EXT wrote:

If you build such a screener, you can use 1/4 or 1/2 inch hardware cloth
wire depending on how fine you want to screen the dirt. I have used expanded
wire (stucco or plaster) lath and found the sharp edges help to clean the
material. Don't build a square that you have to shake by hand, build it on a
slope and long enough so that a wheelbarrow can fit under it to catch the
bulk of the good soil. The screen on a slope, about a 45 degree angle, will
allow you to shovel the material onto the top area and allow gravity to pull
in down the screen cleaning the material with the gravel dropping off the
bottom. If the material is sticky you may need to shovel it back over the
screen a few times to get it cleaner.

Shaking a sieve or screen by hand is backbreaking and very slow. Shovelling
on a slanted screen is easy especially if a wheelbarrow can catch much of
the good soil. You will be able to much more work with less effort.

I have used one for hundreds of wheelbarrow loads cleaning old junk, rocks
and roots from good soil for my gardens.


The next upgrade to make it easier is to make a hanger frame to suspend
it from, sort of like one of the cradle rockers. Then you only provide
the energy to shake it back and forth and the frame supports the weight.

Another upgrade from that is to connect your Sawzall to it to provide
the shaking action at which point you just have to shovel the materiel
into it at a reasonable rate and periodically empty it.

Pete C.