A mate took a photo of this soil sifter/grader in a green house at the back the Taisho-en.

http://nichigobonsai.com/2012/01/31/soil-sifter/

Does anyone know any companies that make this sort of equipment?

Being in Australia, I've seen mining equipment versions (the size of a house) but not something I could have in the back yard...

No need to buy special equipment .

excuse me if im missing something but does the cement mixer sort it into different sizes like the Taisho-en sifter? If not whats the point of going through all of that just to sift out the dust? I think i could manually sift just as fast? But like i said maybe im missing something

Alain, I like it. So, you put your material in the mixer, but your small screen on, run it for a few minutes until you stop getting material passing through the screen, tilt it back up, change the screen to the next larger size, empty the wheel barrow, tilt it up and run, repeat for each size that you want. Slick. How many size grades are you splitting in to? dust/fines, 3mm, 5mm, 10mm?

John

Alain, I like it. So, you put your material in the mixer, but your small screen on, run it for a few minutes until you stop getting material passing through the screen, tilt it back up, change the screen to the next larger size, empty the wheel barrow, tilt it up and run, repeat for each size that you want. Slick. How many size grades are you splitting in to? dust/fines, 3mm, 5mm, 10mm?

Well, according to my experience, dust is not easily sifted at least at soon as there some humidity in the substrate. So I start with the finest screen and water the substrate while running the mixer ( the steel rod is for the hose). I have a well so I am not very concerned by water consumption at least when not in summer. Then I sift from big to small, because it is supposed to be more efficient than the contrary even if one has to load the mixer several times and not just one like with you solution. I sift at 4 and 8 mm.
 

okay okay I concede that if you sift from small to large and you already have this set-up it would be significantly faster however by the time the average Joe locates a cement mixer and rigs it up i will already have enough soil sifted for a lifetime

yeah, for some reason I like the hand sifting also. very relaxing. its kinda like another male hand shaking activity without the shame

yeah John I would say of all people that it would be worth the investment it would be you. By the way how many trees do you have potted, Im trying to do the math on how much soil you go through?