Rube Goldburg Doodads

[Needle]

Rube Goldburg Doodads

Sometimes when a person has time on their hands and enjoys experimenting with different techniques of accumulating micron Gold from a hard rock, they will look at all the different things on the market to help in this endeavor, some work on certain ores and some do not.

Micron Gold is very small and minus micron even smaller and yet most of the Gold mines have this type of ore, it is not even visible to the naked eye, yet be a valuable mine - especially as the price of Gold keeps raising in value.

It takes several thousand individual pieces of this tiny micron Gold to even make a sheen in the bottom of a Gold pan.



I have been experimenting with different things to get a concentrate out of hard rock ore If you were to just set up a sluice box and run water over it then add the ground up ore, it will trap some of the micron Gold, but a great percentage of it will just go right over the end of the sluice and be back in your tailing pile.

So here it comes " The Rube Goldburg Doodad swing thinge " …

Without spending thousands of dollars I have simply taken a 36” X 10” sluice box and suspended it from a frame with four ratchet clamps attached to eyebolts.

Springs are attached at the top end bottom of the sluice, for back pressure.

Then I attached a reciprocating saw at the upper end of the sluice and using PVC pipe to create a tapping of the box when the saw is running (approximately 200 taps per minute.)



This bumping or tapping helps to drive those tiny particles of Gold down into the carpet of the sluice before they are carried over the end into the tailing pile.

The amount of water used is just enough to keep the ore in a state of fluidity (very small amount).



Once you capture a high-grade concentrate then you can use other methods to capture the fine Gold particles.

Here is a list of things that do not work on my particular ore concentrate…
1. A Gold Genie spiral wheel.
2. The Gold Exorcist

The Gold is too fine!

I purchased a Model M4 micron wave table and have ran this concentrate over the table. The Gold is so fine you can not see it when it is vacuumed off the table - but it is there.



This piece of equipment works!

 

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[Needle]

Needle,

Do you have any mercury?
you may be able to pull it out that way.

Just be sure not to breathe the fumes when you retort.
or squeeze the mercury off with a piece of wet chamois,then melt what's left into a button.
Just make sure you don't breathe the fumes.



Thom

I tried mercury in the Genie, but it turned into one big mess. That mercury will flour up and break into a million tiny beads. I have tined up a copper pan and tried that.
I know how to supercharge mercury with sodium hydroxide, I keep some mercury in a sniffer bottle and when I pan down any sample I always pick up the micron gold into the mercury with the bottle.

 

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[Eu_citzen]

EU, that miners moss I ordered finally arrived and I'll be trying that out for a test and I'll try that small screen in a test also.
That cold snap we had broke some of my waterlines and have been re-plumbing things around here.

Yes please do so and I'd like to hear how it did for you. I want to know if it works for both of us.

 

[Needle]

I've heard about that potato also, but have never tried it. I made a small simple retort from plans in a book, this is what I use.

Make sure the amalgam is completely dry when added to the retort and heated - it could explode the pipe bell. Know what your doing - Be SAFE

This is another process...
you can put the amalgam in a dish and add nitric acid, it will remove the mercury,then pour off the acid into another dish and add aluminum foil - the mercury will reappear. ( with this also, do not breath the fumes and do not get any of this acid solution with mercury on your skin - bad stuff.) :P
The Gold from the amalgam can be carefully rinsed and dried then place on a heating disk and a small amount of borax added, then heat to melt with a small propane torch. The small bead of gold can then be cleaned with a rag and a cleaner called Bar Keepers Friend. Keep rubbing on it until it shines.

 

[kuger]

I tried the potato and just ended up with a fried potato!!I use nitric acid as described above(if you can get it......be careful doing anything with heated mercury)

 

[warsawdaddy]

Speaking of wave tables,I understand this one works great and is very portable.Click on the RP4($1900)

http://www.globalminingsolutions.com/equipment.htm#

 

[Needle]

That is one nice looking piece of equipment - The RP4.

 

[bigfish31]

Here is a small comercial retort I've had for years. I'm waiting to get enough merc. to use it.

 

[Old Dog]

Bigfish,

That is one cool looking tool,
You haven't used it yet?

Let us know how it works when you do.


Thom

 

[Needle]

Nice looking commercial Retort, my little retort only produces about 4 pennyweights of gold.
I've read somewhere, you need to wrap the retort body with burlap and keep it wet with water to help the mercury precipitate.

 

[Old Dog]

Needle,

On your retort where your burlap is ....
Is where I was taught to put the tater or two of them on a little longer tube.

Doesn't cook the potatoe, and I sure wouldn't recomend eating it.. LOL.

Thom

 

[bigfish31]

Nice looking commercial Retort, my little retort only produces about 4 pennyweights of gold.
I've read somewhere, you need to wrap the retort body with burlap and keep it wet with water to help the mercury precipitate.

The cup-like container on top is filled with icewater and cools the vapor down to reform the merc. I am waiting to use it when I feel I have enough material. It shouldn't take long, the creek I work in is loaded with it. My last trip, all the gold I recoverd was in it.

 

[kuger]

I have access to a retort,I sold it to a friend after I used it the gold was melted together. I dont like that,I dont how you could control the heat.I use the nitric but dont like the bright color it turns the gold either but what do ya do??

 

[bigfish31]

I hate to melt it down, but I will when I have 1/2 oz or more of amalgam. I had a 1/3 oz. slug that disappeared some how

 

[Needle]

If I had gold, like beautiful placer Gold, I would hate to melt it down also, but the stuff I get is so small I don't have a choice.
Have you ever heard of making natural jewelery using placer Gold in a fish tank with periwinkles?
What I understand is, these little bugs will gather the flakes of Gold and make itself a little casing to hide in. These little cases are about 1 inch long and about 1/8" to 1/4" diameter, evidently they are popular as earrings.
I have seen lots of casings and the periwinkles in them. You hear fishermen say when fly fishing to " match the hatch " evidently these bugs hatch eventually.

 

[Old Dog]

your periwinkles sound like a cadis nymph.
They hatch out into a bug that lives about three days . long enough to mate and lay eggs.

When they lay eggs they fly along the surface of the water and the fish love them.
look in some of the upper crust type fishing catalogues, look for a "tent wing cadis fly".

it may be the bug you are talking about.

Thom

BTW... I flyfish too. LOL

 

[Needle]

Yes, you are correct this is the Caddisfly, I found my literature on them.
I strayed away from the topic by asking the question about them, but maybe not, this could be called Rube Goldburg Jewelery using placer Gold.
My book says North America has 17 genera and about 200 species of the Caddisflies, members of the order Trichoptera. They are related to the Moths.

 

[Needle]

EU, that miners moss I ordered finally arrived and I'll be trying that out for a test and I'll try that small screen in a test also.
That cold snap we had broke some of my waterlines and have been re-plumbing things around here.

Yes please do so and I'd like to hear how it did for you. I want to know if it works for both of us.

I made a test with the miners moss and that 1/4" screen - In the bottom of the sluice I placed the auto carpet then the 1/4" screen then the miners moss then the riffle with screen. I ran 1/2 bucket of material and tested it. Results -
it captured some micron gold.
Next I placed auto carpet then 1/4" screen then another auto carpet then the riffle screen, I ran the same material I ran on the first test to see if I had gotten all the gold the first time, Results... I captured very little micron gold, but there were some.
My Conclusion... either one of these carpet configurations in the sluice will get the micron Gold if present. Using the Rube Goldburg Doodad.
The damper was placed on the top of the sluice riffles.. ( the thin sheet of plastic that was suggested before ) I couldn"t tell if it helped or not, but I think it's better to have it than not to.

 

[Eu_citzen]

Needle sounds like it does work after all. at least you got some gold.
I wounder if you where pleased with the results??

I might add that the MM (miner's moss) has 2 sides right? try both sides up that will sometimes do a difference.

 

[Needle]

I only ran about a 1/2 bucket of material, with that amount, any color showing up is pleasing.
That miners moss is amazing stuff, I can see why Dredgers like it, it makes a perfect bed for their placer Gold to get trapped in.
I will try the bottom up on that MM and see how that works.
Up date-4-11-08 9:15 PM
I have tried all different configurations and have seen results that confirm that a single auto carpet under the riffles work the best for collecting micron Gold from ground up ORE. The addition of the plastic sheeting to drop the float Gold is a great idea and I use it. Thanks

 

[Needle]

Necessity, they say is the mother of invention.
Rube Goldberg must have been one of her kids.

Personally I think he is a freeking genius.

Good job Needle.
Keep us filled in on how well she works.

Thom

The M4 Table arrived and concentrates from the Rube Goldburg Doodad where ran over it, the Gold is so micron fine that you can not see anything when you vacuum the blacksand line on the M4 table while in production.

When you gently pan down the cons, then you can see that amazing fine Gold and collect it in mercury with a sniffer bottle.



This is very intensive with a lot of patience needed - but it works.