if the bin composting isn't "breaking down as nicely as you'd like", you should figure out why and how to manage it so it works, rather than adding another management problem to the mix .... might try studying up a bit over at the soil/compost forum

aside from that, worms do fine on mostly/partially decomposed bin compost, it's their natural environment really ... if you have your bins on the ground [no bottoms] then you can just add worms to them, in winter the worms will go deeper as temperature dictates ... if you can put a large enough bin indoors, they'll do fine at 50° but action will be quite slow ... I don't think the can of worms setup is big enough to bother with as a finishing operation

Bill

Fast 'hot' composting requires a good mix of green (Nitrogen) and brown (Carbon) materials along with moisture and air.
Fast hot compost can be finished as soon as 2-3 weeks. But if the mixture isn't right, you have cold compost which will break down in time, but may take a year or more.
Now there's nothing wrong with cold compost - it's every bit as good as hot compost - it just takes longer...a lot longer.
Vermicomposting is really a form of cold composting.

Worms will process finished or near finished compost and it can make an excellent bedding material. However, it is important to also provide materials that are [more] actively decomposing to provide an ample feedstock.

You 'can' purchase a COW, but you might want to begin with a simple rubbermaid/sterlite 10g or 18g bin. Your basement will be a bit cool at 50F as worms do best at 70F. They will be very slow, almost dormant at 50F, but they would be 'okay'. Also, as Bill points out, these won't really handle the volumes of material I think you're talking about.

What you might better do is add worms to your outdoor compost heaps?

See the post titled: "Pros & Cons of Stackable bins" jaytea's post mentions some waste management sites give FREE COWs!

Hellow to all,I am new to vermicomposting and am very excited to get started,I have been reading this thred for the last couple of days now and am getting scared.From what i read elsewhere,this seemed so easy,they even do it in class rooms.I bought a four tier bin and am planning on keeping it in my kitchen,mostly to get rid of junk mail and veggie scrapes along with fruit scrapes,somewhere i read you must micrwave all fruit before adding to bin to avoid fruit flies,surley they do not do this in schools, do they?We drink a lot of coffee in this house and were happy to know the grounds would go to good use,are to many grounds a bad thing?I really thought i had prepared for this, but now i am not so sure.HELP!Am i over reacting?Thank you,just1more