Sifting compost

[habitat-gardener]

What do you use to sift compost? I‘ve been using plastic nursery trays, but it’s getting pretty labor intensive to shake those. I know the best thing would just be to make something, but that’s not likely to get done.

[Mark_Thompson]

Milk crate. Set it in wheelbarrow, fill halfway, then shake out the fines, return the chunks to pile. That’s my workflow.

[JRinPA]

I'm really liking the Dollar Tree wire basket indoor trashcans. About 1 ft tall. They are coated wire and seem to sift well and pretty quickly. The compost comes out the sides and the bottom, so it is quicker and seems to me, less tiresome. https://www.dollartree.com/essentials-w ... -in/221099

Also

for big jobs
I made a tumbler from two unused deer cart wheels (spoked to solid rubber, bearings with 1/2" axle hole).
1/2" HW cloth screwed into wheel faces for 3/4 circumference. Just short screws headed with washers. Then the last quarter free to open. I forget what I did for open/close lock. (I remember, temp was 14 ga wire, currently it is 1/4-20 carriage bolt arrangement, x 3 across the width)
Spun on a 1/2" rebar axle.
Supported by two saw horses with added slip over saddles on each to make it high enough to put wheelbarrow under it.

Shovel compost into wheelbarrow#1. Put wheelbarrow#2 underneath, and half fill the tumbler. Close tumbler and spin it. Wheelbarrow 2 has sifted compost in it. Put wheelbarrow#3 (or tarp) underneath, open the tumbler, and spin it to empty the coarse stuff. Repeat.

I'm sure other wheel and axle types could be made to work...these were laying around.

Can also use this to distribute peat over lawn to cover grass seed for better germination.

Also

I still want to build a nested set of filters from 5 gallon buckets and some kind of eccentric motor(s?) to vibrate it. 2x4" to 1" to 1/2" to 1/4". Bottoms cut out and spanned with those grids. Fill the top one, turn on the motor, come back in a few minutes. Maybe springs too, not just motors?


Now I'm thinking, may be easy to put a dollar tree trash can in a 5 gallon bucket...in a sort of spring harness saddle. Be able to just shake it instead of holding it. Build it into one bucket with bottom cut out, and then nest in second bucket to catch.

[JRinPA]

I also learned last year or so that my grandfather had a big sifter set up. Throw a shovelful of compost against he face of a board, and it would fall down through some sort of wire arrangement. So a permanent location setup. I want to try to get my aunt to describe and maybe sketch it.

[agee]

Cat Litter Box with Sifting Tray.

https://www.walmart.com/browse/pets/sif ... 75_1634493

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Sifting+Cat+Litter+box

[zeuspaul]

I'm really liking the Dollar Tree wire basket indoor trashcans.

That's what I use to protect new transplants from critters and they filter the sun and add a little wind protection. They still have them? I got mine about ten years ago.

[zeuspaul]

I use a set of 12 inch interchangeable screens. Not good for large quantities. The larger sceeen sizes sifter faster depending on what you need.

I also have a 2 ft x 4 ft +/- 2 x 4 frame with attached 1/4 inch screen which can be tilted up and compost can be shoveled onto it but rarely use it.

screens.png

[bower]

I use a piece of chicken wire crimped over the edge of a big fish tub (or wheelbarrow if I had one). Shovel on (it sags), break it up with the shovel a bit and then finish by pulling it off the rim and shaking by hand. There are always weeds or grass getting into the done pile, and most of that gets caught in the wire - it's a bit of a nuisance to remove by hand between sifts.
Hardware cloth on a frame would be way better, as with the solid filters others described. Chicken wire is a bit too malleable, but I do like the fact that worms have no trouble getting through the screening with that size of holes.

I've seen hardware cloth on a big frame used as in your grandfather's sifter @JRinPA . Can't remember if it was leaning against something or had its own supports keeping a fairly steep angle. Easy to customize for a container to catch it.

[JRinPA]

Yep still have them, still work for rabbit protection, and lot of other things.

I want to get my aunt to really describe that big sifter well. I need paper with to sketch it though.

I have box sifters too, 1/2" hw cloth on one, 1/4" on a smaller one. I use them a lot but that is about the same as nursery trays. 1/4" square is pretty fine.

I'm gonna see what I can do with a dollar tree basket and a bucket, maybe with bungee as the springs. Maybe a mop handle attached to the basket. I'm seeing a butter churn. Be nice to be able to shake it without having to support the weight.

One thing I like to do is re-pile the rejected stuff, try to remove rocks, but segregate it so I can drop it through the shredder when it is out, before putting it back in a pile. Rejects are usually small rocks, chunks of wood, or balls of dirt that have green in them yet. A rock magnet would be nice but I haven't seen them for sale for a while, and the last one didn't work that well...

[wykvlvr]

one of these with the fine screen... https://rollingsifter.ecwid.com/Rolling ... p104634382

Just make sure you have a bin under the open end and it will "roll' large pieces up and out of the tumbler. LOVE IT.

[JRinPA]

My tumbler is a bit bigger than that, but yeah they work great. Can also use mine for spreading peat, since it is axle through, you just put a couple sticks on the end for handles.

I'm think an axle through would work for the 1.25 tree baskets...a threaded through bolt long enough, an end closure made with thin wood or coroplast (election signs). An A clamp as a quick release, even...turn a basket into a spin tumbler. They don't quite fit a 5 gallon bucket as is, need to work that out.
Would be an easy, cheap sifter with no effort other than playing hamster.

[zeuspaul]

I was curious about what Amazon sells as compost sifters.

sifters.png

[bower]

The one with handles looks sturdy and not bad for $30. I guess you shake or stir it with a shovel. I can't imagine the one with legs is any fun to turn over to dump out rocks or sticks or whatever didn't go through. It's like a flour sifter. I do have an old flour sifter with similar design, and I've tried it for coarser material which was a total fail.

[JRinPA]

Yeah looks like a foley mill. I hated that style for tomato sauce, got a victorio instead. I use an original foley for some small jobs, like a few sweet potatoes microwaved then foleyed smooth, but that is it. A minute of that motion is enough for me.

The pvc job is pretty simple. The ends are those 5 gal screw top bucket lids. That is the key. What are those...oh yeah, those 5 gal screw lids I think are overpriced at $13 each. So two of those, About 12 or 15 pvc tees, a 4way cross, four three ways. And a stick or two pipe. Some pop rivets. And you can easily swap screens if you make a 1/4" screen and a 1/2".

I didn't learn about those screw bucket lids until a kitchen compost thread. $26 for them. The pvc fittings add up, crazy what they cost retail, now. It is kinda small, would take a lot of loading to do a whole pile, but usually I don't need a whole pile done. Just enough for a couple trays.

I like to pile up the discard rough stuff an re shred it but the tough part is always having these extra piles around. And remembering which are which.

[JRinPA]

How bout 2 dollar tree waste baskets with an axle long enough for both end to end and over your wheelbarrow. Axle could be metal or pvc even. Cut the axle in the middle. Sleeve one end with next size up pvc. 3 clips to hold the waste baskets together, at the tops rims. Or wire twists.
It will look like a minnow trap with a two piece axle through it.

Open the twists, the two halves come apart, pull apart axially. Fill the sleeved side. Put the unsleeved side on top, axle into sleeve. Engage the clips or ties. Lay it down horizontally over the wheelbarrow. (going to need to make jigs/fittings/stops so it won't roll off, simple as a c clamp each side). Spin it until only scrap remains. Open that over your scrap pile/bucket/2nd barrel.
Repeat.

This would cost like $10 or so, compared to the PVC one above, cost...probably $50-70? PVC fitting are the wildcard there.

It all depends on how much you want to process. I looked at one last night, using an HF cement mixer and a outdoor trashcan. Simple, cool, HUGE FOOTPRINT, lot of work to get out. And the price now would be well over $700. Five years ago when the video was posted, it was probably about $250.

[habitat-gardener]

I got a couple of those wire baskets from dollar tree and will see how they work.

[JRinPA]

It is a nice 3/8" or so grid. I did soil blocks tonight with just dollar tree basket sifted compost and water for greenhouse blocks. Went quick for 4 trays worth. It is nice because you don't even need a shovel, just scoop with the basket, shake into the big pan to make blocks, and dump the coarse into a scrap bucket. This was substantially easier than with my bigger (12"x18"?) 1/2" hw cloth sifter tray. The majority of the sift comes out the sides, not the bottom. Seems like much less force on the arms than a tray sifter - kind of roll it like a plane doing a wing wave, and I guess those forces cancel each other quite a bit? Plus you can't hardly overload it.

[loulac]

I notice all sieves, handmade filters etc have here a common point: they are shaken by hand, which can be quite tiring. I prefer putting a round stick, metal tube or long wood handle of a gardening tool across a wheelbarrow and pull and push the sieve on it. It works fast with little effort. A technique used by masons to sift sand and gravel.

[MissS]

I notice all sieves, handmade filters etc have here a common point: they are shaken by hand, which can be quite tiring. I prefer putting a round stick, metal tube or long wood handle of a gardening tool across a wheelbarrow and pull and push the sieve on it. It works fast with little effort. A technique used by masons to sift sand and gravel.

Thank you. This is great advise!

[JRinPA]

Really not bad for $2.50. $249 is a little much for me. Secured with 3 wire twists. Remove one to split and fill/dump.


filled

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spun 10 secs

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really filled next time, was a little too full probably, took 30 secs to spin it all the way.

10.JPG

I did another so three fills total, made 4 gallons of nice sifted stuff. Total about 3 minutes with figuring out the filling...last time I was scooping with the basket itself. The flat shovel I had there was not the right shape or size to fill this. Plus it was getting dark quick and afterwards I jabbed my figure against the compost bin and took a splinter up under my right index fingernail.

This was just a rough alpha of course but I can see using this design with some more improvements, or another way.

Instead of splitting at the middle to fill each time...
1.Screw plywood on one end and bore hole for axle/rod. Put a stop on the rod (screw, tape wraps, etc)
2. Lock them together at middle all the way around with zip ties or such.
3. cut off other end grid completely, leaving wire frame.
4. shape wood end with bore hole for rod. This end is removable though, slides back off rod. Would need to be be shaped/shouldered on inside to fit the remaining wire frame, like a plug. Then behind that, just attach an A clamp to act as a stopper. Each fill, remove A clamp, back out the plug, fill. But the fill hole is small, so maybe a fill funnel needed (another 1.25 basket with bottom cut out and lined with cardboard). Getting pricey then at $3.75 plus tax.

I'm thinking about doing the pvc with the screw bucket lids, I just wish the screw bucket lids were, say 15 or 18" diameter, instead of 12". The do make nice project base though.