Hi I need to sieve a lot of garden soil, so foar I have found this
expensive thing
http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/pr...rs-cultivators

and this not so expensive
http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/pr...rs-cultivators

The cheap one will be ok but I can see it will have to be regularly
stopped to remove big stones by hand rather than the expensive one
which could be rotated until all the soil gone and only stones left,
then waste tipped out.

I'd like to make one A manually operated version of the expensive one
would be good or I had previously thought about knocking 4 planks of
wood together in a square shape and buying some 10 - 15mm wire mesh,
nail the mesh onto the 4 planks of wood - then make up 2 'A' frames
with a crossbar along the top, and somehow suspend this meshed tray
below the crossbar, fill it up with soil and shake it back and forth.

Problems with this is the cost of wire mesh, and designing it.

Can anyone think of some good ideas on how to DIY a fairly heavy duty
sieve please?

On Mon, 05 May 2008 06:01:05 -0700, freepo wrote:

Hi I need to sieve a lot of garden soil, so foar I have found this
expensive thing
http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/pr...rs-cultivators

and this not so expensive
http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/pr...rs-cultivators

The cheap one will be ok but I can see it will have to be regularly
stopped to remove big stones by hand rather than the expensive one
which could be rotated until all the soil gone and only stones left,
then waste tipped out.

I'd like to make one A manually operated version of the expensive one
would be good or I had previously thought about knocking 4 planks of
wood together in a square shape and buying some 10 - 15mm wire mesh,
nail the mesh onto the 4 planks of wood - then make up 2 'A' frames
with a crossbar along the top, and somehow suspend this meshed tray
below the crossbar, fill it up with soil and shake it back and forth.

Problems with this is the cost of wire mesh, and designing it.

Can anyone think of some good ideas on how to DIY a fairly heavy duty
sieve please?

==================================
A 40 gallon oil drum. Drill holes from outside and then punch through to
size from the inside. Mount on an double A-frame stand and fit a handle to
rotate. In use, make sure you have enough heavy stones in the mix to help
the fine material to fall out when rotated.

Alternatively you might be able to use an old washing machine drum as the
drum provided that you can enlarge the holes sufficiently.

Cic.

--
===================================
Using Ubuntu Linux
Windows shown the door
===================================

On May 5, 2:14 pm, Cicero wrote:
On Mon, 05 May 2008 06:01:05 -0700, freepo wrote:
Hi I need to sieve a lot of garden soil, so foar I have found this
expensive thing
http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/pr...-powered-rotar...

and this not so expensive
http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/pr...-hand-operated...

The cheap one will be ok but I can see it will have to be regularly
stopped to remove big stones by hand rather than the expensive one
which could be rotated until all the soil gone and only stones left,
then waste tipped out.

I'd like to make one A manually operated version of the expensive one
would be good or I had previously thought about knocking 4 planks of
wood together in a square shape and buying some 10 - 15mm wire mesh,
nail the mesh onto the 4 planks of wood - then make up 2 'A' frames
with a crossbar along the top, and somehow suspend this meshed tray
below the crossbar, fill it up with soil and shake it back and forth.

Problems with this is the cost of wire mesh, and designing it.

Can anyone think of some good ideas on how to DIY a fairly heavy duty
sieve please?

==================================
A 40 gallon oil drum. Drill holes from outside and then punch through to
size from the inside. Mount on an double A-frame stand and fit a handle to
rotate. In use, make sure you have enough heavy stones in the mix to help
the fine material to fall out when rotated.

Alternatively you might be able to use an old washing machine drum as the
drum provided that you can enlarge the holes sufficiently.

Cic.

I like both ideas, thanks, food for thought. I could even drive the
wash machine with the electric motor, just let the soil drop down from
what is usually an open bottom on the wash m/c casing

freepo wrote:

Can anyone think of some good ideas on how to DIY a fairly heavy duty
sieve please?

The ones used on archaeological digs follow the design you mention. A
rectangular wooden frame with a mesh base. The frame is supported on a
pair of parallel rais using either four ropes (quick and easy to adjust)
or four rails in a four-bar link. Then simply shuffle the frame back and
forwards by hand.

"freepo" wrote in message
...


Can anyone think of some good ideas on how to DIY a fairly heavy duty
sieve please?

Cement mixer with holes in the drum.
Chuck in some stones if you want to grind stuff smaller.
Never tried it as I don't have a spare mixer.

"freepo" wrote in message
...
Hi I need to sieve a lot of garden soil, so foar I have found this
expensive thing
http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/pr...rs-cultivators

and this not so expensive
http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/pr...rs-cultivators

The cheap one will be ok but I can see it will have to be regularly
stopped to remove big stones by hand rather than the expensive one
which could be rotated until all the soil gone and only stones left,
then waste tipped out.

I'd like to make one A manually operated version of the expensive one
would be good or I had previously thought about knocking 4 planks of
wood together in a square shape and buying some 10 - 15mm wire mesh,
nail the mesh onto the 4 planks of wood - then make up 2 'A' frames
with a crossbar along the top, and somehow suspend this meshed tray
below the crossbar, fill it up with soil and shake it back and forth.

Problems with this is the cost of wire mesh, and designing it.

Can anyone think of some good ideas on how to DIY a fairly heavy duty
sieve please?

I seem to remember as a kid seeing old timers (of which I am one now)
sieving sand to make lime mortar.
They used a wood frame approx 4ft long by 2ft wide to which was attached a
sheet of wire sieving material. The frame was propped up at a fairly steep
angle sloping away from the operator. The method used was to shovel the
gritty sand against the upper part of the frame, the larger bits tended to
roll down the sieve, the finer bits went straight through and the
intermediate sizes fell approx in the middle.
They ended up with a long heap of sand under the sieve, finer grains further
away and the stones by your feet. so you had a graduated pile of sand.
Hope it may simplify your task.
Cheers
Don

"Steve Firth" wrote in message
. ..
freepo wrote:

Can anyone think of some good ideas on how to DIY a fairly heavy duty
sieve please?

The ones used on archaeological digs follow the design you mention. A
rectangular wooden frame with a mesh base. The frame is supported on a
pair of parallel rais using either four ropes (quick and easy to adjust)
or four rails in a four-bar link. Then simply shuffle the frame back and
forwards by hand.

No need for anything elaborate:

The square meshed wire rolls can vary hugely in price (steer clear of B&Q),
but I have had them for £2.50 from Wilkinsons, and generally have a roll on
hand, as this stuff is useful for making any number of things - I have to
cover almost everything with it to keep the squirrels out - ( Otherwise I
mostly use it for making baking trays and bread moulds as the ones in the
shops are much too small!).

No need really to do anything other than unroll one of these and spread your
soil on it and rub it through as you work across your plot. (You could even
buy a '6ft' roll and get your friends/kids to help you load it and shake:
pretend you are fishing for stones!) If you do have a 45 gal drum to hand
and can get the top off, you will find the roll of wire just the right width
for you to cut a square of mesh to fit over the drum, which you can then
brush the soil through with the back of your spade. Keep any flints you
sieve out for when you come to concreting your garden paths and steps.

S

"spamlet" wrote in message
om...

... I
mostly use it for making baking trays and bread moulds as the ones in the
shops are much too small!).

I'd like to know more about making bread moulds! Mail me if you prefer.

Mary

In message , "dennis@home"
writes


"freepo" wrote in message
...


Can anyone think of some good ideas on how to DIY a fairly heavy duty
sieve please?

Cement mixer with holes in the drum.
Chuck in some stones if you want to grind stuff smaller.
Never tried it as I don't have a spare mixer.

Ah close:-)

The trick is to fit a roll of mesh into the cement mixer drum such that
you have around 2' sticking out. My mixer can be made to run with the
drum horizontal. Park the barrow underneath such that the oversize stuff
drops clear. Start shovelling.....

regards

--
Tim Lamb

wrote in message
...
On Mon, 5 May 2008 06:01:05 -0700 (PDT), freepo
wrote:


I used an old single bed frame for a couple of seasons.
It was the type that had a sort of springy wire mesh between the coils
springs and the mattress. Thought about hanging it up and shaking in
the way you mention but never got around to it.
Bashing it with a shovel was enough to shake it for the quantities of
soil we were needing. Supported on two trestles the soil was gathered
from a plastic sheet laid under. Stones pushed off the end into a
barrow with broom.

Since converted it to a compost heap retainer by cutting the mesh
lengthways and bent around a pallet.

G.Harman

You sound like a fellow Tyke!

Mary

On May 5, 9:27 pm, Tim Lamb wrote:

Ah close:-)

The trick is to fit a roll of mesh into the cement mixer drum such that
you have around 2' sticking out. My mixer can be made to run with the
drum horizontal. Park the barrow underneath such that the oversize stuff
drops clear. Start shovelling.....

regards

--
Tim Lamb

Thanks for ALL replies, this one is interesting, I have a mixer and I
reckon it could be run at any angle, so I fit some wire mesh over the
opening and turn it on.

The mesh over the opening could be held in place by some bolts/drilled
holes but the mesh has to also be easily & quickly removed so that
probably won't do. Hmmmm ???

Ok I just read it again, you put a mesh going inside the drum, shovel
soil into the void created by the mesh, the soil goes into the drum
the stones stay in the mesh bubble, interesting idea!

The mesh I have in mind (for any of the designs) is not chicken wire
as that breaks to easily, I'm wanting a wire diameter of atleast 2mm
preferably 3mm or 4mm. (hence why it is going to be expensive stuff).

In message
,
freepo writes
On May 5, 9:27 pm, Tim Lamb wrote:

Ah close:-)

The trick is to fit a roll of mesh into the cement mixer drum such that
you have around 2' sticking out. My mixer can be made to run with the
drum horizontal. Park the barrow underneath such that the oversize stuff
drops clear. Start shovelling.....

Thanks for ALL replies, this one is interesting, I have a mixer and I
reckon it could be run at any angle, so I fit some wire mesh over the
opening and turn it on.

The mesh over the opening could be held in place by some bolts/drilled
holes but the mesh has to also be easily & quickly removed so that
probably won't do. Hmmmm ???

Ok I just read it again, you put a mesh going inside the drum, shovel
soil into the void created by the mesh, the soil goes into the drum
the stones stay in the mesh bubble, interesting idea!

The mesh I have in mind (for any of the designs) is not chicken wire
as that breaks to easily, I'm wanting a wire diameter of atleast 2mm
preferably 3mm or 4mm. (hence why it is going to be expensive stuff).

My explanation is not very clear:-)

The purpose of the mixer is to provide motive power and support for a
roughly horizontal tubular sieve. You might do something similar with a
*windlass* but you have to rotate it and there is no easy way of loading
the material.

Weldmesh is very strong and I don't think 1"x1" will be available in
3mm+. Nevertheless, rolled into a tube shape and only loaded with a
shovelful at a time, plenty strong enough. ISTR mine was attached to the
mixer drum with small G cramps but there may be better ways. (snip some
slits in the end of the tube and interleave them inside and outside the
drum, perhaps)

Shovelling the mix against a sloping grid is the traditional way hand
dug gravel was sorted in Victorian times.

regards


--
Tim Lamb

freepo wrote:

The mesh I have in mind (for any of the designs) is not chicken wire
as that breaks to easily, I'm wanting a wire diameter of atleast 2mm
preferably 3mm or 4mm. (hence why it is going to be expensive stuff).


I have a sieve I made many years ago - square frame, about 2ft6 (scraps
I had) plus square half-inch mesh - a bit like this

https://4wire.co.uk/shop/images/weld1.jpg

.... although that isn't where I got it. It's been fine, although it
isn't as flat as it once was... I think that fact that the wires go
straight across from one bit of wood to the opposite one helps the strength.

Andy

"Mary Fisher" wrote in message
t...

"spamlet" wrote in message
om...

... I
mostly use it for making baking trays and bread moulds as the ones in the
shops are much too small!).

I'd like to know more about making bread moulds! Mail me if you prefer.

Mary

Hi Mary,

I don't know how to link a picture to the news-group so here is a straight
reply.
(I'll still copy the text to the forum, as they will probably get the idea.)

The attached picture should give a 'UK-Diyer' enough to go on to get the
idea of how to free yourself from the constraints of what is available in
the shops.

The tall, round, chickenwire item is for Panettone, and was my first effort
before finding the square wire. (Round bottoms appear to be a challenge at
first, but really, you will quickly get the idea once you have got the hang
of working with the mesh - I would not use hexagonal again (though I do use
it for covering things against squirrels in the garden).)

The long 'square' sectioned one is my 'normal' bake, and uses dough made
with up to 900g of flour (700 if very lively white flour). I arranged it so
that the width was right for our toaster - the ability to make the right
shaped bread for toast and sandwiches seeming to have entirely escaped the
attention of the bread tin makers!

The squares make designing very easy, even without a ruler! The large 'tin'
is as long as what is left of the width of the roll after you have decided
to make your bread (up to) 10 squares high (it rarely does get this high,
but sometimes does).

If you can fold paper/make parcels, you should have no problem with this:
you just count up where your folds have to be and then snip the cross wires
along the four lines that are going to be 'the ends of the long sides'; then
fold up the ends and wrap the 'ears' round to make the 'tin'.

While you are snipping the wires, snip tight to one side of the row, so that
you have 'long' tags of wire to play with rather than two 'halves'. You use
these longer bits to wrap around the sides'/bottom mesh to hold it all
together. At key points - such as where the ends of the flaps need to line
up with the sides, and in places where the wire is very springy and won't
stay close together: to make it easier to wrap all the intervening tags of
wire around, I use a few extra twists of wire to hold it steady while I
work. Along the top edges cut any 'left over' tags off, so as not to
scratch when in use.

As you can see in the picture, the only tools needed are a small pair of
side-cutters (also very good for toe-nails), and a similar pair of pliers.
These can usually be got very cheaply in bargain shops/Wilkinsons etc, where
they often have bargain bins containing these - these ones were a pound the
pair. (Watch out for all the tags that you snip off as they do tend to get
about - glasses might be a good idea!)

Next step is to line with BAKING paper (brown, on a roll, Tesco) NOT
'greaseproof' paper (white) - sticks like glue!

Just fold the end of a strip of paper over the top of one side(you could
make your tin the length of the width of the roll if you were being really
clever!); hold it with a couple of paper clips; loop the rest of the paper,
down, across the bottom, and up the other side; wrap it over the edge and
again hold with a couple of clips; cut off the excess.

Unhitch one side, and cut a couple more strips for the ends (again, I just
use the width of the roll and cut in half); making them long enough to tuck
under the bigger piece, so that it holds them in place; wrap their top ends
over the edge and retain as before; resecure the main piece.

Getting the idea?

The paper does not stick (once cooked), does not need greasing, and lasts a
surprising long time before it needs to be changed: the bread just tips out,
so why they always make bread tins with sloping sides I have no idea!
(Oops, yes I do: it's so they can stack the tins - but this need not concern
us as we are not talking huge oven space here!). Once the paper has been
baked a few times you can generally do away with the paper clips.

One refinement I have tried recently is to cut a flat insert to lay on the
top of my big 'tin's dough while it is rising, so as to give the bread a
square top. So far, this has tended to reduce the size of the loaves
though, and it tends to tip off any weights I use to hold it down; but I'll
get there I'm sure, when the right brain wave hits me!

You could start with the particularly wonderfully easy and useful, 'French
Stick' troughs you can see at the front of the picture. These ones are 11
squares wide and as long as the diagonals in your oven will allow. These
really are a marvellous addition to any baker's kit: and almost FREE!

Below these is a 'simple' baking sheet - actually not very easy to make it
stay flat, but once you've got your buns; scones; or baps etc on them, they
don't mind at all! Baking sheets are outrageously expensive and nearly
always too small: these mesh versions are better, as they give you even
cooking all round, and have less metal to heat up - and also nearly free!

Once your mind is opened to the possibilities, there seems no end to what
you can do with this stuff: certainly saves a fortune in the kitchen, before
you even begin to look around the garden! Marvellous stuff!

Send us a pic of your efforts!

Have fun,
S

On May 6, 6:06*pm, freepo wrote:
The mesh I have in mind (for any of the designs) is not chicken wire
as that breaks to easily, I'm wanting a wire diameter of atleast 2mm
preferably 3mm or 4mm. (hence why it is going to be expensive stuff).

Sheesh! What size rocks are you sieving? That sounds way OTT for
sieving soil. The ordinary rectangular mesh from a DIY or garden
centre will probably do fine. Even if you need to replace it half way
through the job it will still be a lot cheaper.

MBQ

"spamlet" wrote in message news:GPkUj.21172

I've tried to send a long reply but can't, can you mail me your working
address please?

Mary

On May 8, 11:15 am, "Man at B&Q" wrote:
On May 6, 6:06 pm, freepo wrote:

The mesh I have in mind (for any of the designs) is not chicken wire
as that breaks to easily, I'm wanting a wire diameter of atleast 2mm
preferably 3mm or 4mm. (hence why it is going to be expensive stuff).

Sheesh! What size rocks are you sieving? That sounds way OTT for
sieving soil. The ordinary rectangular mesh from a DIY or garden
centre will probably do fine. Even if you need to replace it half way
through the job it will still be a lot cheaper.

MBQ

Well, no, chicken wire, of the sort that you find in garden centres,
wouldn't last very long when you put about 15 - 20 kg of soil containg
large stones and quarter bricks, 1/2 bricks etc and then violently
shake it up. The wire would snap in no time. Hence, why, when I make
one, it will be with very good strong wire mesh, and it will last for
years (should I wish to keep it).