dfkrug,
I like your bucket and the strength of your construction.
Yes, you are right. Building with steel will be difficult to keep the weight down below 100 pounds. But my intention is to keep it "lighter duty" than yours. I have not picked the metal materials thus have not calculated anticipated weight. My hope is to build with sheet metal and frame with steel building framing members. Steel studs are strong but light, getting their strength from the shape of the stud. Since I normally overbuild, keeping it light will be a fun challenge. For now the wood prototype works great and my guess is that it weighs in at 75 to 85 pounds.
larrystrollo,
A problem with wire is it has little shear strength. In order to build with wire you'd have to make a stronger frame and this may defeat the weight savings of sheet goods. Your point is well taken about visibility. You sure need to be confident of your paths because much of your vision is obscured. I may cut a "window" in the top of my bucket and cover the opening with wire mesh. Thus I'll increase my visibility (when bucket is empty) but maintain the shear strength of the plywood top.
tsatter104,
We do compost a fair amount, about 25%-30% overall, but mostly the oak leaves. Pine needles do not compost well and add to the acidity of our already high acid soil that we fight to get gardens into the neutral zone. That, and there is just too much volume to deal with. I may be off but I guess each acre produces 8 to 10 cuyd of debris a year. 5 acres x 9cuyd x 3 yr for pine needles to decompose (that's "sort of" decompose!); my whole property would be a compost heap.
Ironically we burn the needles for fire protection. When you live in a National Forest the fact of life is when, not if, a forest fire comes by what shape will you be in? My annual burn is probably not equivalent to 1 second of a bone fide forest fire which, by the way, is a natural occurrence. Earth can handle this. The pollution from my vehicles and tractors (and yours) is a different story.
