UPDATE: Added a fused model to print the whole sifter in one go.

UPDATE: I had an error in the place of the bolt holes in the bucket, which I thought I fixed, and found out now that I didn't. It is fixed now and the bad model was replaced and removed. Sorry for anyone who may have printed it. Hopefully no one.

This is a cat litter scooper/sifter designed to drop used woodchip litter and keep fresh woodchip rolls.

As a long time clumping cat litter user, I was used to collecting large clumps and dropping the small parts of fresh litter (with quite a lot of used, smelly litter dust). Eventually I tried woodchip litter, but there were no clumps to collect and I ended up with a lot of used tiny woodchips and a lot of stench. Then my sister told me I was doing it wrong, and that with woodchip litter it works the opposite way: you scoop a bunch, then you sift the fresh rolls from the used chips by shaking the scooper over a trash-can, not over the litterbox. That changed my life.

The problem is most litter scoopers are too small for this task and it takes a very long time, so I designed this scooper with a large volume to enable fast sifting of the entire litterbox.

Usage instructions (for the assembled scooper):

1. Grab a trash-can and a chair, put them next to the litterbox (chair is optional of course).
2. Sink the scooper into the litterbox and scoop some of the mixed material.
3. Above the trash-can, shake the scooper (there are slits only at the bottom so that used chips don't fly everywhere).
4. When no used chips are left, throw the fresh rolls back into the litterbox.
5. Repeat while there is still too much used woodchips in the litterbox (I usually stop when there is a negligible amount on the bottom that's not worth the extra work). When you scoop, go for where you see used woodchips. If you can't find any, your golden.

Print:

ATTENTION: While printing the handle, pause at the top of the nut holes to insert the nuts. Here are detailed instructions on how to print captive nuts.

The handle is a remix of the Ergonomic Handle by Anachronist. His OpenSCAD script is on the original thing (on Thingiverse). I used that script to model a personal handle for my specific measurements and I encourage the user to do the same. It is very easy. In fact, the handle stl here is made for my hand. You really should make a new one for yours.

If you do make a handle, you get to choose the length of the bolts (I used 50 mm). The distance between the centers of the bolt holes should be 17.398 mm !!! (Look here, you need this info).
EDIT: The holes shouldn't be placed symmetrically around the center of the ellipse of the edge of the handle. rather, one should be offset by 7 mm from the fingers side of the handle, the other should be offset 17.398 mm from the first in towards the opposite side of the handle.

Material: I used ABS (for both the bucket and the handle). PETG may also work, don't know about PLA, I'm afraid cat urine may destroy it or something.

Orientation: For the bucket, slits lye horizontally on the bed. For the handle, bolt holes face the bed.

Other, unprinted parts: 2 M5 x 50 mm bolts and suitable nuts.

Make sure you get these captive nuts right. That's it, good luck.