Portable Soil Screener

[Fishin-4-a-Livin]

I am in the process of cleaning up after a lot of mulching of some pines.

I‘ve got big, scattered piles of 50/50 organic material and topsoil.

I have been separating the material from the soil with the mini ex rake and 3 point rake.

Looking for a faster way. I’ve looked at several different portable vibrating screeners, just not sure about quality between different brands.

Wondering if anyone has any recommendations from hands on experience?

 

[Rustyiron]

Powered screens can get very expensive very quickly. I'm not thinking or know anything about a backyard homeowner sized unit. Never seen one if this is your question.
Do you have the time to actually incorporate the woody debris into the soil? It will improve it and break down a lot faster being in the soil that will help it stay wet or damp. Some lime would be good for the acidic pine chips.
If we're thinking about the same type (and size) of screen, a trommel type with a rotating "barrel" on a slight incline is what I see for topsoil screening vs a shaker screen that can separate "bank run" gravel's into several sizes of products depending on the screens installed.
It's very easy to spend $20k+ on a used type that I'm familiar with.

 

[i7win7]

Mini Skid Steers 0 - 1.5t - Flipscreen

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www.flipscreen.net

flipscreen link -came up with weird name

 

[Fishin-4-a-Livin]

Powered screens can get very expensive very quickly. I'm not thinking or know anything about a backyard homeowner sized unit. Never seen one if this is your question.
Do you have the time to actually incorporate the woody debris into the soil? It will improve it and break down a lot faster being in the soil that will help it stay wet or damp. Some lime would be good for the acidic pine chips.
If we're thinking about the same type (and size) of screen, a trommel type with a rotating "barrel" on a slight incline is what I see for topsoil screening vs a shaker screen that can separate "bank run" gravel's into several sizes of products depending on the screens installed.
It's very easy to spend $20k+ on a used type that I'm familiar with.

There are a lot of pretty large pieces of wood all over the place. It was a pretty course cut on the mulching job.

After lots of raking and separating, I end up with a mix of small stick and lots of viney roots.

Here is a picture of a very small pile of what it left after getting all the big stuff out.

 

[alexpops]

If all you want is to separate out the roots & bigger chunks, you could probably fab up a frame & expanded metal grate sized to fit over your trailer. Or put it on wheels and leave a trail of tailings as you move it, then come back to collect everything afterwards.

If you need the vibration because the mix is sticky, maybe try attaching a cheap HF predator motor to jiggle the sieve or turn an agitator unless something like their concrete vibrator attached to the expanded metal is enough. Sort of a modern diy version of the rocker boxes miners used by hand to create the feed for their sluices.

You'll need to stop every once in a while to clean out the bigger crap, but that might coincide with when your trailer fills up. Id probably make it big enough to take a full bucket from FEL & let it run while i collected another load.

 

[pokey1416]

I built this to drop into my dump trailer and clean river rock. It worked ok but wow what a mess! Luckily I had the wife on the power washer so she got most of it. I gave up after awhile - took to much time.

 

[Rustyiron]

Hey fishin, looking at your picture it dawned on me that this all is scattered around on the ground (right?)
Hire or rent what's called a "Harley rake". They have 3pt. tractor types but most are for a SS. It'll windrow those chips and leave a fluffy bed for seeding.
No piling up and moving to a screen, then moving it back and spreading it.
YouTube will have a bunch of videos.

 

[Fishin-4-a-Livin]

Hey fishin, looking at your picture it dawned on me that this all is scattered around on the ground (right?)
Hire or rent what's called a "Harley rake". They have 3pt. tractor types but most are for a SS. It'll windrow those chips and leave a fluffy bed for seeding.
No piling up and moving to a screen, then moving it back and spreading it.
YouTube will have a bunch of videos.

I have heard of those, don’t know anything about them. I’ll check it out.

 

[amhicks21]

I guess it depends how much you have to screen but you may be able to rent a small screener if you want perfectly clean soil. I use an ez screen 600 at work that yields about 15 yards per hour if the soil is dry but the result is perfect. We don't usually use it to clean soil on grade jobs though but instead use it to produce our own topsoil at our yard. I also finish grade with both a ctl mounted harley rake and a tractor mounted ati preseeder and you can pull out the vast majority of debris but it'll leave some small stuff behind. you basically have to pull the debris in to rows and scoop it up. The other alternative is a rock hound which is basically a chain drive rake that pulls debris into a loader bucket as you move backward with the bucket at ground level. It will do a more thorough job of debris removal than the preseeder or harley rake but requires you to continually move backward and isnt as easy to produce a really smooth grade. All of those options will get the job done so I guess its a matter of what you have available locally and can get your hands on for a good price.

 

[Fishin-4-a-Livin]

I guess it depends how much you have to screen but you may be able to rent a small screener if you want perfectly clean soil. I use an ez screen 600 at work that yields about 15 yards per hour if the soil is dry but the result is perfect. We don't usually use it to clean soil on grade jobs though but instead use it to produce our own topsoil at our yard. I also finish grade with both a ctl mounted harley rake and a tractor mounted ati preseeder and you can pull out the vast majority of debris but it'll leave some small stuff behind. you basically have to pull the debris in to rows and scoop it up. The other alternative is a rock hound which is basically a chain drive rake that pulls debris into a loader bucket as you move backward with the bucket at ground level. It will do a more thorough job of debris removal than the preseeder or harley rake but requires you to continually move backward and isnt as easy to produce a really smooth grade. All of those options will get the job done so I guess its a matter of what you have available locally and can get your hands on for a good price.

i just looked at the EZ screen website.

I like the looks of the 600. Looks like what I am looking for.

How long have y’all been using it on the job? Any major problems with it?

 

[amhicks21]

Well, the story behind the screener goes that I realized my boss was paying a stupid amount of money to have the lawn and landscape waste of 3 landscape and 5 lawncare crews removed from our yard every few years so I convinced him to let me blend it and turn it to topsoil. He got super lucky and found the ez screen 600 with 8 hours for 10 grand. Ive used it for 2 seasons now and it more than paid for itself the first year. No issues whatsoever other than it occasionally breaks one of the bolts that tensions the screen but its like a 2 minute fix. considering the minimum cost of screened topsoil is 20 a yard around here and im making about 15 yards an hour out of stuff that we otherwise would have cost 6 bucks a yard to remove, i'd say its worked out pretty well. From my perspective its easy overtime with no questions asked whenever I want.

 

[Fishin-4-a-Livin]

Well, the story behind the screener goes that I realized my boss was paying a stupid amount of money to have the lawn and landscape waste of 3 landscape and 5 lawncare crews removed from our yard every few years so I convinced him to let me blend it and turn it to topsoil. He got super lucky and found the ez screen 600 with 8 hours for 10 grand. Ive used it for 2 seasons now and it more than paid for itself the first year. No issues whatsoever other than it occasionally breaks one of the bolts that tensions the screen but its like a 2 minute fix. considering the minimum cost of screened topsoil is 20 a yard around here and im making about 15 yards an hour out of stuff that we otherwise would have cost 6 bucks a yard to remove, i'd say its worked out pretty well. From my perspective its easy overtime with no questions asked whenever I want.
View attachment 774510

That is the exact kind of info I started this thread for.

Thanks for the response. Thanks to everyone else for the input

This has made my decision very easy.