Allu Screener Bucket

Kim_Ked · November 13, 2020, 05:26:59 AM

Hey Folks,
Iv been looking at soil screeners.
I came across one close to me for sale. Its actually a screener bucket for an excavator. Its an Allu model DH3-12. It's big, like 3000lbs. big. But my machine is a 15 ton, so it should be ok.
It looks like it would be perfect on my excavator!
I'm wondering if anybody has used anything like this before...
Id be looking to screen thick layers of top soil and some clay/gravel mix. Mostly I'm looking to take top soil from my clearcuts on one large section of my land. Iv already put a road through there with my excavator and i must say, its impressive how far down I can dig and not get hardly any rock. Iv dug down at least 8 feet so far and not hit bedrock anywhere.... I was able to build a very nice road up a good 6 feet on either side, deep ditches, slightly slopped and nice and wide without hauling in any material. The soil is just so nice to work with..... And t was my first road ever... My uncle has been an operator for his whole life and just couldn't believe that I built this road and didn't have to haul in hundreds of yards of material. I shaped it and packed it all in with my bucket and immediately started driving over it with trucks and tractors loaded with wood without making a mark. Even now, in all the rain and warm weather, its just a little slimy on top. It was literally just clay and top soil I mixed right off the surface. It packed like concrete on my road. Everybody tells me that dirt like this is worth a little bit if I can separate it.

So I'm interested in trying to screen a some and see if I can sell it.
I was thinking this type of screener would allow me to do this with only my excavator. Where as If I use a screener mill, I have to pretty much have another machine to scoop the dirt out from the plant and pile it. With this screener bucket, I could dig, screen and pile at once or even screen on to a waiting truck or trailer.

Has anybody done or do this type of thing?

mike_belben · November 13, 2020, 08:58:53 AM

Consider yourself lucky, i can barely set a fencepost or bury a dog without blasting sandstone or adding fill.

I have limited screening experience but i can say i made a screener bucket that doesnt work most of the year on our dirt because unless very dry, like dusty drought dry, clay has a self adhesion.. Some sort of molecular cation exchange deal i cant explain. Basically it wont just shake apart for screening. It needs a mechanical shearing actual first then even some drying time before it screens well. Like a rototiller or dig it up and windrow first.

Think of working with a bowl of cookie dough or ground beef. You could try to spread it evenly but it will want to clump back into itself.

Kim_Ked · November 13, 2020, 10:22:57 AM

This particular screener might be what you need!
It has several live rollers that crush the lighter materials into finer stuff. The rocks and larger sticks just bounce on the top of the live rollers till you dump it out.

I'm just watching some videos of them. The heavier models are even set up to crush the rock as well. Im just looking to sort fine soils and gravel.

I was thinking about trying to build something, but my fabrication abilities leave much to be desired! I can just see it my mind folding up under the weight of the first load.

GRANITEstateMP · November 13, 2020, 06:23:23 PM

Kim_Ked, that's a neat bucket, but unless you can get it super cheap I think you'd be better off renting a screener either by the week or the month. They are one of those items that can be rented easily enough that it can be tough to justify purchasing one. That being said if ya own it, then you don't feel rushed to get it done on someone else's time table! I got to screen a couple thousand yards of sand to use on our roafs during the winter months. I spent A LOT of time behind the wheel of a Kumatsu WA320, this summer. Once the sand was screened, then we started in on the tailins piles... Best part was every time the screener broke (it wasn't it's first rodeo) we just called the rental company and they came out and fixed it (leaky fuel line/tank and hydo leak on a track machine). When a line blew on the loader, well that was our problem ;D

Tom King · November 13, 2020, 09:11:34 PM

Funny. I was just studying up on screeners this evening. I have a need for one too, and a large supply of great topsoil, full of some fat earth worms, but also some rocks, and sticks.

This company has some videos:

SB Screening Bucket Attachments | EZ-Screen