Here is mine but it is homebuilt and not practical for a typical homeowner. If I don't stop for a beer (or two/three/four) I can get a cubic yard done in a few minutes. Takes longer to haul it out of the shed than it does to sift.

Lloyd

This is a 1/2" screen mounted on 1x3 spruce. The size is 18" x 24" and the screen is stapled to the wood frame. The stapled edge is covered with 3/4" strips nailed using finishing nails.

The only trick is to make sure that the wire for the 18" which will be the width is on the inside. This gives you a washboard effect for mashing material through the screen.

I've got one that looks a lot like the one in cowgirl2's pictures, except that the long sides extend past the short sides 8 inches on each end to form handles. And I made the mistake of using 1/4 inch hardware cloth instead of 1/2 inch.

I used two 42 inch long 1x4s and two 16 inch 1x4s, with the shorter ones inside the longer ones. It's a good size for a wheelbarrow, but I usually just use it directly where I want the compost.

My wife showed me the plans in a Martha Stewart magazine. They used to be available online, but they redesigned the website and the plans don't seem to be there anymore.

I like Bill's wheelbarrow handle design. I think those handles would be better to hold.

I built a trommel (sp?) like Lloyd's, except a little more rustic. Mine was made out of two old bicycle rims, some 1/2 inch hardware cloth, old 2x4s and four rollers that fit into the rims. I made a frame out of the 2x4s and screwed the rollers onto that. I took all the spokes off the rims and wired the hardware cloth on the inside of them making a cylinder. I put the frame over a wheelbarrow and the rims on the rollers. It helps to have another person but it's easier even by yourself.

Lloyd, that's the most impressive sifter I will ever see.

Me, I don't sift.

Whilst working my garden bed after harvest was over I found a large chunk of compost in the soil, about the size of a muskmelon. The roots of a tomato plant had found that hunk of compost and totally invaded it.

I have a screen made with hardware cloth that I used to screen stones out of soil but I can't be bothered to sift compost. In the long run I don't think breaking up the compost and sifting it makes any difference to the fertility of the soil.

I don't sift either, but I do like the Bill Hill approach. Although, Lloyd has the toys we all want.

I balked at sifting when I realized it would massacre the earthworms in the unsifted compost. Do you have that issue?

Nope, no worms in my compost.

Lloyd

Built a sifter when I first got into composting but have since determined that there is no need to sift if the compost is to be added as top dressing to existing beds. Gave the sifter away on my local Free Cycle site a few weeks ago.

I use a sifter when I'm making baby food, but when I'm making soil, I don't see the point. I like my soil like I like my applesauce---chunky.
Well, unless I'm starting seeds, I suppose.

I use the sifter when I'm spreading the compost on the lawn. The garden gets the compost as-is. Sometimes, I'll take what didn't sift through for the lawn and dump it on the garden instead of adding it back to the bin.

My sifter is like Cowgirl's, a frame with 1/2" hardware cloth made to fit over the top of a wheelbarrow. It's a little large for my short arms but works well. My friend made it for me from scraps in his workshop. I rarely sift my compost except if I need something to topdress a plant in summer or to reseed a spot in the lawn. It looks better than big chunky half-done stuff. Other than that, I use the chundy stuff.

(The wheelbarrow belongs to the friend who made the sifter. He lives next door, has 3 wheelbarrows. When I need to use one, I just go get it. Very handy to have him as a neighbor/best friend.)

Karen

Mine too is like cowgirl's but I wish I'd thought to make it like Bill's. We made ours to fit over a large garbage can since that's where the compost sits while waiting for me to decide where it's going.

I dump a couple of shovel fulls onto the screen, shake back and forth over the can; whatever doesn't go through gets dumped into the new pile. Worms mostly fall right through which is fine with me, they can munch in the can while I'm deciding. If they don't fall through they go into the new pile as well.

Man, I wish I'd thought of handles though. Now I can't wait for this one to fall apart so I can build a new one :-)

Val

OK. Since it is a weird balmy 45F day right now (sorry Lloyd), I decided to roll out my yard cart & show my sifter.

When I built them, I positioned my CP bins so that the cart would fit between them, making forking onto the sifter real easy. The frame of the screen fits snugly onto the sides of the cart so no slipping while screening. What's really nice is I can sift a whole 4x4 bin (chunks go into new pile) into the cart and then simple to either shovel into bins for winter or (if summer sift) roll the cart right over to the beds. And since the card it high enough, no bending or stooping during sifting. Way easy on my back...
Kris

{{gwi:320639}}

I was just going to post that someone here once made an elaborate sifter with a screen-bottomed tray that ran on tracks, or ball bearings, that he built over a wheelbarrow and operated with one hand, when man oh man, I realized that I hadn't looked at Lloyd's link. Now that is a sifter!

I made one out of plywood and 1/4" mesh hardware cloth, and two door handles. It sifts pretty fine, a second one would be made of 1/2" mesh.

There was a set of three dish-type sifters from England that sold for thirty something bucks.

I use the plastic "flats" nurseries put pots in for my sifters.

I sandwich two together and set them over a plastic bin and dump compost on top of it. Give it a little shake, and it's sifted!

I have very limited space, and don't see the value (for my own situation) in buying more stuff, when the stuff I have already can be used in more than one way.

Lloyd, that is awesome! Maybe not practical for the typical *homeowner*, but definitely for the typical composter!

I even forwarded a picture of it to my mom, sighing that I wish I were handy and could build something like this. She boasted that with the right tools, she could do it. So I replied that I knew what I would be getting her for Christmas and what she would be doing when she came to visit for the holidays.

So, Lloyd, what tools do you recommend, lol?

:)
Dee

P.S. I, in the meantime, have the exact same set-up as pickldpepprz, so I wouldn't mind a better set-up too!

diggerdee - if you have some old boards lying around you can make yours better than just hardware cloth lying over a garbage can.

All I did was take 4 skinny boards about 2 feet long, bought some small L brackets from the hardware store and screwed them into the boards to form a square. Then take a staple gun and staple the hardware cloth onto the back of the square.

Take a look at Bill's though because the handle idea is a good one, much better for shaking and....yes....we all wish we had Lloyds set up :-)

Val

Mine is a 1 x 4 frame with chicken wire rather than hardware cloth. The sifted stuff is a tad coarser but MUCH easier and still just fine for mixing with last year's potting soil, which is about the only time I ever sift.

lisascenic: I just used your idea of mesh nursery flats as compost sifters. They worked great!

Sifting was fast, and the results were chunky, but not overly so. I felt the sifted compost was just right with this size mesh.

Reading the title of this thread again, it occurred to me that the best idea sifter would be an English gardener named Jeeves, in my employ, who would take care of the sifting whilst caring for the rest of the estate's gardens.

Just a thought. :-D

Built this one last winter, while I was waiting for my tomatoes seeds to grow.

Here is a link that might be useful: Trommel compost sifter

Here's one made from bicycle rims, hardware cloth and scrap wood.

They are VERY efficient, and you can stand up most of the time.

Here is a link that might be useful: Trommel compost sifter

The stuff guys build in their shops, it's amazing!

Well done.

Lloyd

I cut of the bottom of a 5 gal bucket and put 1/4 screen (too small) on it. it just fits a couple inches down into the next bucket and I can really shake it to get the good through.

Also if there is a gold panning store in your town (or online) the sell lots of perfect sifters of many sizes to fit buckets up to large trommels.

I use a plastic milk crate and a rubbermaid bin. Fill the milk crate and shake/rub over the bin. I can do it all in a sitting position, even fork a crate full of compost into the milk crate. Of course, if I'm too lazy to stand up and do it, I probably won't bother any more.

A milk crate?

I think you just gave me the answer for getting the coarse wood chips out of the purchased soil that we didn't know were there until after the beds had been filled.

I can scrape the soil to one end, set the crate down in the other, and sift out the unwanted chips without having to shovel everything out and back in again.

Probably a little small for doing a big pile, but for cleaning a bed its just what I needed. :-D

I have a 2x4 wood square with chicken wire across the bottom. Instead of shaking it over my wheelbarrow, I have a wire hooked to the middle of the chicken wire, and I jerk the wire up and down. It accomplishes the same thing as shaking it, but I don't have to lift the entire thing up.

Once I find a bicycle that's being given away, I'll make one of the trommel sifters, using the pedals as a handle.

mtinaz has the right idea . As a week end prospector I have been using them for years . Another product has come out in the last few years . It's a round piece of plastic that fits on the bottom of a 5 gal. bucket . With a screen firmly in place on top and the round plastic on the bottom you can shake the whole thing without having to force the 5 gal. bucket . It just kinda rolls back and forth .Imagine the difference between a rocking chair and trying to bounce a regular chair back and forth .

iam3killerbs,

I was recently given a pile of finished compost that had rocks and other unwanted debris in it. I used the milk crate to sift the desired material right into the new bed and the undesirable got tossed onto the pet cemetery cum rock pile.

Sifting works best when crate is filled about 1/2 full, then shaken alternately and vigorously side to side. This action really gets the material rolling left & right in the crate. Up and down, back and forth, and twisting actions weren't nearly as effective.

I did my bed with the milk crate -- sifting the top 4-6 inches to an acceptable level for big seeds like beans -- in about an hour.

It was exactly what I needed for the purpose. :-)

I didn't read any of the above posts yet, but I made my compost bin with 2x4's @ 3'x3', and hardware cloth stapled on the sides. I made one to cover the top to keep out the animals (raccoons, squirrels, oppossum, etc.). I also use the top panel for screening my compost. I just put it on top of my wheel barrow and throw a couple shovels-full on top and start to sift. It takes time, but hey, don't most people dream of their "black gold" for months? Now it's time to really savor it. Good excersize, too. (I think I have spelling problems.)

My mom's sifter is a 2x4 frame 5 ft tall, 3 ft wide, with two legs at the top so she can stand it up at an angel and park her wheelbarrow behind/under it (filling in the lower part with buckets). She then flings compost at the upper part of the screen (1/2 inch hardware cloth), and as it rolls/slides down the screen, the fines fall into the wheelbarrow and buckets, and the coarse end up at the bottom in front. She also uses this to screen rocks out of beds that will grow root vegetables.

Mine is just larger than my wheelbarrow, and sits there for batch sifting. I also have a riddle for finer screening for pots and seed starting.

Catherine

Once again, not practical for an average homeowner but we built a screener to screen out the larger stones, sticks and other items from the compost. I was fearful that putting these large objects through my trommel would damage it so with a bit of welding, some scrap steel and a 6 HP motor we came up with this contraption.

We used it to screen the windrow from the fall of 2007, We used tarps to lay over the screened compost and let the overs fall onto the tarp to hold it down. Once the area under the screener was filled we pulled the screener back about 5 feet, unrolled some more tarp and kept going. Took a couple of hours to do it all.

Lloyd