Inground composter (with Fusion360 and Freecad source)

🌿 Say Goodbye to Pesky Pests with This 3D-Printed Inground Composter! 🌿

Are mice and rats turning your composting dreams into a nightmare?
Time to kick those uninvited guests to the curb and embrace the magic of underground composting!

✨ Build Your Inground Composter:

• Dig a hole in your raised beds or garden
• Place the composter top chamfer flush to the ground
• Add green kitchen waste (optionally blended for faster decomposition)
• Toss in a splash of water and maybe a handful of worms.
• Let Nature Do Its Thing – Sit back and watch your kitchen waste transform into nutrient-rich compost!

🚫 🐦 No Pests Allowed:

The snap-on cover keeps wind, birds, and rodents out. If you're worried about it being too easy to lift, just weigh it down with a brick.

🪱 Worm-Friendly Design:

The strategically placed holes on the sides and bottom of the body allow worms to enter and work their magic. These natural tillers aerate the compost, speeding up decomposition and enhancing the nutrient content of your compost.

🔧 What I Printed:

3 composters, each 160 mm in diameter and 250 mm high (because composting is a fairly slow process, and more room = less composters needed).

Want customization? I've got you covered! The Fusion360 source file is included so you can tweak the diameter, height, and amount of holes to suit your needs.

EDIT 16.09.2025:

Fusion360 is dropping support for windows 10 and I do not want to update my PC just for that.
I will stop any further modeling in Fusion360.

I remodeled the composter completely in Freecad and uploaded the source file as well. Enjoy !
 

🛠 Printing parameters:

Material Choices:

• EDIT 2025 06 01: DO NOT PRINT IN PLA!
  The covers will deform way too quickly and they will also shrink, making it way too hard to remove and close without damaging the bodies.
• Use PETG or other UV-resistant filaments
• Print the covers black (or as dark as possible)—worms love the shade and hate bright light. Better yet, print the whole thing in black!

Standard mode for the cover:

• 0.2 mm layer height
• 0.4 mm nozzle
• 3 perimeters
• 4 top and bottom layers
• About 3 hours print time

Vase mode for the body:

• 0.2 mm layer height
• 0.4 mm nozzle but 0.8 mm extrusion width (I print with 5-10°C more)
• 3 bottom layers
• No top layers
• 60 mm/s is good for my setup
• About 5 hours print time