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.

 

[prichard]

Oops sorry this is a power trac thread and you're afraid of tractor owners. Should I be afraid now? Are y'all going to hunt me down and tar and feather me?

 

[MossRoad]

Oops sorry this is a power trac thread and you're afraid of tractor owners. Should I be afraid now? Are y'all going to hunt me down and tar and feather me?

There's no attachment for that.... yet.

 

[prichard]

Whew.

 

[Luke'sScreenName]

There's no attachment for that.... yet.

Bwahahaha! :thumbsup:

 

[MossRoad]

They do make a cement mixer, but I think it would require a little cutting.

 

[MossRoad]

And it would work for the trommel project, too.

 

[CurlyDave]

OK here is an image of my screen. The size of the screen is actually 8' x 8', I used two 4' x 8' pieces of expanded metal side by side. It is elevated about 12" to allow material to build up as it is separated.

This is not going to be as efficient in collecting all of the fines as the trommel, but for the price and simplicity, I can screen the rocks several times to improve separation efficiency.

The structure below the horizontal bar behind the screen allows me to pick up the entire assembly with the FEL and move it around.

I reduced the pixel count of the image for faster loading. Zoom in to see the details of the expanded metal.

 

[MossRoad]