Thanks to ALL for the nice compliments!
Chris. you got it, sifts out unwanted debris including rocks, roots, sticks, clods, clumps, chunks, etc. Leaves behind "screened" topsoil or compost, or simply clean fill. Yesterday I mexed some clean fill dirt with some screened compost to make psuedo-"topsoil" , worked well.
I spread a few yards of this "psuedo-soil" in the back yard where I have some erosion, ruts, and hardpacked areas with no grass growing, levelled, seeded, rolled and covered with a straw.
Duc, very true, it is both a time
and money saver. I can screen a couple yards of material in ten minutes. By the time I would hook up the trailer, drive, $PAY$, bring it home and unload I would be looking for the hour or two that was lost.
Gunmkaer, Thanks for the compliment, it's not quite on that level.
The commercial units can digest 1 to 2 yard buckets per gulp, I'm only dumping 1/4 Yard at a time, but, it's fine for my homesteader purpose. It has some minor quirks I am working through, but by-and-large it's doing the job. The up side is that the commercial units are $7500 and soar up to $20K!! If I was running a large landscape firm or a big nursery I could see having a large-high-throughput unit. Otherwise, that's a lot of
$$$ to sift dirt!
Paul, I had my son acting as "human FEL" standing on a stool with a 5 gallon bucket of fill dirt, dumping it on the screen, to Beta test the vibrating action.
If i got a bigger FEL, then I would need a bigger tractor, bigger implements, and then need to build a bigger screener!!
Oh the humanity!!
.