Have been working on this project for close to three weeks now. One of my claims has a lot of old dredge tailing's and I am going to use this for doing my testing.
Jog, must say that looks great to me.
I see some sprocket teeth on the drum, can you tell me how you went about doing that. I know it isn't complete what have you picked for drive motor and pump/motor?
Are you going to run an under/over sluice for further clssification?
That is terrific build. Really like that hopper.
I enjoy building stuff, too, and have fabricated and built alot of my own dredging related equipment. I'm a DIY'r all the way
Might need to go and make something like this till I can dredge again in Cal or should I say IF. A BIG IF.
Maybe something a little more on the larger side for production yardage.
OK... What I did for the drive gear was found a sprocket big enough that I could cut the center out to fit the screen, then bolted it on to some brackets that are welded to the screen.
I have a Honda 5.5 with a two to one gear reduction unit. Picked it up for a $100.00. So far I have less than $300.00 into the whole project. Am looking at getting a 2" to 3" trash pump for pumping my water.
I am trying to make this unit a lot lower than most others for easy shoveling. I am going to run a sluice so that I will be able to put it on either side. My tailing's will drop out into a wheelbarrow so I can dump them and go over them with my MD, at a later date.
That is sweet indeed man! I sometimes daydream of making something like that with the sluices, evrything set up and running and find the paystreak!
Good job on the ingunity!
I forgot to show the pic of the fold up hopper. This will make it shorter for transporting and let me get to the engine which will be mounted under it.
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Re: My trommel build
Harbor Freight sells 2 1/2" water pump with a 6.5 HP motor. The motor is a Chinese Honda clone. I have had one for several years and it still starts first pull. When my hookah flipped over in saltwater (my fault) I replaced the 5 HP Honda with one of Harbor Frieghts 6.5 Hp also and itstarts first pull every time. Plus the tank holds twice as much gas, for about 6 hours of run time, instead of 3 before (never more than 3/4 full for no spillage.) I think the pump sells for $165 and sometimes is on sale for much less. Plus they have coupons for a 1 time 10% off anything.
The problem with the chinese clone motors is that they have no quality control. You could get one that runs better than a real Honda or you could get one that is full of problems and completely dies within a year.
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Re: My trommel build
Hey Jog...
Great job in building your trommel... looks good...and I hope you find lots and lots of gold....
Just a note from experience.... while there is some gold to be found in old dredge tailing's... look for the tailing's that have a lot of sand within them...most tailing's are mostly made of rock... and little sand mixed in....and you are looking for sand mixed with dirt.. not just sand... when you find, sand, dirt and rocks in a dredge tailing, you are a spot where the dredge operator over loaded the dredge and some gold was thrown out with the tailing's.....
The other things to consider, many old dredge's didn't do a good job in collecting larger nuggets...and usually an old dredge had some sort of separating system..often a trommel, not much different that your scaled down one... but the important thing is most of these older dredges used a 2 inch screen in the trommel..and often nuggets larger than 2 inches were sent out with the tailing's as well....
East of Sacramento, CA is a rather large tailing field from some dredges that stopped working there in the early 1950's... I actually held a 1 pound nugget, mixed with quarts that was thrown over board with the tailing's...and many 1 to 4 ounce nuggets have been detected there.. just be careful... lots of angry private property owners...
Also some folks detected after hours in new housing projects around these tailing's piles that were leveled to accommodate the building of small subdivisions of homes.. during the digging of the house foundations and footings, in the ditch spoils, folks have detected some nice nuggets in that area east of Sacramento...
The size of your screen in your trommel. while most likely being correct, may present a similar problem as did the original dredges of long ago...so watch what is coming off the spoils of your trommel... you may be surprised...
Klondikeike...
Thanks for the the good info. My tailing's coming off the end of the trommel will be going directly into a wheelbarrow so I can inspect them, then I will dump them out and hit each load with my MD. I have seen pics of the houses built on the tailing's in Cal, If I lived there my yard would have a pond with a dredge in it.
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