Sacrificial gold vs. a dry washer

[arizau]

This last weekend I decided to set my drywasher up at the house and run some of my dried out tailings from many batches of panned concentrates and samples knowing full well that there were a few stray tiny colors in them...While panning I sometimes just sacrifice a few stray tiny colors to the gold gods in hopes they will reward me with their big brothers later down the line (better said that it's just not worth the effort at the time). So far the gods have not rewarded me. Anyway I ran about 10 or 15 gallons of tails and recovered 0.04 grams of mostly minus 80 mesh gold. In retrospect the take was not too much less than some of my outings and I didn't have to burn up 4 gallons of gas to get it. Gotta go....I have another 30 or 40 more gallons of tails to run.

PS Oh yes, the topic. Don't miss the fact that drywashers do catch flour gold even the second time around!

 

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[N-Lionberger]

I have ran tailings at home through my drywasher and picked up stray fines, I rarely get to use the thing in the field I dont get out to dry places as much as I would like, the wooden puffer is a fun machine to play with.

 

[Lost_Adams]

I used my mini hand puffer off Sam Raddings Plans on the South Umpqua last summer. It worked the fine gold just "FINE". I got 20 grains in 3-3gal buckets of 1/2" classified that took me 1 hr 15min to run. When I reran the tails later I recovered just 3-5 specs, so I was satisfied with the way it was working. I just need to find a richer spot!

Pictures of washer on this thread:
http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/d...e-riffle-dead-space-question.html#post6105865

 

[Lost_Adams]

The main problem I found with the small hopper on the hand Puffer is that when I pour the classified material in it has a tendency to Slug the Riffles at first. I am experimenting with a little Yellow Flexible Spout that stops 1/2" from the bottom of the riffle tray bottom there by Automatically Stopping the flow before it has a chance to overflow onto the 2nd riffle space. This is probably only a problem on the Small Mini Hand Puffer with only 4 riffles in it. I saw this on a Dry Washer pic, but can't remember where as that was 3 yrs ago when I was researching into making mine.

I'll try to make a graphic to illustrate the concept later. Right now I'm learning A Computer Graphics Program called Poser 7 I bought years ago for my Video Production Company. I'll be trying to use it to make animated video graphic movies of Dowsing Concepts and Illustrating the different positions of ALL the Rays that the old timers used to teach Dowsing in the 60's and 70's. I'm doing this so I can Visualize the Concepts of what they are talking about.

Automatic Self feeder for Dry-washer Header Box to Riffle-tray.

 

[Bodfish Mike]

Lost adams, here is a short video in it you can see how I control the feeder.
I Used a batten out of an old windsurfing sail. Real ease to use as it's right as waist level (no bending over).
Don't have a pic of the under side of the hopper , just attached to a 3"x8" piece of sheet metal -- but you get the idea.
Best Mike

 

[Lost_Adams]

Bodfish Mike, that's fabulous. What is the length of Dead Air Space in front of your riffles?

 

[Bodfish Mike]

Bodfish Mike, that's fabulous. What is the length of Dead Air Space in front of your riffles?

I used masking tape and I think about 1/2" inch. I'm not near it at the moment so I can't measure it for you.
Best Mike