Dirt sifter redux

In looking at other parts of the forum I saw some past dirt sifters and thought I'd post my take on it.

I tried the box setup and found it too slow for the literal tons of dirt and rocks I needed to sift here. So when a friend gave me a plastic 55gal barrel the dim bulb went on. I decided to make more of a leaky cement mixer setup. I had most of the materials except the 3/4" conduit. Luckily it's pretty inexpensive. I cut two circles out of 3/4" plywood to strengthen the bottom of the barrel where the drive would be and screwed them together with deck screws. To hold the end of the barrel up I had a bunch of these sealed bearing rollers that are off a conveyor drive at the place I used to work. They had no need of them when they scrapped the conveyor so I got a bucket full of them and I use them for everything. They have some kind of heavy duty vulcanized rubber with a groove in them for the drive belt, perfect for going in the top seam of the drum to support it on the front. I also had tons of 1/2" rod that I used for the braces that hold the upper rollers and eventually to hold the improvised plastic tarp/dust shield away from the top of the drum. The holes were cut with a hole saw and then covered with 1/4" wire cloth to do the sifting.

I also had the 1" shaft and pillow block bearing along with the cull belt drum that I cut in half to make an adapter for the HFT handheld pipe threader that now powers the sifter.
Attachment 4247Attachment 4248Attachment 4249Attachment 4250Attachment 4251Attachment 4252Attachment 4253

the top three pix were the early stages to see if it would dump like I hoped. And I'd not yet tried it out so it was hand powered with the handwheel off the HFT roller I used to roll the bottom 3/4" pipe crossbrace and the ring that holds the upper support rollers. When I took off the handwheel I also had to weld on handles to move the whole thing. It actually is quite easy to move because it's pretty light and when tilted back on the handles it's balanced. That was just dumb luck.

C-Bag,
That is a really cool prototype and final design using the HFT handheld pipe threader to power it. How did you bend the 1"+ diameter pipe that holds the four roller bearings?
Paul

Thanks Paul.

I have one of those HFT tubing rollers so the 3/4" pipe cross frame and the 1/2" rod were both rolled on it. If I ever get time I'm going to adapt the pipe threader to the roller too. That 40rpm that thing runs at is very handy and it's very powerful. But like most HFT's it needed some work after a while because one of the circlips in the gearbox popped off in reverse because they hadn't cut the groove for it deep enough. Luckily I heard it bog down and turned it off right away. So it didn't destroy anything and I was able to cut the retaining groove deep enough and it's been working good for a bunch of hours and yards of rock now(as he knocks on his wooden head ).

Thanks C-Bag, and great advice about the HFT handheld pipe threader. Looks like a very handy tool.

I have not looked to see if they still carry it. It got real low ratings but I wasn't sure if it was the dies that came with it or what. After having the gearbox apart I can see if they didn't fix this problem at the factory they might all self destruct given enough time. The one I bought had been a return to a HF down south and it was in the clearance bin. Best to run it in both directions at the store to see if it has any problems because lots of times you can't return a return. It's obviously a copy of a very expensive threader for 1/10th the price. As long as you go in with low expectations and the idea you will more than likely have to work on it, it's ok. Oh and also as long as it's mechanical not electrical :)

Thanks C-Bag! I've added your Dirt Sifter to our Miscellaneous category, as well as to your builder page: C-Bag's Homemade Tools. Your receipt:

<div id="blocks"> <div class="block b1 pngfix"> <div class="bimg"> <div> <a href="http://www.homemadetools.net/dirt-sifter-2"><img src="http://www.homemadetools.net/uploads/126222/dirt-sifter-2.jpeg" /></a></div> </div> <div class="head pngfix"></div> <div class="left pngfix"></div> <div class="right pngfix"></div> <div class="blockover b1 pngfix"> <div class="title"> <a href="http://www.homemadetools.net/dirt-sifter-2">Dirt Sifter</a> <span> by <a href="/builder/C-Bag">C-Bag</a></span> </div> <div class="tags">tags: <a href="http://www.homemadetools.net/tag/sifter">sifter</a></div> </div> </div> </div>

Great build C-Bag, Thanks for sharing! Nice design with bits and scraps and of course HFT returns. :cool: Particularly liked your roller set up and the ingenious way you connected the threader...looks substantial. Curious about the Giant O-Ring on the front of the drum where the bearings are...was that part of the top seal for the drum? It's magical sometimes how things fall into place like your balance...Always worth a "Thank You" :)!

Thanks PJs! I'm not sure what you mean by the big O ring. I think you are talking about the 1/2" rod ring that the upper rollers are attached to. That I rolled on the the big HFT Tubing roller. I should take some pics of it as it's also handy as a shirt pocket. It of course has been modded to do different stuff. I'm learning from you and Paul's excellent builds how to take pics. Unfortunately I never think of that until after I'm done.

The coupler was this solid cull belt drum I cut in half. For those who have not been around fruit packing equipment it's a narrow 4" wide belt that carry's away the fruit that either too ripe or damaged to go to market and is called culls. My father in law used to make packing house equipment and had various parts laying around. So I picked up the set. 2 x 1" shafts, 2 x 3" drums and 4 x 1" pillow block bearings.

One shaft and one pillow block are what the drive is connected to. I cut the drum in two and one end I welded 4 angle irons radiating out to be bolted into the plywood stiffener on the bottom of the plastic 55gal drum. The other half of the drum was turned into the coupler for the HFT pipe threader. If there is any interest I could pull off the tarp and try and get closer pics of the drive and the front suspension.

Cool design, and I like the use of the pipe threader as a drive source.

Thanks DIYer! I started out sifting by hand and using the big handwheel in the top pics, man did that get old quick. But it proved the concept was going to work.

A friend said why don't you just use a variable speed drill but I knew that was going to not be heavy duty enough. I also didn't want to put some kind of motor with a belt drive, that was too complicated and bulky and it's pretty dusty. Just perusing HFT I saw that threader and saw the rpm....and the thunderclap hit. I'm itching to modify it with an easier direction switch. It's got a really cheezy recessed switch that doesn't seem very positive. But it's working and I'm not as good an electrician as I am a mechanic. I'd hate to fry it. Because it was in the return bin it was basically brand new and I got it for $100. I couldn't have come up with as nice a gear drive for that much. I also need to store it in a small shed so the motor needed to be removable, which it is because of the quick change setup. If you look close I used an old shaft, spring, washer and knob off a computer chair to hold the threader on when it's in use. Just like a magpie, I can't throw any shiny/useful stuff away. Sooner or later it finds it's new purpose :)

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Originally Posted by C-Bag

Thanks PJs! I'm not sure what you mean by the big O ring. I think you are talking about the 1/2" rod ring that the upper rollers are attached to. That I rolled on the the big HFT Tubing roller. I should take some pics of it as it's also handy as a shirt pocket. It of course has been modded to do different stuff. I'm learning from you and Paul's excellent builds how to take pics. Unfortunately I never think of that until after I'm done.

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Most welcome C-Bag! Pic 1, 2, & 3 looks to me like some kind ring is around the neck of the drum. Assumed it was an O-Ring for the channeled rollers to ride on. Would imagine it could be a steel/tube ring though to stiffen the neck of it for riding on your roller support and the weight of the dirt. :confused:

Thanks for the detail on the coupling, pretty sharp thinking and repurposing! I get it now! I've tried to avoid fruit and nut trees because of a summer picking walnuts as a teen...for someone 6'6" it was a long summer...:rolleyes: However I never minded getting apples for my Gma to make her unbelievable apple sauce. :rocker:

I guess I should make some detail pics. The ring only holds the upper rollers and the rollers ride right on the upper lip of the plastic drum. Since the rollers had rubber a circular depression in them they tracked perfectly on that lip of the drum without messing up the plastic. It was one of those things I wasn't sure would work but when I tried it under "armstrong" power it worked out. The lower rollers are really the ones that carry the weight and the uppers are just more for stability. That's why the 3/4" pipe crossmember on the bottom that the bottom rollers bolt through. The ring is bolted to that. The uppers help keep all 4 rollers in their grooves on the rim of the plastic barrel as the barrel was not perfectly round and the whole thing flexes as it rolls. I know it seems hard to believe that plastic drum with all the holes in it would be strong enough to hold up rock and dirt and actually stand up over time but I assure you it has done the job much to my surprise. And way faster and with the plastic tarp on it, very little dust.

I get it now C-Bag, just couldn't finger out the dark ring. Surprised that the rim on the rollers holds the weight but excellent that it does. Think the rear probably takes the bulk of the weight anyway and it's plenty beefy. That tarp was a Sensible Idea!! Gets better and better with all the detail! Thanks for sharing! :hattip:

finally got some time to do hopefully some better details for Paul and PJs.

Here's another pic of the upper roller and "big O ring"Attachment 4379 Attachment 4384
the circular part that the roller is bolted to is a camber adjuster off a Ford or Merc been in my junk drawer for years. Take the nut loose and put a wrench on the bolt through the roller to adjust with, then tighten the nut.
Attachment 4380 With the tarp cover off a little more detail of the coupler and drive setup. I almost never get a chance to paint because I'm not sure what I've contrived is going to work. Then when it does it's either too dirty or whatever. I've come to consider rust the same as patina :)
Attachment 4381 some of the frame that holds the tarp. You'd have to look close but the original pix have less holes. As time went on and the plastic drum didn't fall apart I put more holes with the hole saw and also along the bottom rim to see if I could get more sift per revolution. As you can see it wanted to plug up. This last run I didn't try to clean it out, rode 'er hard and put 'er up dirty. Attachment 4382 a little HFT grouping....the ring roller that I did the pipe, big "O" ring, and the tarp frame. It has some optional rollers in it for square tubing that I used the lathe to make bigger so I could do this:Attachment 4383this project is how I talked my SO into buying the ring roller:rocker:

Thanks C-Bag for the additional pics. Thought those camber adjusters looked familiar...really excellent use of them and probably worked better for this application. ~¿@ Can also see clearly how the drum is what rides in the rollers, another great re-purposing!! Pretty amazing build C-Bag and looks to handle a fairly significant load...love it when an Idea with bit and pieces comes together like this. Based on your beautiful arbor and your sifter, I think your investment in HFT has paid for itself a few times over. Thanks for all the details and sharing a great project. :beer: and cheers!!

Thanks so much PJs you are too kind. Just engineering to stock. When I realized the huge job ahead of me with the tons and literally weeks of sifting I needed to do I knew the box setup wasn't going to cut it. My 7th grade metal shop teacher once said "a lazy man is a smart man" and that has stuck with me.

I live in a huge project so I use my ADD to good effect by moving between several projects. Working on one till I get stumped (or bored )then rotate to the next, rinse and repeat. This took several months of part time to get to the testing phase. But it justified to my SO that I needed my HFT 9x20 lathe and the RF-30 mill. Both off cl and for a total of less than $1,000. Yeah, they were both a project but have earned their keep. The sifter mount and coupler were the first things I ever tried to machine.

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Originally Posted by C-Bag

My 7th grade metal shop teacher once said "a lazy man is a smart man" and that has stuck with me.

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I vacillate between the "works smarter, not harder" clan and the "Laziness is the mother of invention" Clan. But then again not sure if either clan wants to be associated. :lol: It's amazing the similarities, in that I call your practice "freewheeling", bouncing between Way too many projects when stumped or Bored, but my OCD keeps me going. :rolleyes: Some projects just need pondering/cogitation or Lunch or a change of focus to let the light in. I do some of that justification my self but luckily I have the Best SO ever, to put up with me and support my "Projects".

For your first machining, I think you Nailed it!! Till Then, ~PJ

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Originally Posted by PJs

I vacillate between the "works smarter, not harder" clan and the "Laziness is the mother of invention" Clan.

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I tend go with "'Perfect' is the enemy of 'good enough'". The trick being, of course, in knowing what constitutes "good enough" in a given circumstance. I typically use "airworthy" as my judging metric.

Ken

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Originally Posted by kbalch

I tend go with "'Perfect' is the enemy of 'good enough'". The trick being, of course, in knowing what constitutes "good enough" in a given circumstance. I typically use "airworthy" as my judging metric.

Ken

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Love it Ken...what ever turns your prop! :D And you are absolutely right about the circumstance...me I always look back and ask Did I really spend this much time on this? :rolleyes: but the smiles and grins have it! Think I might start using "Airworthy" too in the appropriate circles of course. ~PJ

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kbalch

I typically use "airworthy" as my judging metric.

Ken

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After I got out of aircraft school I used that alot. But because I'd gone back to automotive because it paid more and I didn't have to sign a log, when I said it people looked at me funny. So it just kinda got dropped. But when I think of it is that why people say "that'll fly" " or "lets see if it'll fly"?