DIY Screening for Homestead

Thanks Willie. I'm using Rock Tough screens as examples to look at as I'm building mine. We'll see how it goes, theirs are WAY beefier than mine will be. Yesterday, I started tearing down my pallet rack uprights. I cut off the supports that hold the 2 vertical beams, then cut the two 15' uprights down to two 11' high beams and two 4' high beams. I also welded a couple feet onto the 11 footers. Unfortunately, the feet are much to weak, I'm not sure how much that matters once the whole frame is together and I assume, at that point the feet will just keep the whole thing from sinking in the dirt (I could double or triple the thickness of the feet too, to beef them up a bit). My welding is still sloppy. I just have a small MIG welder that's running off 110v and while it worked to attach the feet I'm not sure I've got good penetration, though I'm also not positive I've got my setting correct on the welder, I've got a bit of learning to do. I did wail away on the feet a bit, with a hammer, and they stayed attached. Then, I stood up the 11' tall beams. They are too tall. I'm not smart enough to do the math on having a 45 degree screen and how tall my uprights need to be, so I've left that to autoCAD, but I probably need to go back in and check that again. Realistically, as long as I have the 45 degrees about right the height of the uprights and their distance horizontally, from each other, doesn't really matter does it? My guess is that I'll have to bring the 11' down to 10' or maybe less. It's also hard to determine how high the loader bucket can really clear. I don't want to be at risk of hitting the screener but I also want to make it high enough to be able to make a good pile of rock before needing to clean out. We'll see. So far it isn't making me feel too dumb yet, but there's plenty of time for that!

OK, so I started lining stuff up for the screen and quickly came to the conclusion that I don't want to cut metal unless I really understand what I'm doing. Thusly, I'm building a 1/32nd scale model of the screener. My lovely wife had these sticks handy, and 1/32nd is the size I could accommodate. Some of the trial measurements are very close so it may be too small but I hope to get a decent idea of how I need to cut everything so it fits properly. Here's the progress so far... Converting picture one into picture two.

More model pictures. I've got all the pieces scaled out, with a bit of variation to see how that goes, except the screen itself. They are glued up now and I'll start arranging things next.

I had my model parts all glued up and ready to start constructing. I touched the pieces and they all fell apart. I guess I'll just be trying it out on the real thing.

I had an area 70' X 30' graveled & smooth. I wanted a bit more length & less steep. I dug through the processed gravel to expose boulders & broke one too big to move with fire. After I had grade down to where I wanted it& everything bigger than a basketball hauled away, I wanted to remove more rock. I got two dirt trays cut from 275 gallon fuel tanks & set up the screen. Mine isn't perfect, the bars are 5" apart. An hour after set up I had screened 25 cubic yards of the top layer. I filled two dirt trays with rocks ranging from basketball size to 5" smallest dimension. I can pick the rest with a rake.

I've finally gotten back into my screener project and spent hours and hours on the welder over the past 2 days. I've got 6 wire decks welded together for the screen and one racking beam welded up to one side of the screen deck. I think I made the mistake of over welding and did every single wire for half of the run seen below, after several hours and my back hurting I decided that only welding every 3rd or 4th wire would be sufficient. I hope that's true. I plan to add another 3 beams around the edge of the screen then some vertical pieces to stabilize the screen a bit. It'll be an adventure figuring how to pick it up and move it.

Key words, Tractor Loader.

What do you mean DMiller? My assumption is that I'll get the whole frame made and stiffened up with the additional beams, then maybe add some hooks, or add the legs with it turned sideways on the ground and lift the whole thing at once...?

I believe the horizontal wires in your mesh will defeat your invention. A guy nearby did make a somewhat successful unit with a Briggs engine, a gearbox to reduce speed & a consumable 6" hex each side of the screen. He hinged it at top of screen & the bottom lay on this. It gave a bump, bump, bump to the screen. Still, roots would accumulate on it. My friends have a Reed Screen All. I'd say it's 35 years old. The whole screen assembly is mounted on coil springs. A heavy shaft is suspended from the screen assembly It is eccentric so when it rotates, it shakes the Hell out of the screen. The shaft is powered by a hydraulic motor. The wear components are bearings & hydraulic hoses. Rigid rules; Grease the bearings with 1 pump per hour use. They use grease provided by Reed. Probably nothing special about the grease, but they take no chances. A bearing siezed once, spun on the bare shaft. I recall that repair cost $14000. There is a company 50 miles from here rents a similar screen machine.

I believe the horizontal wires in your mesh will defeat your invention. A guy nearby did make a somewhat successful unit with a Briggs engine, a gearbox to reduce speed & a consumable 6" hex each side of the screen. He hinged it at top of screen & the bottom lay on this. It gave a bump, bump, bump to the screen. Still, roots would accumulate on it. My friends have a Reed Screen All. I'd say it's 35 years old. The whole screen assembly is mounted on coil springs. A heavy shaft is suspended from the screen assembly It is eccentric so when it rotates, it shakes the Hell out of the screen. The shaft is powered by a hydraulic motor. The wear components are bearings & hydraulic hoses. Rigid rules; Grease the bearings with 1 pump per hour use. They use grease provided by Reed. Probably nothing special about the grease, but they take no chances. A bearing seized once, spun on the bare shaft. I recall that repair cost $14000. There is a company 50 miles from here rents a similar screen machine.

I hope not, Willie, but I guess we'll see. The majority of material I'll be screening should be from under a field that has been hay'd for who knows how long, so I don't expect a whole lot of organics in it. I'm assuming it'll get beat up a fair amount but depending on how it works and my needs would tell me if I want to invest more in the project. As it stands now I'm not entirely convinced I'll ever get to my pond project, which is what the majority of the rock would be for.

My separator and final screens still work OK, vibration would benefit GREATLY but are what they are for what time and finances I had. Welded frames with the head pieces welded structure so are relatively solid with materials sling across to separate as does so. A number of times have recycled the materials several repeats to get down to just rock or just manure or just dirt, that is where the vibra screen eliminates repeat runs. ran a few old school home built creek rock screens separate the huge stuff first then down thru varied dimension screens and belt transports to get just sand or dirt or manageable rock sizes, often would have a blower set up to reduce light organic materials as grass or leaves or finer twigs. The old screens would literally shake themselves apart needed maintenance every few hour but dis a reasonable process.

We see industrial bins that tend to stick use a shaker. It's a 1HP electric motor with a shaft sticking out both ends. An out of balance flywheel on each end makes it shake.

The other aspect I forgot to note is to move my screens I take my farm tractor with loader on it, get under the head piece from the high side with a brace across the bucket or forks and lift the entire frame with screen up and drive away with it.

Making progress. I was nervous to cut this beam on the right but the cut was the perfect length!

I have seen a couple of these around, but always in an industrial operation, never a gravel pit. I have seen them hanging from chains, and it looks like easier to build for a DIY operation. Gyratory Screening Equipment | High Speed Gyratory Screener (bmandm.com) I don't know if they don't work well for gravel or just what, but it look's like it would be easier to build. Gyratory equipment - Wikipedia Near the bottom the math get's pretty thick (beyond me) but there is a very informative chart dealing with screen angle & efficiency. As well as recommended speeds.

Interesting dd, thanks! Yeah, that math is beyond me too! Other people have mentioned making the screen bumpable, to loosen stuck stuff or whatever, and it seems like a chained up version would be more reasonable for that. I'll have to consider it. For as long as this project is taking me I expect to build the version I have in my mind, find that it doesn't work the way I want and learn the hard way the alterations I need. My volume will likely be very low and I expect it's usage to be minimal. If I stick with it I think I may be able to get the screen deck done this week, then I'll have to figure out how to add the legs and hope they don't collapse on me. It's almost to big to move by hand now, so that'll add some other interesting complications. Maybe I'll try to build it upside-down.

aighead said: Interesting dd, thanks! Yeah, that math is beyond me too! Other people have mentioned making the screen bumpable, to loosen stuck stuff or whatever, and it seems like a chained up version would be more reasonable for that. I'll have to consider it. For as long as this project is taking me I expect to build the version I have in my mind, find that it doesn't work the way I want and learn the hard way the alterations I need. My volume will likely be very low and I expect it's usage to be minimal. If I stick with it I think I may be able to get the screen deck done this week, then I'll have to figure out how to add the legs and hope they don't collapse on me. It's almost to big to move by hand now, so that'll add some other interesting complications. Maybe I'll try to build it upside-down. Click to expand... And maybe the vibration could be from a simple 3.5 hp vertical shaft briggs lawnmower engine. I didn't think of the "Hanging from chains" aspect to be used to "bang" it for clearing, that is a plus.