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rock bucket tine spacing to clear dirt from rocks without clogging

[486]

[486]

ugh, that guy again?
Joined
May 19, 2020
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Loc
pine city MN
I forget where I talked about this project already but w/e I'll just make a thread all its own

Making a rock bucket for the skiddy steer.
Have 1/2x3x34" flat bar tines cut out
also have some 3/8x2 flat bar
figuring on making a grate that bolts into the underside of the bucket with the 3/8" in order to halve the spacing between the big tines, then I can have both a wide spacing and a "slightly less than half that" spacing for finer material.

I'm just in the paralysis-by-analysis stage where I can't decide what spacing I want between the bars.
Lots of wet sticky clay and shitty sticky black dirt here, so if I go too narrow it'll probably clog up real bad and I'll be stuck using it at the 'wide' setting and losing all of the baseball sized rock.

I was thinking 6" on center on the half inch bars, making 5" openings wide and 2 5/16" openings with the opening-halving-grate installed
Too narrow? Too wide? Should I maybe go tighter spacing?

in gcc since I'll probably be welding them together day after tomorrow, faster answers here than in the shot&toob subforum
 
My grapple also has 6” spacing and it lets a lot of smaller sticks/rocks through.

I borrowed a rock bucket for my tractor the had 3” spacing and it worked fine for getting rocks out of silty sand material. Sod chunks in loam will clog it quickly though, as mentioned. Also worked great for moving firewood around, left all the debris behind.

Any sticky clay soils will suck at trying to put through a rock bucket/screen, bigger is better as far as opening go. Clay will build up on the tines and make the opening smaller throughout the day, which sucks. I think your on the right path for spacing 6” would be a good starting point, the smaller spacing will probably clog a fair amount.

I would be tempted to make the bucket with 6” openings to get rid of the big stuff, then build a small grizzly screen at the smaller spacing for getting rid of the smaller debris.
 
You might be able to improve results if you could scrape off the layer of dirt you want to sort, and stack it into a pile and leave it for a wile (year?) to dry out, then sift it.

I mucked out a shitload of clay from my backyard, and stacked it over a hill. Now it's dusty instead of toothpaste.
 
well yeah grass and shit will clog anything, you stack the stuff and burn it every once in a while, the grass rots away and you can sort through it again in a few years

I'm just trying to save the stone from a pile of shitty fill before I spread it, the stone is useful where the black dirt is absolutely valueless. Also got a few swamps that have tons of hand picked field stone in them that I'm thinking I can grab on a particularly dry year
 
I tried one of those close finger buckets but they are only good if you live in Florida. I use a root rock grapple which has spacing around 10” or so

To remove rocks from soil you need a vibration shaker separator machine setup. You dump buckets of dirt/rocks on it and it separates them.
 
[486] said:
well yeah grass and shit will clog anything, you stack the stuff and burn it every once in a while, the grass rots away and you can sort through it again in a few years

I'm just trying to save the stone from a pile of shitty fill before I spread it, the stone is useful where the black dirt is absolutely valueless. Also got a few swamps that have tons of hand picked field stone in them that I'm thinking I can grab on a particularly dry year
Click to expand...
See it a dealer will demo or rent one to you before you commit to one. More than likely it’s not gto work out the way you hope it does.
 
arse_sidewards said:
I did. I think that's a little too high class for him. He can always make it shake later. :laughing:
Click to expand...
It won’t do shit unless it’s shaking, he’ll just make a pile on top of it.


there’s videos all over YouTube of people who build screen shakers gas and electric powered. Hit the scrap yards and buy some stuff to make it happen. Steal your neighbors mower and use his engine :laughing::flipoff2:
 
The irates have it right. Regular bucket dump on a screen. Make the screen bottom like a material bin so it's easy to scoop out. I will say shaking isn't required if you don't have highly plastic soil. You can just drag the bucket with reasonable force on it and it will work well enough for non commercial use.
 
I was also going to suggest covering the bucket tines with screen mesh. You can get lots of different sizes. Having a separate screen setup is obviously even better.
 
[486] said:
I forget where I talked about this project already but w/e I'll just make a thread all its own

Making a rock bucket for the skiddy steer.
Have 1/2x3x34" flat bar tines cut out
also have some 3/8x2 flat bar
figuring on making a grate that bolts into the underside of the bucket with the 3/8" in order to halve the spacing between the big tines, then I can have both a wide spacing and a "slightly less than half that" spacing for finer material.

I'm just in the paralysis-by-analysis stage where I can't decide what spacing I want between the bars.
Lots of wet sticky clay and shitty sticky black dirt here, so if I go too narrow it'll probably clog up real bad and I'll be stuck using it at the 'wide' setting and losing all of the baseball sized rock.

I was thinking 6" on center on the half inch bars, making 5" openings wide and 2 5/16" openings with the opening-halving-grate installed
Too narrow? Too wide? Should I maybe go tighter spacing?

in gcc since I'll probably be welding them together day after tomorrow, faster answers here than in the shot&toob subforum
Click to expand...

How small of rock are you trying to save?

We ran something similar to this Heavy Duty Skeleton Grapple - Skid Pro. The bottom wasnt spaced out as far though. Bought it for packing brush and it got used for a ton of crap that we never considered.

Get the angle right and your speed right and It wasnt hard to load that thing up with rock or whatever else you were trying to clean up.
 
it is going to depend on what you what rocks you have/want and the soil type you have

but I have probably built a hundred with 3" spacing with no complaints from the customers
 
pbb: buying a crusher for personal use is stupid you'll never make your money back
also pbb: oh you're trying to get 10 yards of fieldstone out of a pile that's mixed with dirt, you're going to want to build a washplant and cement kiln in order to make the concrete to make a bessemer furnace to make the steel to....


fucking... ugh
yes I could make a grizzly but I don't want to, I want a rock bucket and a root bucket, so I'll make both in one unit
 
[486] said:
thank you
Click to expand...
As I said above, try to demo or rent one before you dole out money on one that may not work.

They don’t work in the environment around my area that’s for sure and are never sold here as well. They work best in sandy type soils that fall apart easily.
 
If you re-read the OP, I've got steel cut and I'm welding it together tomorrow

if it doesn't work at all, I can sell it fairly easy as they're almost never on CL and they're always priced retarded high even when beat to fuck
 
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