Dirt Sieve

[Onoff]

I "graded" a load of hardcore a while back by shovelling it onto a heavy duty 40mm mesh atop a wheel barrow. Took ages but worked well.

Now digging up a concrete path alongside the house on the back of my water main issue. It needs to be done anyway to sort out the drainage. So I'm ending up with a big pile of soil; mixed dirt, concrete, flints & old broken tiles. It'd be good to sieve it to give a) some decent topsoil and b) hardcore.

Got this silly idea I could make a powered sieve using a cement mixer as the basis. Thinking a removable drum (cut down heavy duty plastic barrel) with a mesh base that sits atop the mixer drum, set it going and sieved soil falls into the mixer drum leaving hardcore in the top one.

Silly?

[Barney12]

I'm always impressed with the ingenuity of such ideas but at the end of the day.......... A skip and a dumpy bag of top soil might be a whole let less hassle?

Perhaps I'm just lazy?

[Onoff]

Got 1/2 an acre of garden so no need for a skip! More a case of "redistribution" of materials!

I take the odd bit of scrap metal down the local council tip in the back of the estate. For the small stuff I use a tin opener on a 5L wood preserver can and all my little shards of steel, swarf, Stanley blades, studding off cuts etc go in that until full.

[PeterW]

You need one of these !!

 

[Guest Alphonsox]

I need something to do a similar job but on a far larger scale - think JCB bucket as input rather than spade. There are serious screening tools that can be hired but any DIY thoughts would be appreciated.

[PeterW]

There was another on YouTube that was an angled wire sheet with  a motor and a concentric weight by the looks of it - was being loaded with a front loader on a tractor. 

 

[Onoff]

My BiL built one that sat a mesh panel on slide rails over the dumper bucket and had a 230V motor driven crank.....

(I don't have a digger or dumper though!)

[Guest Alphonsox]

17 minutes ago, PeterW said:

There was another on YouTube that was an angled wire sheet with  a motor and a concentric weight by the looks of it - was being loaded with a front loader on a tractor. 

 

Well Spotted - This one I think. With full construction details here. Looks like a good retirement project !

 

[Onoff]

Fair play to the bloke for his effort but the "load" needs to stay on the grid for longer imo. He's losing loads of earth that's remaining clumped and just falling of the end rather than falling through the grid. When what falls off the end piles up and dries out he'll have to re-sieve it.

My BiL's idea was better by far. Have the vibrating / oscillating grid sat level atop the dumper bucket. It works away quite happily AND breaks up ALL the clumps including the damp, sticky ones. Then you just tip out the remaining stones from the dumper bucket.

[Ferdinand]

14 hours ago, PeterW said:

You need one of these !!

 

That looks like seriously more hard work than is actually necessary.

Shovelling tons of soil a metre in the air? Sheesh.

Needs a ramp and a wheelbarrow, maybe, combined with an inclined drum.

[sussexlogs]

I have one of these

[PeterW]

20 minutes ago, sussexlogs said:

I have one of these

Now that is very nice ..!! But looks quite expensive ..??

[Onoff]

All down to sussexlogs place with a tape measure I reckon! 

.....old lawnmower engine, bit of box etc. I reckon a towable one would be the ticket made just the right size to sit over a jumbo bag.

[sussexlogs]

£200 . and its the right size for jumbo bag 

[Nickfromwales]

I thought that would have been into 4 figures. Cheap as chips. 

[Onoff]

Looks good but needs a guard:

http://www.landscapejuice.com/2009/10/make-this-simple-garden-seive-for-45.html

[TheMitchells]

What  a great idea. ideal for my work as a gardener as I hate throwing good soil away with the stones we dig up. And less to dispose of in the skip.

[Onoff]

Where we live most of the native stones in the soil are flint. Recovered a load previously through sieving.Primarily did it to get some good top soil but then used the flints in a bit of a French drain alongside the garage.

 

Edited July 17, 2016 by Onoff

[daiking]

3 hours ago, Onoff said:

Looks good but needs a guard:

http://www.landscapejuice.com/2009/10/make-this-simple-garden-seive-for-45.html

That's next weekend sorted.

[Onoff]

21 minutes ago, daiking said:

That's next weekend sorted.

 You'll be want to borrow it after then?

Love the idea that bloke has of the tiered meshes though, so you can grade the stones into two sizes.