Thanks for sharing. I built my own Trommel using some of your ideas and others with a washing machine reverse able motor, and three pulleys to gear it down to 36-39 RPM. works good after some fine tuning for belt tension.
Your three videos are very interesting and quite informative and I thank you for allowing me to view them from the start to finish of the trommel. I would make one suggestion in its construction, that being instead of 2 x 4 wood structure, I would use 1 1/2" aluminum square tubing welded, which would drop the total weight of the frame by at least 2/3rds. and will give you a more stable and much lighter frame.
Thanks for watching. Yes, I agree making it out of aluminum would definitely lower the weight of the unit. That said it would also increase the cost considerably and most people don't have the skills or the tools for welding aluminum. I wanted something that virtually anyone could make with just some basic tools.
Awesome, I would add an angled tray below to make retrieving sifted soil easier and a small ramp for the exit for the garbage/gravel like I have mine, makes life easier
I have been wanting to do something like that, but so far I haven't been able to come up with anything that flows well enough not to clog up. Thanks for watching!
I'll be over to borrow it in the spring when I sift my 55 gallon plastic barrel full of compost. 😜 I'm sick of bending over and scooping it out one small bucket at a time. ( I use a one gallon joint compound bucket ). Then I use a wooden frame with a piece of stucco wire mesh to sift it. Works great but tedious and terrible on the back of someone my age with back problems. But I'm not about to give up gardening or making compost for my raised beds. 😁
I hear that! I've done my share of manual screening and it sucks at the best of times. You could make a similar device on a much smaller scale if needed and it makes things SO much easier and nicer to do. My only regret was I didn't do it sooner. Glad you enjoyed the video. Thanks for watching!
@@ScanMan79 I looked into buying a motor and it's not in the budget. I couldn't find any. I'm thinking about trying it with the spit motor from my old bbq grill. And the steel rod. But for all the work and the room it takes up in such a small backyard I think I'll just continue to do it by hand for now. Anyway, it makes me feel more connected to the earth and my finished product.
@@robertevans8024 For mine I didn't pay anything for the motor. I waited for spring cleaning where people put their stuff on the curb to be rid of it. It's free game to people and whatever is left is picked up by the trash guys. Couple towns near me usually do it twice a year. Also Facebook marketplace is a good place to look. I scrapped an old treadmill for my motor but I also understand having a small space. It's hard to justify a large item that only gets used a few times a year when space is at a premium. Have a great one!
Very nicely done, excellent video and explanations. A couple of questions: In various builds I've seen, some use solid wheels and others (like yours) use casters. Would you use casters again or go to solid wheels? Also, does the basket want to move out of the frame? I don't see any wheels or brackets that hold the basket in place. Thanks in advance.
Thanks for watching! I think I would stay with the casters if I had to do it over. It does take a little more planning and work but with the style of caster I went with it allowed me to use rims that were imperfect. As far as the basket moving, no there are no guides or stops to prevent it from coming out. I haven't had any issues with it wanting to derail at all. The swivel of the casters allow for the basket to move end to end a good inch probably a little more and since the caster rotates with it the basket just rocks a little and immediately goes back to its happy place.
Just an observation:......When stripping old bike rims, try to save the spokes intact ( with barrel-nut heads. They are amazingly strong and reusable. Good video.
Great build!! I'm trying to build this now. The final ball casters you used look like they fit inside the rim are you sure that they are 2 inch casters, the reason I'm asking is I need to order them. Thank you
I personally haven't had any issues with torque and I've put a LOT of material through it at once. I was using a stand-on skid loader while doing it. I only had it stall a couple of times and that was from belt slippage, not torque. The only issues I've run into with mine have been getting the cleaned material out from under it in an easy and efficient fashion and the wire mesh breaking down. I ran it admittedly too hard one day and destroyed the mess in a day using the skid loader sifting heavy dirt. Since then I haven't pushed it that hard and haven't needed to replace the mesh again. I also added the 3 pipes to help stiffen the basket up so the mesh wasn't flexing too much as well. Thanks for watching!
Hello, Angle will really depend on soil type and condition of the soil itself. Mine is around 15 degrees. If you have a very sandy dry soil you will be able to run a much steeper angle and still get the same results as it will filter faster. But if you have clay or loamy soils that hold moisture then you're gonna need a low angle to allow the soil more time in the basket to get sifted otherwise you may have to run it more than once. There is no set angle, you'll have to just play around with it until you find that sweet spot for your local soils. Hope that helps. Thanks for watching.
Hi and thanks for the reply. btw, did you find that you needed to put the EMT conduit sections down the axis of your trommel cage for lateral support or did you just put that in to be on the safe side. The reason I ask is that my cage is 6 feet long and, in order to keep the overall weight down, I'm not inclined to put them in. But with all of the rain we are getting lately, I have not had a chance to run my trommel for hours on end to see how it holds up. So that's why I ask.
The main reason for the EMT is for rigidity. On my first cage I didn't have the EMT and the tension of the drive belt caused the wire mesh to break from the repeated flexing and in turn caused the whole cage to fail. On my second cage I added the EMT for more rigidity, and that solved the issue for me.
I didn't. I only use it when things are pretty dry so I don't have to worry about rot too much. That said if you wanted the extra protection or live in a wet climate then I would definitely add some sort of protection to the wood. Thanks for watching!
@@DA58508 Another thing to keep in mind since it will be stored outside, is that all the electronics will need to be waterproofed or at the very least put into a project box to keep it dry. :)
Something else you could have done that would have increased the friction of the belt was to turn it over so the top of the v was running on the inside.
I used a 1/4" mesh on mine, it makes a very nice fine soil. If you don't mind having pea gravel in the mix you could go with a 1/2" mesh. I don't remember the exact length I believe it was around 100 inches, but that will vary with the wheel size you use for your project. Just measure the circumference of your wheel and allow for roughly a 6" overlap at the seam. Hope that helps and thanks for watching!
I believe it was mentioned in passing and was covered is the lost footage. All I used was three 1/2 inch galvanized pipes and wrapped wire around the pipe and the basket the entire length to add rigidity to the basket. As a side bonus, they also work as agitators for the dirt so it doesn't slide in the basket. Without the pipes, the basket had too much flex and caused the wire mesh to fail. Hope that helps and thanks for watching.
I used a 2-inch caster for the final choice. I've been very happy with them, with the exception of the more closed in design compared to other styles. They don't let the dirt fall out as easily as the more open *rollerblade Style". That's why I needed to add the flashing on the ends and in the middle to help keep the debris out of the wheels. Other than that small issue they work great! Thanks for watching.
Why didn't you drive the trommel directly from the motor rather than belt it to that bar? Also, how did you get all of the wiring of the control board out of the console stand of the treadmil. Btw, great job, I've been building my own and gotten some great ideas from your video. Will post them to this site when done and all of the bugs worked out.
The bar with the big belt that drives the cage is actually part of the original drive from the treadmill that I just transferred over. The big bar was what the walking belt was driven by. The reasoning for keeping it all together was the pulley on the motor has built-in cooling "fan" for the motor and has a unique belt style that I was unable to find any belts of large size to match. Plus it offers the lower gearing to provide more torque to drive the cage when loaded down. As for the control board, I just carefully opened up the housing to gain access. I don't remember the exact process anymore but I did modify it slightly to remove the unneeded feature, i.e. distance heartrate etc. as I only wanted the variable speed control and the emergency disconnect intact. That got rid of a lot of unneeded wires. I hope that helps. Good luck on your project! I'm glad it's helped you to build some ideas to work with. Thanks for watching!
Here is my latest version 4: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-oHp-8QH5edQ.html It's running too fast (I think) at 70 RPM but I will be working on slowing it down, but before that, will test it out in mission mode (one the rain stops). ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-gSVaGRyAbpE.html Here it is working at 40 RPM in mission mode, using a different drive motor: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-D1yTOtIsm6U.html
I used the motor out of an old treadmill. If you can't find anyone around you that has one for free or cheap, you can find these motor on places like ebay and amazon. Any similar motor would work fine. You would just have to figure out how to mount it. Hope that helps. Thanks for watching.
Bravo pour cette belle réalisation. Je cherchais une idée de tamis à compost. Pour ma part, je reprends l'idée du cylindre avec les roues de vélo (2 jantes) le mien, sera manuel. Merci
Merci! Cette configuration constitue une excellente compost Sifter. Une configuration de 2 jantes plus petite serait idéale pour un petit jardin de jardin. Être plus court, vous devrez peut-être le faire passer à quelques reprises pour que tout se soit tamisé, car il peut passer avant de terminer le processus. Un déflecteur à la fin pourrait aider avec cela. Juste quelques idées. Merci d'avoir regardé!
