"Tony Hwang" wrote in message
...
bo bob wrote:
replying to ShadowTek, bo bob wrote:
ShadowTek wrote:

I have a pile of leftover driveway gravel (about a pickup bed full) that
I'm
planning on recycling
for french drain filler, but it's very dirty and full of sediment. I
spent most of the afternoon trying to spray it clean with a garden hose,
but I wasted a massive amount of water, and I didn't get very far.
I eventually began raking out about a third of a wheelbarrow load at a
time and washing just that, which seemed to go faster than trying to
tackle large amounts at once, but it's still going to take a while at
this rate.
I think the best solution would be to build a washing frame out of 2x4s
and some fine wire mesh to hold the gravel while allowing the sediment
to be flushed out through the bottom, but I'm not really dealing with
such a large pile that it warrants taking the time to make a trip to the
store,
buy a
roll of mesh, and build the frame.
I've also read where some people used composter drums or concrete mixers
to roll and wash their gravel, but neiter of those are at my disposal.
Anybody know of faster way of getting it done?



get a shopping cart, flip up the hinged back panel, and toss the gravel
in
by the shovelful. if you need to retain a finer size stone, add the
appropriate sized wire mesh. when this gets tedious, pretend you're a
fireman on a locomotive.

Hi,
I don't know when I had to clean couple wheel barrowful, I filled them in
a drum with water rolled it around a few minutes tumbling. They came out
shiny clean.

Don't WASH it, sieve it. Make a 2 x 4 frame about 2 feet by 6 feet, tack
some wire mesh on it sized to the size of stone you want to keep. Set it up
at a 45 degree angle and shovel the gravel against it at the top. By the
time the gravel has rolled down the wire mesh, it will have lost enough of
the fines to make it clean enough to use in your French drain. Be sure to
clean up the fines that drop through the screen to keep them from plugging
the mesh at the bottom of the slope. This method can go real fast if two or
more are working. One to throw the gravel at the top of the mesh, one to
remove the fines, and one to claim the screened gravel that you want.