Blue Bowl Magic?

[Lookin4goaled]

No, I don't mean the Lake Tahoe looking water that you sometimes see in your toilet letting you know that you have a fresh batch of toilet water to soil. Just got my blue bowl in the mail today, putting some saved up material in it to gauge flow/classification size. Its fairly methodical just watching the thing go. If anyone has any experience/tips I'm all ears. Already checked out the youtube vids etc. Just wondering how it has worked for others...

 

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[B H Prospector]

Hi Lookin and welcome to the Net.I have been using the blue bowl for years now and love it. The first thing you want to make sure is while at the creek be sure to wash as much of the clay nout of your cons before you leave. It makes the rest of the procedure much easier.
This is what I do, and I do this right away when I get home. I will spread my cons out on some flat tray like a large cookie sheet, you may need to sneak it out of the kitchen, and let them dry a day or two. Then I run a magnet through it several times to get as much of the magnetite I can out. I then store all the cons in buckets until I have about 5 gallons.
I then will classify the cons starting with 1/4", 1/8",-20.-30,-50, and finally -100 mesh. These are all stacked on a 5 gal. bucket with the progression stated above -100 on the bottom. put cons in the top classifier 1/4" and using a garden hose wash the material through removing each classifier as it is washed putting the contents of each into a separate bucket marked with what the classification is it contains.
Pan the cons that are 1/4 and 1/8. If you don't have a miro sluice the also pan the -20.
Now I am ready to blue bowl the rest. I use clay gone mixed in the water to help with the clay that maybe still in the materisl. On the inside of the blue bowl, with aperminant marker, 1/4" down mark a line and lable it -50, then another 1/4" another line ,arked -100. These are the levels you will want the water at when doing those mesh sizes. -30 is run at the very top.
Run the material wet. the -30 can be fed one cup at a time. I use an old flour scoup which holds about a cup. the other sizes feed a table spoon at a time. You can continuously feed the material with out shutting off the water. Just let it clear out before adding. Do only one size at a time and clean out after each size. Once I finish each size I will shut off the water, take a turkey baster and blow all the material left in the bowl to the outside edge and restart the water. It will pull the lighter black sand out of the bowl leaving the gold on the outside. Use a snuffer bottle to remove the gold. Then put your clean gold into a vial.
This is the method I devised and it work very well for me. Hope this helps.

Good Luck!

BH Prospector

 

[kazcoro]

Then I run a magnet through it several times to get as much of the magnetite I can out.

First off, that is some really good info. I am not trying to nitpick you at all. I am curious about this part. Don't you lose gold with the magnetite? Do you pan that out seperately? I haven't used a magnet at all, but it seems that it would pull gold out as well.

 

[fowledup]

Go to the Prospectors Channel on the web, look for a video with Rob Goreham (49 Miner Supply). It is an excellent video on classifying and running a blue bowl. It will give you a visual of exactly what BH is telling you. Enjoy.

 

[AzViper]

No, I don't mean the Lake Tahoe looking water that you sometimes see in your toilet letting you know that you have a fresh batch of toilet water to soil. Just got my blue bowl in the mail today, putting some saved up material in it to gauge flow/classification size. Its fairly methodical just watching the thing go. If anyone has any experience/tips I'm all ears. Already checked out the youtube vids etc. Just wondering how it has worked for others...

BHP Gave you some great info. on the how to get your con ready. Now if you click on my link in my signature you can see my setup.

 

[kazcoro]

Wow Keith. I didn't know you had any videos. You have a new subscriber. Your meticuliousness is kinda scary. I don't know how you find time to mine with all the fabbing you are doing.

 

[Lookin4goaled]

Hi Lookin and welcome to the Net.I have been using the blue bowl for years now and love it. The first thing you want to make sure is while at the creek be sure to wash as much of the clay nout of your cons before you leave. It makes the rest of the procedure much easier.
This is what I do, and I do this right away when I get home. I will spread my cons out on some flat tray like a large cookie sheet, you may need to sneak it out of the kitchen, and let them dry a day or two. Then I run a magnet through it several times to get as much of the magnetite I can out. I then store all the cons in buckets until I have about 5 gallons.
I then will classify the cons starting with 1/4", 1/8",-20.-30,-50, and finally -100 mesh. These are all stacked on a 5 gal. bucket with the progression stated above -100 on the bottom. put cons in the top classifier 1/4" and using a garden hose wash the material through removing each classifier as it is washed putting the contents of each into a separate bucket marked with what the classification is it contains.
Pan the cons that are 1/4 and 1/8. If you don't have a miro sluice the also pan the -20.
Now I am ready to blue bowl the rest. I use clay gone mixed in the water to help with the clay that maybe still in the materisl. On the inside of the blue bowl, with aperminant marker, 1/4" down mark a line and lable it -50, then another 1/4" another line ,arked -100. These are the levels you will want the water at when doing those mesh sizes. -30 is run at the very top.
Run the material wet. the -30 can be fed one cup at a time. I use an old flour scoup which holds about a cup. the other sizes feed a table spoon at a time. You can continuously feed the material with out shutting off the water. Just let it clear out before adding. Do only one size at a time and clean out after each size. Once I finish each size I will shut off the water, take a turkey baster and blow all the material left in the bowl to the outside edge and restart the water. It will pull the lighter black sand out of the bowl leaving the gold on the outside. Use a snuffer bottle to remove the gold. Then put your clean gold into a vial.
This is the method I devised and it work very well for me. Hope this helps.

Good Luck!

BH Prospector

That Absolutely helps!! I really appreciate all the info. My first go around was ok, but I think I was a bit scared of the gold getting sucked up into the vortex and didn't quite let it go as long as I should have. I had the flow way too low to start, so that made it take much longer than I think its supposed too. I also didn't spread the material back out to run again. That, combined with the fact that I was too scared to get gold sucked up, led to a small amount of black sand in my snuffer (its ok though, I'll rerun the material tomorrow to clean it up).

But, with all that being said, I really like the whole process... its really relaxing to lean back in a chair, crack a cold one, and wait for gold to show up. Cant wait to dial it in!!

 

[specksandflecks]

Blue Bowl works well for the price. Like you said they are slow. The only thing I can think to add is consider some means of secondary concentration prior to running the blue bowl. Basically what BH said when he referred to a micro sluice for the -20. You could make another cut at -50 and run that separate in the concentrator sluice, depending on your gold size.

Concentrating your concentrates is an added step true, but if you have any significant amount to deal with it will make much less work for the blue bowl and is worth while IMO.

 

[B H Prospector]

First off, that is some really good info. I am not trying to nitpick you at all. I am curious about this part. Don't you lose gold with the magnetite? Do you pan that out seperately? I haven't used a magnet at all, but it seems that it would pull gold out as well.

Sorry Kazcoro I should have specified only use a magnet on dry material. You are right you could pull gold out with it if it is wet.

 

[B H Prospector]

Wow Keith. I didn't know you had any videos. You have a new subscriber. Your meticuliousness is kinda scary. I don't know how you find time to mine with all the fabbing you are doing.

Ain't Kieth's stuff just crazy. Man when it comes to building mining gear and ingenuity he is my hero!

 

[AzViper]

Wow Keith. I didn't know you had any videos. You have a new subscriber. Your meticuliousness is kinda scary. I don't know how you find time to mine with all the fabbing you are doing.

I am sideline from mining right now with my shoulder. I have decided that its best I stay out of the field until I feel comfortable. I slipped dragging a wagon uphill with my good arm the last time out and made the mistake of catching myself with both arms when I fell face first. It was not a good experience to say the least. I am ok but!!!

If my builds helps someone spring an idea or they build from my ideas is great. Like the miller table I am build right now, do I need it? not really but it will find a home. I am a perfectionist and hate going out in the field with equipment that's not up to par. My mining buddy is just the opposite and is always messing with his equipment while in the field, drives me nuts. I have tried to show him what's best but have given up, at the end of the day he has spent so much money on junk and had he just listen to me and bought the material I would have help him build some assume equipment, but you can't teach that old dog any new tricks.

 

[AzViper]

Ain't Kieth's stuff just crazy. Man when it comes to building mining gear and ingenuity he is my hero!

LOL... Jim thanks for the kind words but I do not think of myself this way. I just like to help others and build quality equipment that works and most importantly will last. Once in a while I have a brain fart and come up with good ideas, but still learning from good people of this forum such as yourself. It was you that got me interested in the bowl and I kinda took it to the extreme with that build. One of these days I am going to pull everything out set it all up in my drive way get on the roof and take a photo, wait then my wife will see everything I have got and divorce me.

 

[B H Prospector]

That is why you are my hero Kieth, you are also humble. You remind me of another great member here Terry C. I'm glad I was able to inspire you and yes you did take it to th extreme. Word of caution never let the wife see all your toys in one place, BIG TROUBLE! LOL