I have done plenty hand sifting in my life. I can change your world on that too. Get you four stout trampoline springs and put one on each corner of your 2x2 screen. Stretch tight to whatever you have it on. It will screen dirt with a hundredth of the effort.tight springs are the answer.Wow, blown away by this thread.....I would love to see a few pics of you’re setup. I’m busy working in a few cliff rock houses where time allows. Can’t really get any kind of modern equip in there, we use small hand trowel, shovel and bucket method with 2x2 sifter on a saw horse. Haha. I’ve found some neat things, but your process really looks to be super effective to me. Congratulations on all your finds, pretty damn impressive, in my humble opinion. Keep sharing please. Thanks
I have done plenty hand sifting in my life. I can change your world on that too. Get you four stout trampoline springs and put one on each corner of your 2x2 screen. Stretch tight to whatever you have it on. It will screen dirt with a hundredth of the effort.tight springs are the answer.
Here's what I use .Killer overhang. There will be thicker material right outside along the drip line. The tighter you get the springs the less effort it takes to sift.
Here's what I use .
Here's what I use .
Looks like an old rocking horse frame. I used one for years and remember telling about it in aology. If you could get the springs mounted tighter to where it literally sets level with the springs it will sift even better.
clear this up for me, are you sifting an old farm field, an open area, a meadow...what kind of landscape yeilds that many points and why? Can you post a picture of a similar landscape?
Hit lots of wet areas for sure. Have to literally press material through the sifter initially I was carrying the large bucket full down about 100 yards away and sifting in creek to wash everything for visibility. That was just too great a task for each bucket but I did find everything with the “panning” method in creek. Too labor intensive so built wooden sifter and just press the wet stuff through current set up. Hoping change to drip line area will give up some dryer materials for the sift.
Depending how small the creek is, the land down stream and how much dirt you are going to move, that might be a lot of dirt to run through the creek. Double check your local regulations or who's down stream, but there have been diggers in Kentucky who were dinged under old mining regulations for fouling a creek.
If the land is secure, I know people who basically create piles of broken up wet dirt in the summer and sift the dirt when it's dried out a bit in the fall.