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Dirt Sieve


Onoff

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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?

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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.

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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.

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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 !

 

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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.

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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.

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

.....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.

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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 by Onoff
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21 minutes ago, daiking said:

That's next weekend sorted.

xD 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.

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