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Screening sand and rocks

Juice

Active Member
Joined
Sep 28, 2010
Messages
25
Location
Townsville
Occupation
Underground Mining Foreman
Hi all,
Can anyone steer me right?
I'm just starting out screening sand and rock at my sand quarry.
Can anyone tell me what's the best,most efficient way of screening my rocks.
Do I screen the largest size out first then keep going down to smallest size I want?
OR, Do I screen for the smallest size first then work upwards?
Sand gets screened leaving me rocks from 5mm to 250mm as rejects.
Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.
 

grandpa

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 15, 2009
Messages
1,979
Location
northern minnesota
Juice.... The best way is do it all in one pass... lol,,, but I know this is unrealistic. You probably will have to take the big ones off first,, if you take the small ones out, the big ones will break the small screen apart. Every pit screens differently, moisture content,, clay content,,, all these variables come into play, so there is no black and white answer.

A screen that has enough throw on the deck to bounce the big rocks up off the screen, might have too much throw for the fine particle's and might actually make them stick (called pegging) into the screen... Im sure I've given you plenty to think about so will wait for your reply for now.... Gramps
 

JDOFMEMI

Senior Member
Joined
Jan 3, 2007
Messages
3,074
Location
SoCal
It also depends on how many sizes you are making. Do you need 1, 2, 3, or more sizes?
Are you crushing as well, or just screening? What is the makeup of the feed material?
You can get a portable plant with a 3 deck screen and in theory make 4 products, but what you are putting in versus what you are expecting to get may dictate more handling.
Generally you take the oversize off the top, then the largest nominal size and work down to the smaller material at the bottom.

There are lots of tricks to get the most out of the equipment.
 

Juice

Active Member
Joined
Sep 28, 2010
Messages
25
Location
Townsville
Occupation
Underground Mining Foreman
I was hoping you'd say that men, as it's what I was thinking.
I've got a portable, twin deck screener to give me 3 products.
I screen raw river sand with a lot of different size rocks.
Sand is my bread and butter, but the rocks are the cream.
I'll be producing 4 sizes when I finish getting the screens I want.
Don't really want to touch raw product more than twice, however the end results justify some handling.
That's until I make enough money to run another screener in sequence!!
Thanks:eek:
 

cdm123

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 12, 2009
Messages
272
Location
manitoba canada
I find screening from large to small work best espesialy in clean material as if you take all the fines out the rock tends to roll back down the conveyor.
 
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