Ever since I started making pellet traps filled with rubber mulch I've been wanting a good quick way to separate the mulch from the pellets. I made an improvement today using plastic fencing that has 8mm openings. It's about the right size to let pellets through without letting significant sized mulch pieces through. I made a 12x12 inch frame and stapled the wire to that. I then put it over a drywall bucket and poured some mulch in. It works well but I may staple some cardboard in the corners, the mesh is a bit big for the bucket. But the other issue is all the little debris comes through with the pellets. I just dumped the mess in an old saucepan and tried burning the debris off as the lead melted. That works but is smelly and takes awhile. Next time I will pit some water on the pellets and see if I can't reduce the amount of debris. But the filtering through the mesh works well and greatly decreases the volume. The picture has the filter, the trap, and a box of the filtered mulch.
Filter to separate rubber mulch from pellets
- Thread starter JimD
- Start date
How about putting them in a container with water and let the rubber float to the top. Just skim the rubber off the top and dry the pellets if reusing.
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I've dumped the whole trap contents in water before and the rubber mulch sinks to the bottom. It is heavier than water. It helped separate things, however, because it would come off the bottom far easier than the pellets. But I'd rather not deal with all that mess of wet mulch with fragments of the cardboard that holds it in place and paper from the targets and other junk. This way most of the mulch will not need to get wet. Everything I want to reuse will not get wet. I'm thinking I will only wet the pellets with small mulch pieces and junk in it. That stuff may float but if not I can still minimize what I have to burn out by letting the water help me separate it. At least that is what I'm thinking. I'm also hoping that removing the little stuff may reduce it the next time around.
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I dumped the mulch into a 5 gallon bucket and shake it around the pellets go to the bottom and the mulch stays near the top. And then with your hands scoop out The Mulch on the top keep shaking and repeat as needed. Of course to be safe you should wear respirator and not breathe in the lead dust.
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I did another trap today and improved the screen with cardboard in the corners and I filled the bucket with the pellets with several inches of water. It worked pretty well. In about half an hour I had the pellets on the side burner in a pan to melt them. The mulch did not float but other debris did. I poured the water off and that took a lot of the mulch with it. Doing it slowly let the pellets stay behind. I still had mulch in the pellets but much much less. I removed it with a spoon from the molten lead the way dross is normally removed. I got about 4.5 lbs lead out. That is less than I typically get but this trap is built of 3/4 plywood and deeper so it weighs 21 lbs without pellets. I might refine the process further but it is working well.
The pictures are of the separated mulch and pellets, the pellets on the burner and the lead ingots.
The pictures are of the separated mulch and pellets, the pellets on the burner and the lead ingots.
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