[Digger Dan]

Daunted by the task of sieving a lot of poor quality garden soil to try and get something a bit more friable I decided that a little power assistance was needed!

The picture below is of the end result. Designed to fit on top of a wheel barrow and to sift where ever you can get a power lead to!

Made from timber with the sifting box running on kitchen drawer rails. It is powered by a cheap Tesco jigsaw and is 'self-cleaning' with larger bits vibrating off the end of the barrow.



If you would like to see it on operation you can check out Youtube!!!



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ej-TdUBhQWE



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Digger Dan

[forest flame]

well done digger dan
i watched it on u tube how did you come up with the idea its brilliant

[kindredspirit]

That's one of the best things I've seen for a long, long time.

I take my hat off to you.

[Sarah Evans]

Superb, a creative mind you have. The new Mr Dyson in our midst.

[Grovey]

This really looks good Digger Dan, well done. Any chance you could post some dimensions & details, mesh type etc. so i can make one ?

[Foxylock]

Fair play Digger Dan, don't forget the patent !

[verge]

Brilliant ...... I'm in.
I took the liberty of embedding the video in your post Digger to make it easier for investors to see it .

[Digger Dan]

Thanks everyone for the kind comments but I can't claim to be the first to come up with a powered soil sieve.

In coming up with my design I researched the net and came across a number of home made and commercial powered sieves. One that looked interesting was named 'Son of Sid'.

You can check it out at http://www.nifty-stuff.com/sieve-screen-shaker-for-soil-and-compost.php.

However I wanted something light and portable. I didn't want to have to bring the rough soil to the sieve so I designed a wheelbarrow mounted unit.

Another feature I didn't like about 'Son of Sid' was that you had to manually tip out debris. In my design the sift box is at a slight angle with an open back allowing debris to be shaken off. As can be seen from the video it works well (maybe too well as I do shovel the fallout back in for 2nd pass).

The unit design 'evolved' as I went along so I didn't have any dimensioned plans to work from.

The one tip I'd give is use a jigsaw with variable speed. I've mine set to a low speed but I did need to trial the setting to get the best sieving/clearing action while at the same time not shaking the box to bits!

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Digger Dan

[Grovey]

Thanks for the further info Digger Dan, I will definitely make one of these for myself as I have hige problems with stony soil.

[Digger Dan]

For those looking for some more detail on how I put the seive together I have posted a few photo's below.

Photo 1: This one shows one of the kitchen drawer rails I used. Really too light for the job (smooth action gone). If I were doing it again I'd use a heavier slide.


Photo 2: This shows how I connected the mowing tray to the jigsaw by using a long jigsaw blade. The tip of the blade is clamped between two metal plates and fixed into the tray base (this needs to be very securely fixed!). The other end of the blade is cliked into the jigsaw as normal.


Photo 3: This shows the 132mm blade I used (the one on the right is a standard blade). I needed to use the longer blade to reach through the frame of the sieve and allow for the stroke of the jigsaw.


Photo 4: This photo shows the moving tray in position and the blade through the hole in the frame. Also note the mounting bolts for the jigsaw.


Photo 5: I drilled a couple of holes in the shoe of the jigsaw so that it could be bolted securely to the frame.


Photo 6: I wanted to ensure that the jigsaw was 'rock solid' to the frame but I also wanted to get the jigsaw off easily when ever I needed it. I used this aerial mast clamp to anchor the body of the jigsaw.


Photo 7: This shows the blade clicked into the jigsaw and the jigsaw securely bolted to the frame. Note: don't just bolt the base of the jigsaw to the frame you'll need to clamp the body of the jigsaw aswell, otherwise the vibrations will break it off!


Photo 8: This shows the stop bar screwed to the underside of the sieve. This is to stop the sieve sliding off the wheel barrow when in use.


One other feature that is worth using is the timber edging around the moving tray (see photos1 & 4 ). This stops dirt falling down onto the slide rails and also keeps out fingers from being caught between the moving tray and the fixed frame.

From using the powered sieve for awhile now one of the features I like is the 'self cleaning' operation. It effectively lets you work away to fill the barrow without having to stop and empty out the tray.

Hope this helps anyone interested in building their own powered sieve!

Digger Dan.

[Grovey]

Hi again Digger Dan,
Thanks for posting the pictures of the jigsaw mounting and connection.
This is exactly what I need so off to Tesco in the morning (if they're open!).
Am getting good soil quality results with my manual powered version but it's very slow so time to power up !
Anyway best regards and happy gardening
Conor

[walltoall]

Digger Dan,
Happy St. Patricks Day to you and congratulations on demonstrating that ingenuity is alive and well in Ireland. And further compliments for the excellent photo record. Drown the shamrock for me will you; I'm outside the jurisdiction at the mo. SW