On Mon, 14 Sep 2009 21:26:02 -0700, the infamous
scrawled the following:

Hi,

Here's a motorized compost trommel sifter I built:

http://steveandlizthompson.shutterfly.com/

It works great, but after loading two yards through it with a shovel,
I looked at my tractor with a FEL, and thought that there must be an
easier way!

Hey, that's a great idea. Howcomewhyfor you no paint de frame, mon?
A quick wirebrushing, cleanup with lacquer thinner, and spray
bomb away. Take ya half an hour.


But I'm stuck. How to create a system that is loaded by the FEL to
feed the sifter? Conveyor belt, corkscrew in a trough, modified small
grain silo? I'm a hobby welder with no industrial experience, and I
don't know where to look for ideas.

I've got a pvc pipe, 6 feet long, 18 inches in diameter, 1/2 inch
walls, that I could rip to create a trough. I even thought of
modifying a post hole auger, but it's not long enough. Any ideas
feasible for a DIYer would be appreciated.

Perfect.

Create a stand with box for a FEL bucket's worth of soil, a foot or
18" higher than the base of the sifter barrel, somewhere between waist
and chest high.

Make the trough and connect it to the stand so it feeds the barrel.

Use a regular garden hoe to scrape the dirt onto the trough.

Alternatively, build a PTO and create a worm to auger the soil into
the trough slowly but automatically.

Submit that to Farm Show magazine, too, if you like. It's worth
sharing, Steve. Kudos.

--
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-- Thomas Jefferson