Rotex Screener

[Bigman]

Looking for some guidance, found a guy who has a (very) used Rotex Screener for sale for $3,000.00. It has a 3/4 screen, is 9' long. 3-1/2' deep and about 7' tall (way to tall for my B3030), but I can cut 2' off the bottom to make it usable.
The only thing missing is a horizontal shaft, gas engine with a pulley. The seller bought it and never used it, he says an 8 - 12 HP motor will do the trick.
Anybody have any experience with these things and is $3,000.00 a fair price??

Thanks, Bigman

 

[shinnlinger]

Could you buy some 1" rebar and make your own screen and suspend it on some automotive coil springs and rock it with a rod connected to a riding mower wheel or car "steam locomotive style?

Or is the thing worth $3000 in scrap steel? You said it is very used, but what is there to wear out on it (besides the engine which is no longer with us)?

 

[charlz]

I'm having a hard time picturing what this looks like... got pics? Is it a flat table or one of those 'rotating tunnels'?

 

[Bigman]

I did not take pictures, it was raining heavily when I looked at it, so I copied his pictures. It's a big rectangle, with the 9' side open so you can scoop up your material, the screen is about 7' long by 3' wide and is tilted, The rotex drive actually shakes the screen side to side, the 3/4 material drops thru the screen to be scooped up, the larger material is shaken down the length of the box where it drops of the 3' wide end to be carted away. It's actually pretty neat, the bottom is rusted/rotted, but I would cut that off anyways to drop the height down to about 6' so I can load it with my B3030. I do not have the time/skill to build one myself, but it would be a large improvement over the one I made out of 2x3's that I have to stop and clear off constantly. I will post pictures of the one I made in another post.

 

[Rockman]

Those pictures are hard to see the entire machine. I have a few questions, what type of frame is it on? is it on wheels? is the only thing missing is the drive motor?
Cutting the bottom off to shorten it is a bad idea as this will limit your thru put i.e. you will have to move the processed material more often, a better idea would be to not shorten it, but build a ramp up to it so you can reach it with your loader. I don't know how much material you have to screen,if it isn't that much it would be much cheaper to rent a screen for a weekend to do it with. Just my 2 cents..

 

[RonMar]

It looks like a flat, or nearly flat shaker table. The gearbox assembly that says Rotex on it appears to have an eccentric attach point on the top that provides the shaking motion to the table. I would think that the screen should have some sort of angle to it so the greater than 3/4" separated material would move to one end and fall off the shaker.

Looks pretty well used. I know for a $3K budget, I could build one heck of a nice separtator...

 

[studor]

I thought your current screening device is ingenious. Have you thought about hinging it at the bottom so that you can use the FEL to flip it back and clear the top into your reject pile?
I have a large quantity of aggregate on my property that unfortunately ranges from sand to boulders in the same bucket. I too need to screen it for most applications but after pricing ways to do it settled on buying it for any large projects --(it is incredibly cheap if the source is close). For smaller runs your setup looks ideal.
One thing I do know from working in the mining industry -- screens, crushers, separators and grizzlies all plug sooner or later and clearing them is always a pain.
Regards

 

[shinnlinger]

I to am impressed with the 2x3 screen.

Could you take a car or truck axle and flip it verticly and mount a rim that attaches to the screen on the outer edge so it acts as an eccentric and then connect a 10 horse or so (Or you pto if you had to) to the pumkin to act like the rotex?

Support the corners with coils springs if needed. I am thinking a 2x or 4x wood frame that has holes drilled in it at 1 inch or whatever intervals that you send rebar through to make your screen. If needed you could run them the other way and weld together.


I have yards of unscreened crap in my dooryard I cant get rid of, but if I screen it with the excavator I might have something.

Good thread, this seems doable to me.

 

[RonMar]

YOu could probably do something similar with an eccentric on a PTO auger or bushhog gearbox and an auxilliary motor connected to the input.

I still like the simplicity of a angled screen. I have a small one I made out of expanded metal that sets on the wheelbarrow. I have been using it for years. You throw a shovelfull at a time at the top, and drag the shovel point down the expanded metal to shake the thing. The fines fall into the barrow, and the rocks and debris fall off the end between the handles. It is not perfect as to have it steep enough to flow easilly, some fines will make it to the edge, carried by the larger debris, but the simplicity of no moving parts makes up for that in my opinion. Someone a while back linked to a commercial built one that had a 12V DC powered shaker motor that could be switched on and off, perhaps by a remote control, whenever some shaking was required to help the material along to the edge.

I was thinking of one made with angle iron placed with the corner facing up, and perhaps a diverter plate at the top to encourage the material to tumble into the grate, instead of just sliding along it. Something in the form of a trailer like this with a secondary sifter at the bottom. This one would pile the fines in the middle and deposit the rocks and debris on both sides.

 

[Bigman]

I actually gave up on the Rotex idea, to much money. I am in the process of designing a new screen based on what I learned from the last one. There are several reasons I did not hinge the top screen. 1) it was designed to be broken down and moved with the tractor, it consists of 2 sides, the back piece, top and cross bar, held together with 1/2" carraige bolts. 2) I quickly discovered that when clearing out the scrap, it was very easy to hit the bottom of the screen.
Since it is kept in place by a 6' piece of slotted angle iron acting as a stop, all that happened was I "popped" it off and it slid down off the cross beam. A PIA but I just chained it and picked it back up with the bucket. If it had been hinged I would have destroyed it by now, I have to take some "after" pictures so you can see the shape it is in, but I have easily run 300 yards through it.
My next one is going to be 7' wide and I am going to move the 4x4 posts closer to the back (like in the middle of the side panel). Instead of a 6' length of angle iron across the back (which only gave me a 3" lip) I'm thinking of three 1-1/2" x 1/4" x 12" flat stock "feet" bent at a 45D angle, bolted to the screen but not the back to keep it from sliding off. this will allow me to lift and drop the front to help clear it. If I keep the posts the same height but move them to the middle it will keep the screen inline with the base and the 3 bottom feet should keep it from sliding off, but still allow for movement if I hit it.
What do you guys think?

 

[AlanB]

For the motor / eccentric shaker part, I am thinking of just using a vibe tamper (I already have one, they are $600 complete from HF) I figure just make a tray for it to sit in and strap or bolt too and fire it up.

I keep trying to figure out the screen part. Something I can afford (free would be nice) that would hold up for a bit.

 

[chickenman]

for screen look into flat expanded metal

i got some localy at under $50 for 4' x 8' sheet 1/8" thick that worked well

 

[studor]

Sounds like a good plan for the new one!
When I asked about the hingeing, I was probably not clear -- if you hinged the screen part to the frame at the bottom, when you hit it underneath it would pop up but not come off -- or swing it completely off the frame to the ground on the other side. You could then jiggle the screen with the FEL to help clear it. With loose pin hinges, you could use them to fasten the frame together as well as holding the screen on and then take it apart by popping the hinge pins. Just a thought -- I am on my way to the scrap yard (once our three feet of snow melts!) to look for an old piece of catwalk for my new screen!
Regards