www.ultimatehandyman.co.uk

Has anyone used one of these... any good? I do have clay soil which might be a problem, but it is FULL of stones and chunks of old hardcore.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Clarke-Rotary- ... 9421&psc=1

Not used one - not even seen one before you posted. Let us know how you get on! What do the A-z reviews say?

But sticky clay soil is always a problem so I have my doubts.

A-z review:
"We have a real issue where we are with soil quality....lots of stones and rubble which impacted our flowers' ability to take root and grow. An experienced horticulturalist recommended that I sieve the soil. As I looked through i came across this product. One of the other issues we have is hard lumpy clay soil too so I needed to break all this soil up. This was an easy product to put together (my teenage son did it) and was exactly what we needed. It does require some manual input as you turn the handle, but my teenage son found it easy and was actually quite a good work out. It successfully removed all large stones from the soil, and the weeds, allowing better quality, refined soil to fall in to the pan. We then combined the soil with some compost and, months later, have a garden with wonderful blooms and greenery. Of course, watering, compost soil top ups and weeding have helped, but the improved soil quality created by this rotary sieve definitely made a big difference. Also, after a couple of months use, it has held up well. So the old adage is true...you get what you pay for, and whilst this was not cheap, I would say it is really good value for money for those who have the same situation as me."

would suggest its for very loose soil with grass plant debris and small pebbles anything else in my opinion will overload and clog it up

it looks like you need to buy a rotary powered one and clay will mostly stay clumped and may need breaking up by hand to eventually get it small enough to fall through
https://www.machinemart.co.uk/p/scheppa ... ieve-230v/
a cement mixer may work with the breaking up but need to be sieved after

big-all wrote: ↑Mon Feb 21, 2022 8:24 pm it looks like you need to buy a rotary powered one and clay will mostly stay clumped and may need breaking up by hand to eventually get it small enough to fall through
<a href="https://www.machinemart.co.uk/p/scheppa ... sieve-230v" class="skimlinks-unlinked" data-skimwords-word="https%3A%2F%2Fwww.machinemart.co.uk%2Fp%2Fscheppach-rs350-soil-sieve-230v" data-skim-creative="500005" title="" style="">https://www.machinemart.co.uk/p/scheppa ... ve-230v</a>/
a cement mixer may work with the breaking up but need to be sieved after

I think I'll get the manual one for sieving compost, and if it works on my clay soil so much the better. I'd love one of those Scheppach big dogs, but a lot of money to gamble on it working with clay.

i wasnt for one second saying to buy one but more pointing out what i think was needed to do the job after all you only have to do it once and its done ------
perhaps ebay??

If you have a lot of solid soil to break a tiller machine or rotavator is best to loosen it up. Best to get a weekend hire and do what you need. Once broken it gives the soil a chance to dry out to make it easier to crumble into finer particles. With clay, you often have to wait for summer to get it to dry out before it will break down. Sieves are just separators to screen out pebbles and dead green waste.

DWD

dewaltdisney wrote: ↑Tue Feb 22, 2022 10:05 am If you have a lot of solid soil to break a tiller machine or rotavator is best to loosen it up. B
DWD

I bought an Aldi one to till and reseed a compacted lawn, I think it would cope fine with clay provided you went slow and steady. It was £50 for the machine and while not as powerful as a hire machine it meant I could work the area over several days at my own pace. It could be resoled later.

ah

big-all wrote: ↑Tue Feb 22, 2022 9:57 am i wasnt for one second saying to buy one but more pointing out what i think was needed to do the job after all you only have to do it once and its done ------
perhaps ebay??

Oh I know you weren't, but you found the exact tool that I keep drooling over on toolstation :)

i thought the normal was a spade, a wheelbarrow and a sieve
a spadeful on the seive on the wheelbarrow to catch the good stuff worked through by the spade /fork/whatever

https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffsb&q=heavy+ ... &ia=images