Beach cleaner, sand sifter

   / Beach cleaner, sand sifter #1  

Hiltz

Gold Member
Joined
May 1, 2009
Messages
345
Location
Michigan
Tractor
JD 790
I have been looking online off and on for years for an affordable tow behind or 3 point beach cleaner. Jez......these things are really expensive. I have even found used ones but even these are way out of my budget. I was searching again the other night and found a Barber Sand Man TT 3 point. I thought I had found the perfect attatchment for my needs. It was small (I think around 300 lbs) its cleaning path was almost 48 inches, and its cleaning mechanism was pto powered so no external power source to add to the cost. Great.... I thought my problems were solved. The Barber website didnt have any prices so I emailed them requesting a price quote. Glad I was sitting down when I read their reply. It was priced at over $10,000.00 less shipping. Well....forget that one.
I also found a site where Honda makes a tow behind beach cleaner. It looked simple with no moving parts but I couldnt find any information on it other than some pictures of it in use.
I guess my question to you guys is any of you ever made a beach cleaner- sand sifter. Making something might be my only alternative. Simply raking is not doing a nice enough job. The beach area needs to be sifted like the machines do. Thanks
 
   / Beach cleaner, sand sifter #2  
You got a beach?
DANG!
:)
 
   / Beach cleaner, sand sifter #4  
What about using a "rock bucket" and adding in some additional bars/screen to achieve the level of sifting you want?

how deep are you "sifting" on a single pass?
 
   / Beach cleaner, sand sifter #5  
Wolud a landscape rake would clean your beach?
 
   / Beach cleaner, sand sifter
  • Thread Starter
#6  
What about using a "rock bucket" and adding in some additional bars/screen to achieve the level of sifting you want?

how deep are you "sifting" on a single pass?

I tried that one. I welded 1/4 inch harware cloth to a rock bucket. It was impossible to control the depth. As the bucket was slid under the sand the further it got of course the more resistance occured. Then the wheels of the tractor (4 wheel drive) started to dig downward. An impossible situation. I also tacked hardware cloth to a landscape rake. This somewhat worked better but the trash would clog the screen and soon the sand having nowhere to go would pile up making for the same situation where my tractor couldnt pull the pile. Whatever type machine is used it will have to get rid of the sand as it works sifting the trash. Either by a conveyer removing the trash as the sand falls through or something like a potato digger gets rid of the dirt by a quick back and forth action. But in this case the trash would be the patato.
 
   / Beach cleaner, sand sifter
  • Thread Starter
#7  
You got a beach?
DANG!
:)

Hey Allen , I have about 150 feet of beach on lake Huron. I also rake my neighbors beaches on both sides of me (for beer) All total I probably rake around 1/4 mile of beach in the summer. Its a fun job and a good way to get some seat time and beer.
 
   / Beach cleaner, sand sifter #8  
Have you ever seen the way these things sweep up and throw the grass into the rear basket? You could probably build a beach sweeper out of one of these or something like it. Use some bigger pnematic tires and wheels. Replace the rear bag with a travelling loop of hardware screen conveyor driven off the wheels to screen out the debris and drop the sand. The debris would drop into a container at the back which could then be lifted and dumped similar to the way the bag works on the lawn sweeper.


tow behind sweeper - Bing Images
 
   / Beach cleaner, sand sifter #9  
See your point about the rock bucket. Thinking that something like a land plane with slightly higher side walls (not quite unlike a box blade but longer) and the hardware cloth for sifting. still would "clog up- just not sure how quickly.

sand sifter.gif

If you can see it.... the blue triangle would be the cutting bar like on a land plane. The orange is the sifting screen/hardware cloth but set in an arch. the green is the side walls and end "trap" for larger debris. In theory, sand gets forced up and over cutter bar (could even be a very fine screening at this point too) the sand/debris moves up and over the forward curve, hopefully tumbling and breaking apart compacted material. larger/unbreakable material continues to be pushed further back until it gets to the 'trap".

Not a perfect design- just some ideas
What debris is the biggest problem?
 
   / Beach cleaner, sand sifter #10  
Look for an old pull behind pan scraper or " dirt pan" remove the rear floor of the pan and substitute a piece of expanded metal in whatever size you want to sift, if it still wont empty fast enough hook up a small hydraulic motor to your rear remote , use a belt to connect said motor to a simple jackshaft , a piece of shaft and 2 pillow block bearings, on the end of the jackshaft opposite the pulley mount a purposely unbalanced flywheel , voila ! vibrator Do it fast or i'll patent it and make the price $10,000 :laughing:



Ray
 
 
 
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