Drywasher vs recirculating rocker box

[John-K]

Curious if using a recirculating rocker box would provide better recovery, especially fine gold, compared to using a dry washer with a single run or even ran twice. Ideally i would probably just run a goldcube but can find diy instructions for rockers. :-)

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[B H Prospector]

Hi John,
It really depends on how much material you want to get proccessed in a day. While water is always prefered method of gold recovery, a rockerbox is a rather slow method but effective and quite efficient. Drywashing you can work more material even when running it twice, it's not as efficient but you don't need to haul water unless you plan to pan on site. It really depends on what you want to accomplish.

Good Luck!

BH Prospector

[John-K]

One of the things that concerned me is I have hearde that drywashers can have problems with fine/flour gold and that is the primary stuff this far down river. Wasn't sure if running it through twice really saves that much in regards to fines. Not carrying water is a huge plus but the keene puffer isnt the most packable anyway for upper terrace work. :-)

The rocker box may be a winter build project for fun.

[Terry Soloman]

Unless you are running VERY dry soil like we do in Arizona, the drywasher is probably not your tool of choice. A small Goldbuddy re-circulating sluice is better than an old-fashioned rocker box..

[John-K]

I am on the western side of Colorado. Lots of dry terrace type places. Similar to the Prescott/Kingman areas when I was last out there. I have a Keene puffer and hadn't factored in the amount of space it requires to transport to the site or terraces. :-)

[jcazgoldchaser]

eb-drywasher

[Hoser John]

Antique huffa puffers suck at gold finding. Constant flow offset elliptical drywashers get 10X the volume and recovery as in fact you have created a air style fluidized bed. Recirc is a pain in the butt as quickly becomes thick soup in your area. Plus hauling all that water,pumps,hoses etc etc. Go dry and you'll be a MUCH happier wealthier miner-John

[John-K]

Okay. What is an offset elliptical drywasher? I have looked at a little bit on drywashers and they only seem to really discuss puffer (manual and motor) and constant flow with a blowere of some type. I currently have a keene puffer with motor waiting to go out in the hills. I hadn't heard that there was a huge difference in the recovery. Other then moving more material.

[jcazgoldchaser]

Okay. What is an offset elliptical drywasher? I have looked at a little bit on drywashers and they only seem to really discuss puffer (manual and motor) and constant flow with a blowere of some type. I currently have a keene puffer with motor waiting to go out in the hills. I hadn't heard that there was a huge difference in the recovery. Other then moving more material.

Provides a steady airflow creating a continuous fluid bed above each riffle. There is an internal fan blade which has an offset weight to shake the sluice.

[mellowyellow]

Yup, agreed.. Buy a Keene 151 and beat the hell out of that thing. If you can move alot of material all day buy this.. If you are slower or older, buy a 140,, smaller an lighter. Both work very well when set up right. Good luck brotha

[Aurabbit79er]

Mellow is right I have a 20 year old 151 and I got it second hand and it works great.
I change the oil and spark plug every other year and it always starts in 2 or 3 pulls.
It was well made. I do do 2 runs of the same material if I got the gas.
I do a clean up between each run.
Last time up off the Cajon pass, off the 138.