Anyone Using a Vibration Plate for Sifting Soil?

6 years ago

Like many container gardeners, I occasionally need to sift out small particles from materials before I use them to mix garden soils. I have a nice filter for this that fits exactly onto a five-gallon bucket, and I can shake that assembly and have the small particles collect at the bottom of the five-gallon bucket. Has anyone used a vibration plate or other vibration device to help partly automate that task? I am imagining the bucket being secured to a vibration plate and then you turn on the device using a five-minute timer and then walk away.

Featured Answer

mblan13

6 years ago

last modified: 6 years ago

bullet reloading shell case tumbler, vibrating sander. sawzall, drill witrh bent nail... latter 3 way too violent... Maybe case tumbler would be the best bet, I just don't need that much GM to warrent the hassle. just put a couple rope loops hanging from a deck rafter and a sweater box. load it and shake it laterally without having to hold the weight. 1/2", 1/4" and 1/8 seives stacked make short work for small amounts of 5-1-1 and Gritty Mix. haven't tried it on a large scale due too lack of neccissity. YMMV.

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Comments (6)

westes Zone 9b California SF Bay
Original Author
6 years ago
After viewing a case tumbler, couldn't we just get some mesh and cover the holes on that? Then you could just use the tumbler's motor to turn the assembly. Aside from using gravity to force the contents to constantly roll over the mesh, it would have the added advantage of moving the mix around, so that the material on top eventually gets to the bottom.

I am actually amazed that the manufacturers of case tumblers / filters do not realize that their devices could be used for material sorting. They could design those to hold different filtered inserts and they would double their sales.
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tropicofcancer (6b SW-PA)
6 years ago
There are literally thousands of gizmos in industry for material sorting using vibration, tumbling, gravity, density, magnetic properties, etc, etc. Just not useful or feasible in small scale. If you have a gravel crushing plant nearby you can see how they sort and sieve.

For lighter materials the most common device is a large rotating central screw which moves material inside a cylindrical mesh with different mesh sizes along the cylinder. Usually the outer mesh cylinder rotates the other way and whole thing is set at a slight angle. For heavy materials there is usually a cascading conveyor belt system.

Youtube has several examples of DIY home-made tumblers.
westes Zone 9b California SF Bay thanked tropicofcancer (6b SW-PA)
westes Zone 9b California SF Bay
Original Author
6 years ago
@tropicofcancer I see the homemade devices on Youtube, but that looks a) too large and b) a giant hassle to make yourself. Is anything like this available commercially under $300?

The best solution I have so far is to get a sub-$100 rotary sifter developed for bullet case separation from cleaning media. I could insert a stainless mesh cylinder into the middle of that and then rotate it manually. I would have preferred to find one with a motor so I could let it turn for five minutes on a timer and walk away.
tropicofcancer (6b SW-PA)
6 years ago
I do not know of any premade sifter suitable for soil media. The brass casing rotary sifter seems too small to me of any practical use and changing screens will be still be a hassle.
westes Zone 9b California SF Bay thanked tropicofcancer (6b SW-PA)
User
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago
A neighbor made a tumbler. Purchased plywood rounds, 1x2 trim wood, hardware cloth. Made a stand from erector set metal. Sort of a mini raffle ticket drum......this where he got the idea. I gave the neighbor an old electric motor, he found some used pulleys and “motorized” it.

I looked at raffle drums on Amazon, ~$50-$100. Hand operated.
westes Zone 9b California SF Bay thanked User