Automatic gold panning-help

[Ams721]

So as I was looking over YouTube for a faster way I came across what a lot of people call the blue bowl. Basically a cake pan with a funnel like shape and water shooting out of the side. Spirals the dirt around and eventually the vortex from the cake pans funnel sucks everything but the gold.

So I decided to make one. It definitely clums the dirt to the center in seconds and it does indeed lift some of the material away but it does not do what the video is show. Anyone ever make one? Thoughts of the machine if so?

 

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[kcm]

Like most machines, this process has its limitations. Can you post some pics of your machine, preferably while in operation? That way we can see what's happening.

 

[nh.nugget]

If you go down to the gold panning forum. there is a thread on a DIY blue bowl check that it might help. I just made one and it works great. the amount of water has a big influence on how well they work.

 

[Ams721]

@nh nugget. The cone of my pan is not completely level thus the vortex is only working at about half capacity. If I made the cone more level and the vortex went at full capacity would this increase results?

 

[ChampFerguson/TN]

If you want to experiment, theres one on youtube called an 'underflow sluice' that absolutely fascinates me. I think the guy sells them commercially too.

 

[nh.nugget]

Yes the bowl has to be level. and you want the water level to be about 1/4'' above the top of the cone I put a valve on mine to help regulate the flow. I made mine out of an oil change pan and a funnel. Also it helps if you classify your material down when its all the same size it separates more easily.

 

[Gazaman]

Absolutely agree with nh.nugget's observation with the level and water flow rate.

Its easy to fabricate with the automation. I used a commercial blue bowl, added a valve to control the flow, a rheostat to control the flow rate, a small submersible pump (from marine supply) and a deep cycle battery and a cheap car battery charger (as a UPS and for field use).

Along with Walker tables, its great for cleaning up cons with a lot of metals. Dump a decent sized cup of the panned out pay dirt into the bowl and let it run overnight. When set up right, you will have nothing but color left in the morning.

A closed system will let you re-run your cons again after you use a strong rare earth magnet to remove the hematite and other iron oxides, and pan out the cons once again before you recycle for spillovers and the super fine flour gold. Remember that the finer gold particles require a lower flow rate to maintain the vortex.

 

[Alex Burke]

Good advice all around I just wanted to say the blue bowl is mostly a clean up tool so depending on what part of the process you want to cut time out of it could be very helpful.

The best substitute for a pan is a sluice to help you process a lot more yardage a day. If you don't process yards per day it doesn't matter what cleanup devices you use you will have very little gold. So it is more about how can you wash several yards a day, take home the concentrated black sand and extract the gold out. Maybe with a blue bowl, spiral wheel or Miller table.

 

[nh.nugget]

I've been re-running my cons that I already ran through my clean-up sluice. I classified them down to 100 mesh +/- so far I'm amazed at the amount of flour gold I've retrieved so far second time around out of 1-5 gal. bucket.

 

[kcm]

Yep. You HAVE to classify! If you have a grain of sand alongside a speck of gold and the sand is 5x larger, then the sand can easily displace the gold - not by size, but by weight. And gold gets a LOT smaller than sand!!