Frank Teuton's Compost Inventions

 Frank Teuton is a frequent contributor to our Message Board, and once mentioned his Can Topper Sifter. There was a great deal of interest in this sifter, so Frank provided photos for the site, which follow below.

Frank was born in Washington, DC in 1955. His grandfather, Frank L. Teuton, Sr. was a USDA agronomist and camellia lover. Frank moved to Quebec from Baltimore in 1988, fleeing the "evil heat". He has composted using a variety of methods from age 15 to the present. He is currently experimenting with a worm composter made of compost fleece, so you might want to ask him about that as well.

Please post your questions to the Message Board so that we can all benefit from the discussion.

There has been a lot of interest in Frank's sifter. Included below are pictures of Frank's sifters and piles, with his comments. Click on links to see photos.

can topper


Cantopper Sifter

The Original Cantopper - The hopper is Crazy Karpet, a kid's winter sled, cut up into strips. Still works great and is holding up well.
The Original Cantopper - Bottom of previous sifter, showing the stops.

1/4" Cantopper - This one is an "innie" instead of an "outie". You get a bit more screening area this way, but construction is harder, and there are pointy edges - wear gloves!
1/4" Cantopper - Bottom of sifter. It is wired together and reinforced with cable ties.

1/8" Cantopper - Food grade stainless steel screen is smoother than hardware cloth.
1/8" Cantopper - Bottom of sifter. More stops than necessary, but the first set were a bit loose. And, another thing the Cantopper is good for, for all you vermiphiles, is to de-water materials like paper or leaves that you have been soaking. The Cantopper Giant Colander!


Swinging Sifter

Swinging Sifter - Larger than a Cantopper, at 21 inches in diameter, this works OK but is less convenient. The fines are not contained and it is harder to dump the rejects.
Sifter in Full Context - Behind, you can see my White shredder and the Great Wall of Compost.


A-frame Sifter

1/2" A-frame Sifter - Like Martha Stewart's, this works best as a wall in the Great Wall of Pallet Palaces. The Cantopper outperforms it.
1 7/8" Screen for breaking up rough compost, removing big chunks, stumps, etc. Fits over the yard cart.


Other

Yard Cart - A Stanley Forge with modifications. 12 cubic feet. On top, a 1/4" trommel made with 5 gallon buckets. It works, but less well than a Cantopper. A larger Trommell could work better, I suppose.
Hand Sifters - From Left to Right, an old fridge basket serves for rough break up. The green box sifter is Lee Valley, 1/4 inch and pretty cheap. The round plastic sifter has a couple of sizes, but only screens so-so. The round metal sifter, painted green, was made by a friend for me. It wedges into a 22 inch high Rubbermaid trash can. It is too heavy and too hard to remove from the can for dumping rejects, but at 3/8 inch works well for shredding leaves. It takes a while to fill a trash can full of 3/8 inch leaf bits!
Pallet Palace - When this 2 x 2 and 1 x 6 compost bin is lashed together, it makes a tight 4 foot x 4 foot x 4 foot box. Here you see it opened for harvesing.
Aeration Tube - Pallet Palace with aeration tube. Look carefully and you can see holes from rebarring, to aerate.
Solar (Green) Cone in Pallet Palace. No risk we will run out of composting space! Will receive a lot of citrus, while indoor worm bins get the rest of the leftovers, scraps and other wastes.
Pallet Palace with a Roof - The roof is recycled from a rabbit cage, and was free for the hauling. Other bins will get a compost fleece or geotextile cover, once the leaves are all in and shredded onto them.

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