HomeMade Rotary Trommel Screen
Over the years since first posting the article on my Homemade Compost Sifter Screen Sieve I’ve received some really amazing comments by some incredibly ingenious site visitors. A few have even been willing to submit their information for inclusion onto www.Nifty-Stuff.com including:
Automatic Compost Sifter – Screen
Sieve – Screen Shaker for Soil and Compost
Over the past few days I’ve been corresponding with another visitor of the site who has his own design. He sent over a video (below) which really impressed me and I implored him to send me more information and pictures which he kindly did! Below is the HomeMade Rotary Trommel Screen by Ken:
“I had need for about 6 cubic yards of broken stone to level a steep area on my property. Because rain water flowed through the area, I wanted just stone, no dirt to impede the water flow. I have about 1500 cubic yards of broken shale and soil available if I could just screen out the dirt.
To this end I built my rotary screener out of:
- a 55-gallon steel drum
- 2-24 inch id bicycle rims bolted to the drum.
- 4 caster wheels
- Four 3 foot long bars of 1-1/4 x ¼ steel bars
- A clothes dryer motor and belt
- Some 2 inch angle iron
- 2-8 foot long 2×4 pt lumber
- ½ inch mesh wire cloth.
- 2 inch angle iron
- Miscellaneous flat and v belt idlers
To keep the drum bicycle rims running in the casters, I used the drive belt on the motor/outlet end and a long v-belt bought from home depot for $1.99 on closeout at the inlet end.
I found the drum speed was too fast, around 55 rpm, throwing dirt all over the place, so I added a ¼ hp motor driving the washing machine motor at half speed, which worked out well. Both motor mounts are pivoted so the drive belts are tensioned by motor weight and the bungee cord
I didn’t want to throw the dirt and stones; I wanted them to slide down the screen as they moved toward the outlet.
I made the screening opening 24 inches long so the dirt would fall down into a wheel barrow or garden tractor trailer and the stone would fall out the end, also into a wheelbarrow or trailer.
I installed the 2 side deflectors so the screenings would only drop straight down and not on the casters or frame of the machine.
I later added four easily removable wheels for ease of movement.
The barrel is tilted by having the inlet end casters raised on a 2×4.
The barrel is 35 inches long, the machine is 48 inches long. I originally cut 4 windows in the barrel for the screenings to fall through, added the steel bars and cut out the spaces between the windows to get a full circumference for screening.
As soon as I get an other barrel, I’ll simply cut it in half and use the bars to space the halves 24 inches apart, making it 59 inches long. That way I’ll have more space to toss the material in and more overhang on the outlet end to make it easier to position the trailer or wheelbarrow.
The screen wire permanently attached to the barrel can be of a larger opening size, for larger screening and a smaller mesh liner can be laid in and attached with twisted wire ties to the main screen for finer screening. I used this process with window screen to separate pea gravel from sand. “
A big thanks to Ken for sharing this with us! If you have any questions or comments please post them below. Also, if you want to make an article submission for our site please comment below.
I FORGOT TO MENTION THAT BY SIMPLY LOOSENING THE BELTS AND SLIDING THEM OFF THE DRUM, THE DRUM COMES OFF SO THE MACHINE FITS NICELY IN A VAN.
I am incredibly impressed with this rotary trommel screen. I have built my own (with a few modifications that makes it a little more heavy-duty and a little safer) but I am not good picking motors it seems. What’s a good HP motor to use? I can dial down the speed with a dimmer switch if I go over, but I have burned out a used 1/3 & a 1/2 HP swamp cooler motor so far.
MY RED ROTARY TROMMEL, SHOWN, IS POWERED BY A 1/4 HP 120 V INDUCTION MOTOR, THE 55 GALLON DRUM SPEED IS ABOUT 27 RPM, GIVING A SCREEN SURFACE SPEED OF ABOUT 175 FEET PER MINUTE. USE BELTS AND PULLEYS TO REDUCE THE SPEED, RATHER THAN REDUCING THE MOTOR SPEED ELECTRONICALLY. DRILL MOTORS COULD BE USED, BUT THE MOTOR NEEDS SPEED TO FAN COOL ITSELF.
THE UPPER MOTOR, WHOSE PULLEY DRIVES THE DRUM IS A 1/3 HP DRYER MOTOR, HOWEVER, IT TURNED THE DRUM AT ABOUT 55 RPM, FAST ENOUGH TO LIFT THE STONE NEARLY TO THE TOP, WHEREUPON IT FALLS AND HITS THE SCREEN. THIS IS VERY NOISY AND CAN DAMAGE THE SCREEN.
CLOTHES DRYERS RUN THAT SPEED TO ALLOW AIR TO GET TO EVERY AREA AS WELL AS TO FLUFF IT. I WANTED A SPEED THAT WOULD RAISE THE STONE ABOUT HALF WAY UP, SO IT WOULD SLIDE DOWN AND GRIND ANY CLUMPS OF DIRT. THE LOWER SPEED ALSO REQUIRES LESS POWER.
IN IT’S FINAL FORM, THE 1/3 HP MOTOR IS USED AS AN IDLER SHAFT AND IS DRIVEN AT ABOUT 1/2 SPEED BY THE 1/4 HP MOTOR.
IF YOUR DRUM IS LARGER THAN THE 55 GALLON DRUM, YOU MIGHT NEED MORE THAN 1/4 HP ONLY IF YOU ARE FEEDING THE DRUM FASTER THAN ONE MAN SHOVELING.
MANY COOLER MOTORS ARE SHADED POLE MOTORS THAT ARE ELECTRICALLY INEFFICIENT, HAVE LOW STARTING TORQUE AND NEED TO RUN AT FULL SPEED FOR THE COOLING FAN TO MOVE ENOUGH AIR TO COOL IT IF RUNNING AT FULL LOAD.
I love this idea of a rotating trommel as I have a large area of garden to clear of weeds, broken glass, stones and bits of cars in our new house’s garden. How can I improve on this to help clear such a large area to a depth of around 12 inches?
The garden is 80 yards by 40!
40×80 YARDS 1 FOOT DEEP TOTALS 1067 CUBIC YARDS, ABOUT 90 TIMES WHAT I ENDED SCREENING. I DID ALL THE SHOVELING BY HAND, MOVING THE MATERIAL BY GARDEN TRAILER AND LAWN TRACTOR, PLUS THE POWERED WHEEL BARROW I ENDED UP BUILDING. THERE WAS NO RUSH IN COMPLETING THE JOB, SO MY ROTARY SCREENER WAS FINE. IT WAS ALSO USED FOR MANY HOURS BY TWO OTHER HOMEOWNERS WITHOUT A CHANGE OF THE 1/2″ MESH SCREEN.
FOR A 1000 CUBIC YARDS, IF I COULDN’T RENT A COMMERCIAL SCREENER, AND I WANTED A SHORTER COMPLETION TIME,I WOULD HAVE BUILT A COMMERCIAL STRENGTH SCREENER WITH LARGER WHEELS FOR THE DRUM SUPPORT WITH A VERTICAL AXIS WHEEL TO KEEP THE DRUM IN PLACE. I WOULD HAVE USED USED 1/2 INCH EXPANDED METAL FOR THE SCREEN, LONGER BARS SEPARATING THE DRUM HALVES, AND A FEEDER CHUTE THAT COULD ACCEPT MATERIAL FROM A BACK HOE OR FRONT LOADER.