Bucket Seives

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Hi Ramjet,

Saw buckets sieves thought right up my alley.
If I had read this earlier would have saved 3 stubby and 2 battery recharges for the Makita.
Ended up making 2 buckets, 1 x12 mm and 1x 3mm holes and the beers went down a treat. :D
 
My version of bucket sieves.

First bucket is a 10L with 1/2 inch holes to sort out the larger rocks. (fits inside the next bucket)
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Second (next) bucket - also 10 L and has 1/4 inch holes and 4 aluminium (pop riveted)angles inside that act like a washing machine agitator. These blades also help break down clay.
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Both these buckets sit inside a larger opening blue bucket (also 10 L but a wider mouth...got it from Mitre 10). There is more than enough room to swish the agitator bucket inside the blue bucket.

This set up takes a minute or two to sort out and classify 10 Litres of dirt.
 
Try cutting the bottom out, leaving a 20mm lip to fit your screen on to the inside, using a 15ltr bucket to go into a 20ltr, 10 ltr feeding into a 15ltr, etc. Silicon lip over afer fastening. Much better volume flow. Then simply plunge it up and down.
 
Along the lines of MikeB05, I bought a large SS crab cooker, like a stainless steel bucket / cooking pot with holes on the bottom and around vertical wall. The crab cooker is an insert that goes inside a big SS pot. We use the pot to make soup but the crab cooker is now my bucket sieve. I drilled all the holes bigger, alternating 8mm and 5mm (roughly) plus more around the bottom "corner", which really improves throughout. Essentially it is a vertical mini-trommel. It has handles so I put it inside a larger bucket filled with water, fill it to 1/3 to 1/2 with gravel, grab the handles on each side and vigorously move it 1/4 turn one way, then the other several times, then lift it and put it on a bit of an angle and repeat. The last step gets heavies down into the bottom corner so they all make it into the bucket below. Way easier that using standard sieves which usually do not fit well over a bucket. Being SS it is quite robust.

I also bought a blue Minelab branded plastic sieve with handles on each side that sits on most buckets due to its design. Standard aluminium sieves can sit inside this one so whatever goes through the finer sieve must go into the bucket below. If you have a wider bucket the blue plastic sieve sits down inside nicely and by using the handles as described above for the crab cooker, and a few jiggles of the bucket, the fines wash into the bucket below. Can be used for gold or gems depending upon the aluminium sluice you use on top. Mostly I only use the blue sieve without finer ones as the concentrates, while they include smallish gravel, are fine enough for my sluice or the pan.
 
By the way, I bought the pot, crab cooker insert and lid at the markets, so it was pretty cheap. A new one from a fancy kitchen store would be a bit too much.
 
Hi all, just thought I would share my bucket seives. Buckets are from Bunnings and less than 10 bucks a pop and the seives are for the top of tank water as a catcher for a little over 10 bucks from a pumps and irragation shop and I just removed the fine wire of one of them and great for the river sluice but left the wire on one for a very fine seive.
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Love the stool catcher comment. Been there, done that. While I often us a crab cooker as a sieve (see earlier post) the Minelab bucket or pan top blue sieve (screen) is a beauty. (No commission here). Fill the bucket with water, stick rocks and dirt in screen and shake the bucket. Fill and repeat. Simples!
 
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