Make a 30 Gallon Colander

Hi, everyone. My first Instructable - glad to finally be able to give back and share a project.

I have a ton of leftover landscaping rocks that were full of mud, leaves, etc. I tried a few methods to separate and clean the rocks but no go. After attempting my first colander which was a failure (I only did the first half of step 2), I came up with this project. Using a preexisting 30-gallon landscape bucket and scrap wood, the only thing I needed was some type of mesh strainer that would hold the weight of rocks/mud/water but still strain well. I found the perfect (cheap!) item - a pair of wire baskets from a Dollar store.

30-gallon landscape bucket

2 wire baskets purchased at Dollar store

wire cutters

twist ties

piece of cardboard min 20" square

drill with drill bit between 3/8" and 1/2"

impact driver

screws & washers

scrap wood

I measured the diameter about 3 inches up from the bottom of the bucket and got 20 inches. I drew a 20" circle on cardboard.

I then used a wire cutter to cut up the wire trash baskets. It worked out great in that there was a natural curve to it when flattened out. I used the cardboard circle as a guide and made 2 sets of cuts in each of the baskets to have the curve match the circle as close as possible. I used twist ties to hold it in place as I went.

[EDITOR'S NOTE: I bought 3 trash baskets and only ended up using two of them. In the future I may cut up the 3rd basket and staple it on top of the existing strainer.

I used a large drill bit (7/16" I think) and drilled a bunch of holes in the bottom. I thought this would work to start the project but the drainage was completely insufficient.

Next, I took a couple of pieces of scrap wood and affixed them to the bottom with small screws & washers to hold them in place. I only applied wood to 2/3rds of the bottom thinking I can tilt the colander to get more water flowing out.

I took an old pressure-treated 1x6 and ripped it. I then made cuts to make six pieces approx 10" by 2.75". I did a jigsaw puzzle-type thing to spread out the wood and then used 2" screws to make three 90-degree angled pairs as shown.

I started with the first photo and used trial and error to get as much coverage as I could. Once I got what looked good, I used twist ties to hold the wire in (basically) a 20" circle. The center had a small round gap as did one side. I used the two round bases of the trash baskets to fill in the holes. I especially liked how the center came out as it provided extra stability for the strainer.

I then used a staple gun with 1/2" staples and stapled the strainer to the wood. About 40 staples held all of it in place.

Well, this didn't work so great but I did get at least 80% of the mud out. The pebbles shown are actually leftover pulverized concrete which I removed from a bed where we want to plant flowers for the summer. At least I reduced the weight of the mud/rocks so the trash people will take it away.

Success! I had a bucket of rocks with a mix of rocks, dirt, leaves and even grass growing inside of it. Dumping it in and a jet of water from the garden hose did the trick.