bin as of this spring. It’s no example of craftsmanship, for sure. In our favor, it still exudes more class than, say, TFG. Even so, it’s probably a good thing we don’t have an HOA.
Until 2012, we had been using a neighbor’s trash bin, with their permission, for our weekend refuse. But then they sold and moved. The new owners tore down the bin — It was in pretty rough shape — and didn’t replace it.
This presented a bit of a crisis. We had trash to leave for the Wednesday pickup, but we’d be putting it out on a Sunday (tomorrow), because we had to go back home to our jobs. If I just put those bags to the street, the critters would get to them for sure. Anyone who’s ever had to clean up the aftermath of a racoon garbage orgy wants to avoid repeating that experience..
I could have just bought a few generic trash cans or brought the stuff back home in the car with us for pick up there. But no. In my infinite wisdom, I decided to build my own bin.
There was enough lumber and nails on hand, so I went and picked up some wire mesh and hardware, and slapped this together over a Saturday afternoon/early evening for something like twenty five bucks. It’s crude, no doubt about it. Despite my Homer Simpson-esque execution, it’s held together, but the years and elements have taken their toll and it’s lately been looking more decrepit by the day.
Some back story: In 2018-2019, the township purchased several hundred standardized large plastic trash bins, designed to be automatically lifted and dumped into a purpose-built truck. They also bought a used truck, which promptly broke down before even going into service. Repair costs amounted to more than they paid for it. So the township had to keep the entire crew that they’d planned on laying off to help pay for the new “one operator” system. They still needed them to empty the new bins into the old truck. Oops. That was five years ago. The crew is still on the job.
When we moved here permanently in 2019, I asked the pick-up guys about getting a couple of those new bins to replace our aging homemade one. I got emphatic “Fuck no’s” from everyone. The new bins were a pain in the ass — The four foot height makes for a high lift-over to remove (and put in) the trash bags, and they are so unwieldy that it takes two people to just pick the things up and dump them out. The crew hates them to this day. So I’ve kept the old ‘Homer’ bin in service, occasionally hammering a few popped nails back in.
Late February 2024 and I’ve made the decision. It’s time for a new bin. But now, I would put some actual thought into it, not being constrained by having to finish it over a weekend.
I sketched out a rough design — I wanted something with interior dimensions about two feet high, two feet deep, and four feet wide. That worked out to eight 2x4s and a couple 1x4s, a few rolls of wire mesh (called hardware cloth for some reason), and some other miscellaneous materials. I could have maybe got by with a couple fewer pieces if I’d downsized it, but I’m sparing no expense, here.
I wanted treated lumber for outdoor use, but the store only had treated 1x8s, so I got one of those instead of two 1x4s, figuring I could cut it down to the sizes I’d need. They did have the 2x4s, though. There’ve been times when they didn’t even have those in recent years.
So, a handful of standard outdoor construction lumber plus the ancillary supplies. The cost: Almost $350. Holy shit.
Forging ahead. I went for a traditional build approach using mortise/tenon and dovetail joints. I only have one functional eye anymore, and my hammering (and billiards) skills are shot to hell as a result. I avoid using nails when I can. Huh, I should get an eyepatch and tell strangers I lost it in a duel in Argentina..
I used a radial arm saw to cut the pieces to approximate length, but everything else was done with hand tools. Here, I’ve sawed to length and planed the pieces so they’re more or less squared up. Then I cut the rectangular tenons on the four side members and the dovetails on the four front and rear cross stretchers. These were done by hand, so they’re nearly, but not identical to each other. I’ll fit each one individually and label the mating parts so it ultimately assembles like it’s supposed to. That’s the plan.
A router plane is handy for making sure the tenon and dovetail faces are parallel to the outside faces of the pieces. Start with shaving off the high spots, and gradually increase the cut depth until the faces are trued up. A real easy tool to use, as long as it’s sharp.
Below, I’m matching the front and rear stretchers’ internal and external dovetails. As mentioned, each one is slightly unique, so all eight had to be fitted together as pairs. I made sure to label each joint. Mixing those up would be bad.
In the end, there were 52 joint details that had to be fabricated this way, if my count is right. Damn, that’s got to be close to a standard five day work week in terms of time spent so far. It’s a good thing I don’t have a job that interferes with my personal life.
Here’s a typical completed joint. I’d like the shoulder gaps to be tighter, but it’s a snug fit everywhere else and the glue should hold it. For next time, I have ideas to make it better, mainly spending more time in stock preparation and layout.
An eternity later, I’m ready (I think) to start gluing up. These are the front and rear frames. I’m truly committed; don’t fuck it up now, idiot..
All right! The frame’s assembled and it’s looking encouraging. I did use screws to help keep those dovetails snug. More on that later. Anyway, it’s feeling good and sturdy so far.
With the box structure well underway, it was time to begin on the lid. This is where those 1x8s the store had come in. I needed 1x4s, so I had to rip them in half. This takes time and patience. And beer. A little weed doesn’t hurt, either.
Another several more eternities, the lid pieces are sized, mostly squared up, and ready for the next steps. And I’m done for the night.
Next day. I’ve gone with half-lap joints for their simplicity and to keep the lid thickness at a uniform 3/4” or so. Outdoor-rated wood glue should hold up fine. Ask me how it’s doing in ten years..
I put a coat of stain on the frame while the lid’s glue was drying. I then realized that an unsupported four foot span of wire mesh acting as the floor of the bin might not do such a good job of handling the weight of several full garbage bags. So I added two cross pieces to the floor to distribute the load.
It would have been a lot easier to do this before the frame was assembled. When I was an engineer at Ford, this design process was called “Product Development” and they have whole departments, staffed with thousands of engineers, following it to this day.
More product development. The front and back vertical mesh panels needed reinforcement, too. Thus the two center posts I added, again after the fact. Which of course only made it unnessessarily difficult. But hey, the lid’s now finished and ready for installation so that’s good.
But first, I had to finish the wire mesh panels — The lid would just be in the way if I had put it on first. I rough-snipped each panel to the approximate size (They were all a little different, of course), bent 1” ninety degree flanges around the edges, made some final cuts and adjustments, and fitted each one. I used staples to temporarily hold them in place, then screwed down 1x¼ strips over the flanges to secure them all around. Good leather gloves are a must here, otherwise my hands would look like I’d been juggling angry porcupines. This was my least favorite part of the build — Those damn cut wire ends snag on everything they touch.
All the mesh panels are finally installed, the last thing to do is put the lid on. A seemingly simple task, but anyone who’s ever tried to hang a door solo knows better. I had pre-cut the hinge mortises so that helped some with side to side positioning, but it was still a prolonged wrestling match between me and the lid. Ultimately, aided by lots of sweat and some strategic cursing, I coerced it into place. Break time, I earned it!
Earlier, I mentioned the screws I added to the crosspiece dovetails. I didn’t like them; thought they wouldn’t hold up over the long term. I had a piece of 3/4” oak dowel that I could use as pegs, but that was too large. I used a spokeshave tool to get it down to just over 5/8” and pounded the slightly tapered pegs into matching holes I’d drilled in the frame after removing the screws. The tight friction fit should keep things where they ought to be for awhile.
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It’s finally done. I knocked the old bin apart, saving the lumber. The old wood’s distressed, but I’m still going to keep it — You never know when you’ll need a three or four foot length of 2x4. At current prices, it’s worth the effort.
I saved most of the old wire mesh, too. I’ve been trying to grow a line of lilac bushes next to the garage, and the local rabbits find them quite delicious when they’re budding. This year, I’ll use some of that old mesh for better barriers around them. Given this year’s unusually mild winter, that might be my next project. Shit, the tulips are coming up already.
Drumroll please.. Here’s the completed bin, out in the wild. Bring it on, racoons!
BTW, the new bin is level in the right hand photo below; it’s that natural gas standpipe that’s off the vertical. And I’m leaving it that way.
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This is definitely an improvement. Even an HOA might approve. And I’m sure the collection crew will appreciate me not going over to the township hall and picking up a couple of those hated big red bins.
A few lessons learned:
1) Keep track of your tools. Somehow, I lost my large phillips screwdriver. The thing’s a foot long, and the garage isn’t that big. We literally looked everywhere, even backing the cars out to make sure it wasn’t under either of them, emptying the trash and sifting through it, pulling everything out away from the walls, the whole deal. Nothing. I gave up and bought a new one. I’ll probably find it next week.
2) Re-hone your chisels, planes, and such after using them for awhile. The edge can dull even with limited use, especially if you have to deal with knots like I did. A razor-sharp chisel is safer — I’ll still tend tend to try forcing a dull tool through the wood, increasing the risk of it slipping and cutting myself, even though I know better. I still have a few (luckily) minor nicks on my hands that haven’t fully healed yet.
3) Workflow matters. The job would have gone faster if I had more efficiently planned and completed certain repetitive tasks in batches, instead of as-needed. I was never in Project Management at Ford, though. I was in Product Development and that’s not how we did things.
4) This project has immensely increased my respect for real traditional furniture and cabinet makers. None of my rough joinery would be acceptable on, say, a dresser or table. On the other hand, I wouldn’t be using knotty, still-wet construction lumber for either of those projects; I’d be working with clean-grained and properly cured hardwood and my joints should be more accurate. In theory.
5) This was done with just one working eye — Vision in my left eye is permanently a blur now. So if you’re an out of work pirate, you might still have a future in woodworking.
Why did I spend something like two weeks of toil, on and off, building this unnecessarily complex structure just to hold garbage bags, when I could have just picked up a couple of the township’s plastic bins for free? Well, lots of people, including me, don’t like the “new” bins; the inventory still available at the storage lot five years on attests to that. And unlike my first bin build, I had the time to do it more deliberately, seeing it as an opportunity to improve on my carpentry skills, such as they are.
Or maybe, in the words of Lawnchair Larry, the 1993 Darwin Awards “At Risk Survivor” category winner, “It was something I had to do.”
Keep safe, everyone!
-ER
