dirt sifter

[C-Bag]

I had literally tons of dirt and landscaping rock to "rescue" so I decided to go another route. Where we live is close to the beach and the soil is sandy and the people who used to live here had put down some rock without anything under it to keep it from disappearing. So when I went to make a fence I couldn't get through the 3 layers of rock they had put down. So I had to sift it all. I probably got 6 to 10 yds of rock. In some places the rock was more than 2' below the surface.

What I used was a plastic 55gal barrel with holes I made with a hole saw then covered the holes with 1/4 wire cloth. The frame was all 3/4" conduit brazed together with golf caddy wheels to move it. Picture a cement mixer with holes in it The frame was set up so you could park a wheelbarrow under it if you wanted the sifted dirt, or like I used it in front I could tilt and dump the clean rocks into the wheelbarrow. I ended up using a HF hand held pipe threader(set to hold itself and with a router on off switch) to power it with because it was reversible, ran at 40rpm and was a cheap return. Probably the only thing it was good for really. Even then I had to work on the gearbox once. But it does the job and it has sifted literally tons of rock for me and my neighbor when he borrowed it. I'm still not done. Just a thought.