I'm getting ready to set up several kiddy pool planters and need a bunch of potting mix, so I'm sifting my "stuff" to get some nice fine grained ingredients. There was a thread on sifting a while back, mostly about perlite. I didn't say anything then cause I couldn't get a picture, but here is a sifter I cobbled up several years ago, and I ve gotten a lot of good use out of it.  
Here I'm sifting composted cow manure. I've since moved it to sift the dirt I'll mix with this. I use it to sift the charcoal out of my wood ash (on a very calm day). It's 1/4 in mesh and I'm afraid that all of what I can get as "course" perlite would go right through it.

The cone shape lets the lumps "climb" out the small end, and fall in the box, while the fines are falling through. I should have made it adjustable. You need to set it for each media you put through, it so the fines have time to sift while the lumps are climbing. the pipe clamp is the right setting for this particular media. I lift it up to where it's at to run the last little bit out and empty the catch bin. It's a bit hard to get started when it has a batch of dirt in it. If I put a drive motor on it and extended the feed opening all the way around I could feed it while it was turning and that would make it a lot easier to use. I've thought about upgrading it with the height adjuster, a motor, a hopper to feed it, and a sloping catch tray to channel the sifted material into the wheelbarrow. But, then I'd need to build it up on a platform, and a ramp to get the raw material up to it. And, if you're going to do all that you might as well build a shed around it so the wind doesn't blow the dust in your face, and, and, and... Yeah! Right! Someday.  Meanwhile, it lets me process a lot more volume than a piece of screen stapled over the bottom of a box.

I like it:)  I use a cement mixer with a trommel attached.  Have 1/2 1/4 1/8 and window screens for it.  I just did 8 CF of perlite yesterday, have to wear a respirator for that nasty job.  

That is a good sifter, screen sifting is so time consuming. I dont want to breathe the dust from perlite, so I slightly moisten it before working with it.

Mike in Hanover, VA

I remember my grandpa sifting.  Not sure why he did it, but he did.  He had saw horses.  He had nothing in pots!  Maybe because I grew up on rocky land, and we moved back to the same situation in a different place.

I think if things are going to be potted, rather than in-ground, then this is what must be done.  Al, over at garden web has this gritty mix that worked great for me when we lived with very little land and a lot of pots.  Some folks sifted that, but not me.  Too lazy!

Still that gritty mix works!

Suzi

That's a nice looking sifter.

my guess is 1/4" is too large unless you get some incredible perlite. I bought a 3 cf bag of "coarse" perlite (Thermorock brand), and 1/3 of it sifted through 1/8"

Eric,

About the same.....different brand but about 50% goes through 1/8 screen.