Rock Trommel

[Impulse]

I have a monster amount of old landscape beds full of river rock, dirt, weeds and then whatever I can't see below the surface. My first thought was just using the bucket to scoop it all up and pile it up somewhere and then bring more dirt in to replace. I did a little googling and came across this:

DIGGER SCREENER TROMMEL MAKING GOOD SOIL EVEN BETTER! ! - YouTube

I tried searching to see what rock sifters people had on here but not much luck. Anyone use / make something similar to this? Figured something like this pointing forward would allow for a scoop/spin/dump/repeat and salvage the dirt.

 

[CurlyDave]

I have a large screen (maybe 6' x 8'), made from steel tubing and expanded metal which I have used very successfully to perform much the same function.

Essentially the screen is set at a 45 degree angle and I dump a rock/dirt/sand mixture on it. Rock doesn't go thru, dirt/sand does go thru. No moving parts and it is much faster than the implement shown.

To get all of the fines separated from the rock I need to screen twice, but that is still faster than the video.

And, there is a second use for the screen. By dumping alternating loads of compost/dirt on the screen I can "mix" the materials. I say "mix" because what it is really doing is producing alternating layers of the different materials, but scooping this up with the loader and moving it to a final location will produce a very good mixture.

I will try to get pix tomorrow, but I suspect that trommel is very overpriced compared to a simple screen.

* * * * * *

I built this because I needed about 150 cubic yards of planting mix for a very large landscape project. My property has a lot of decomposed granite mixed with rock, and I could buy compost from our local dump/sewage treatment facility for a a few $ per yard. I think I have about $150 worth of compost in the planting mix I used.

 

[Impulse]

I'd be interested to see it. I had used something I think would be similar in the past, but I'm guessing it wasn't long enough to get all the dirt out. I ended up laying it flat on some saw horses and raking the rocks back and forth over it.

 

[MossRoad]

You sure you want this in the Power Trac forum?

 

[Impulse]

Pretty sure. I wanted to see how you PTers would do it since that's what I plan on going with. If there was something someone had made to mount on their PT or whatever, I wanted to know.

That and I'm afraid of regular tractor folk...

 

[Industrial Toys]

Google "Flip Screen" That's what I'm building/copying if only the guy doing the Solid Works stuff for me would cooperate.

 

[roadhunter]

I have a large screen (maybe 6' x 8'), made from steel tubing and expanded metal which I have used very successfully to perform much the same function.

Essentially the screen is set at a 45 degree angle and I dump a rock/dirt/sand mixture on it. Rock doesn't go thru, dirt/sand does go thru. No moving parts and it is much faster than the implement shown.

To get all of the fines separated from the rock I need to screen twice, but that is still faster than the video.

And, there is a second use for the screen. By dumping alternating loads of compost/dirt on the screen I can "mix" the materials. I say "mix" because what it is really doing is producing alternating layers of the different materials, but scooping this up with the loader and moving it to a final location will produce a very good mixture.

I will try to get pix tomorrow, but I suspect that trommel is very overpriced compared to a simple screen.

* * * * * *

I built this because I needed about 150 cubic yards of planting mix for a very large landscape project. My property has a lot of decomposed granite mixed with rock, and I could buy compost from our local dump/sewage treatment facility for a a few $ per yard. I think I have about $150 worth of compost in the planting mix I used.

Looking forward to seeing this setup.

 

[prichard]

Here's a recent build http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/showthread.php?t=371400
Rock Screener

 

[Impulse]

Google "Flip Screen" That's what I'm building/copying if only the guy doing the Solid Works stuff for me would cooperate.

I have to say I was amazed it was the first result on google... I figure I would have to sift through 500 pages of electronics. That is pretty sweet but I imagine would need on a significantly smaller scale. That design would definitely be easier to change screen sizes than the trommel thing I posted and I imagine easier to actually dump all the rocks out of the bucket.

 

[MossRoad]

Pretty sure. I wanted to see how you PTers would do it since that's what I plan on going with. If there was something someone had made to mount on their PT or whatever, I wanted to know.

That and I'm afraid of regular tractor folk...

Okey Dokey.

If it were me, I'd go with the K.I.S.S. method.... Keep It Simple Stupid! :laughing: A hydraulically operated trommel facing away from you may be hard to see to fill. It also looks slow. If I was doing a trommel, I'd make it stand alone and pretty long and use the Power Trac to feed it. That would be much, much faster.

I'd do like the others, make a 45 degree screen out of steel (because I have a tendency to break wood), and I'd have interchangeable screens so I could filter out large, then medium, then small stuff.

Many years ago I saw someone make a shaker grate somewhere here on TBN, too. That seemed to work well. They put a small gas lawnmower engine on an eccentric to shake a screen.