Portable Topsoil Screener

Portable Topsoil Screener CROPS Miscellaneous “It does a great job of pulverizing soil and saves a lot of labor as well As far as I know there’s nothing like it on the market ” says John Rutherford Elmira Ontario about his home-built portable topsoil screener “We use it to break down chunks of topsoil to a fine powder soil for our flower beds and our lawn as well as some landscaping work It works fast and pulverizes the soil so that it’s much easier to work with ” says Rutherford “I got the idea after we had a 10-yard truckload of topsoil delivered in the fall but didn’t have enough time to spread it It sat there over the winter and by the following spring had settled to a hard packed lumpy heap of soil ” The screener mounts on a 4-wheeled frame made from 1 1/2-in  steel sq tubing and is operated by a 1 hp electric motor Soil is dumped into an open top drum made from 3/16-in thick mild steel A 12-in wide perforated screen made from 1/4-in thick metal is located at the bottom of the drum Dirt is broken up and forced through the screen’s 1/2-in dia holes by a revolving shaft with 1/2-in thick steel blades welded onto it “The blades are set at an angle to create a sweeping action as they rotate They’re also offset from each other so they don’t miss any soil as they rotate ” says Rutherford “The shaft is coupled to a 60:1 ratio worm-type gear reducer operated by the electric motor If I need to get rid of any stones that might be in the soil I can easily rotate the drum by hand ” Rutherford says that if the soil is very damp it might not fall through the screen’s small holes “If that happens I can unbolt the screen and replace it with one with larger holes   I think it would still do a good job ” says Rutherford Contact: FARM SHOW Followup John Rutherford 2 Grey Owl Drive Elmira Ontario Canada N3B 1S3; ph 519 669-1877; greyowl8@hotmail com

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