Thinking about buying a homemade material/rock screen.

[mcmxi]

Someone local is selling a homemade material/rock screen. I could definitely use it since I have a lot of dirt to sift, currently and in the future, but it's not worth the $1,200 asking price, at least not to me. I'm going to look at it this morning and will decide what I'm prepared to pay but I could make the grate for $100 or so.

The container is kind of useful if my bucket will fit inside (from the rear). $500 would be a more reasonable price. I have a rock bucket so could load up the screen with that to filter larger material (> 2") and then transition to the standard bucket to remove filtered dirt from the container. The spacing between the angle is 3/4" and the screen is 6'-3" x 4'-8".

 

[tinkerwitheverything]

Not sure how good it will work . My home made one uses a motor to shake the screen.

 

[Old_Paint]

Not sure how good it will work . My home made one uses a motor to shake the screen.

Nice screen. If I had a lot of screening that I was gonna do, I think I'd prefer a shaker type like yours. First thing I noticed on the OP's photo is that it's a fixed screen. Gonna have to handle material a lotta times with that. Looks like a cut-down dumpster with angle welded on top. That might lend itself to a conversion, though. Not sure I'd give $1200 for it either, especially with no shaker.

 

[mcmxi]

Not sure how good it will work . My home made one uses a motor to shake the screen.

Very cool. I missed the seller by 15 minutes so might take a look later this coming week. I'm not convinced that it's a good buy and should probably build my own.

 

[mcmxi]

Nice screen. If I had a lot of screening that I was gonna do, I think I'd prefer a shaker type like yours. First thing I noticed on the OP's photo is that it's a fixed screen. Gonna have to handle material a lotta times with that. Looks like a cut-down dumpster with angle welded on top. That might lend itself to a conversion, though. Not sure I'd give $1200 for it either, especially with no shaker.

I think $500 would be reasonable with the plan to modify it and add a shaker.

 

[GreensvilleJay]

I started making plans to build a portable rotary soil trommel, then sold the property, so really don't need it. There are 'minitrommels'. Mine was about 14' long.Idea was BX23S dumps material into hopper,conveyor feeds into rotary screen, 2nd conveyor moves material to one windrow,, waste gets dumped into windrow,other side. Small 14HP engine to power it all. At the time I was making 200 yds compost a season.
I made a 'shaker table' unit 25 years ago, sat over the middle of 3 compost bins made of 8" concrete blocks.1hp motor ran it.NOISEY...bang,bang,bang,but did a great job ! odd years waste went from left bin->compost->right bin. even years, turned sifter around, went other way.

 

[mikester]

I'm going to look at it this morning and will decide what I'm prepared to pay but I could make the grate for $100 or so.

$100 doesn't buy much steel these days

 

[pokey1416]

Interesting reuse of dumpster. I kinda like it. My homemade screen inserted into dump trailer is a little bit of PITA to install.

 

[mcmxi]

I've been looking at the cost of new and used engines that could be modified to vibrate a screen. I have an old camper rolling chassis that I could use and incorporate into the system shown above to make the whole thing mobile. I'll know more once I've had a closer look and got a better sense of how much money the seller would let the rock screen go for.

This is an interesting read.

Vibrating Screen Working Principle (911metallurgist.com)

 

[mcmxi]

I took a look at the homemade rock screen this morning and decided to pass on it. The angle is heavy duty and in good shape but the modified container is a bit of a mess. It's simply not worth $1,200 to me and the seller didn't seem too interested in negotiating.

I'll make up something this spring using the expanded steel screens that I already have along with some scrap steel. I have a rock bucket so will use that for coarse screening and then dump the load onto a finer screen. Maybe I'll buy an engine and some springs and make a vibrating screen. This isn't a priority at the moment but it's something I'd like to get done before the summer.

 

[chriscozi]

Not sure how good it will work . My home made one uses a motor to shake the screen.

I made one similar with my trailer gate on a 2x4 frame, plywood sheet sides, and ratchet tie downs to hold it together. Quick build, light weight, moves quick with my loader, and I put a lot through it - 'hand' processing when I hit loam. A shaker would be nice if I had more to do. Reused the rocks for driveway fill and reused the topsoil everywhere else. I put about 15-20 yards through it.

 

[GreensvilleJay]

my original one had a 1HP electric motor reduced to about 50RPM running a pair of plywood cams to 'flip' the screen. Actually worked great for 7-8 years,though I had to rebuild the cams 2-3 times.

 

[homerrichards]

That will undoubtedly work. It appears to be durable to me. It is also less expensive than purchasing a new one, which will cost you a fortune.