Whatever you do once you start the hot composting don't add any fresh un composted matter to the bins you're working with .
Once the bin has hot composted for a couple of days the level of the contents reduce by about 1/5 th .
If you run two in use bins at the same time it's easy to slip the Dalek off , set it to the side of one of the others and gently fork the outer parts in to the middle of the empty Dalek . Use a spray hose to keep it damp , wetting every three or four inches of thickness as this is what helps build the heat ..a dry heap does not rot as quick .
Then once the outer parts are put in the middle where the greater heat build up will occur do the same to the other bin , till the new made bin is full to the top .
By the time you have turned the compost three times you'll be surprised how much it has shrunk /dried out .
Re hard work ..
I'm 65 in a few months time . I have a bust left shoulder joint ( 35 years ) , osteoarthritis in both shoulder joints for over 20 years , a damaged left knee joint 40 years ( due a plastic knee any day now ) and I've had a spinal injury for the last 20 years at L4/5 . Having had a second urgent operation at L2/3 to stop it paralyzing me in April this year . I was turning my bins till mid March and have restarted the turning again last week .
I also have a child's sand castle making type spade 5 inches long by 4 inches wide set with araldite on an old carbon fibre sea fishing rod butt ( four foot plus shaft ) I can & often do use this spade/shovel one handed , along side me using the fork .
It's not that hard , so long as you don't try and take big forks of it , having the long lever of the pitch fork shaft means .... I don't need to bend my back , legs or strain my arms & shoulders .
I can turn a bin out into another one in about 25 to 30 min as well as sweeping the crumbs up and hosing the pad off .
If the gods smile on me I can do a bin every other day without wrecking myself . It usually takes me a lot longer to get organised as I'm still having to use crutches to get mobilized , to sweep up & tidy away than the actual turning exercise.
My fork is a modified hay pitch fork heated and re-shaped so the tines form a standard fork shape ( e.g. flat across where the foot tread is with the two almost straightened tines vertical ) . It has had two more inner tines made in the same open oblong manner welded in on the inside of the outer tines , to give me a fork with tines about 9 inches long and about 7.5 inches across.
Browning or brown leaves are best run over with a rotary mower to bust them up . I have a Dalek full of such hard oak leaves that I did last year .. just bust up with the mower and watered in layers as the bin got filled ,then left alone of a year to start breaking down . The bin is now about 3/5 full .
This next month or so they will be used as browns by the bucket full as I turn two un composted bins over , I'll then be leaving these alone to rot down aerobically till spring , as there is not enough ambient temperatures for me to get the really high sterilizing temperatures within the bins .
Whatever method you choose for composting in the bins i.e layer cake style or the 18 day way , just remember no matter what happens compost will also occur eventually all of it's own accord.
It just takes longer when it does it anaerobically & it won't be quite as high a quality , it will also have weed seeds in it because it won't have heated up sufficiently to kill them ..