Need some advice on a Diy rock crusher

[russau]

I agree 100% with GG on the breakin and maint of this engine. I have one of their 3 HP engines with a T80 attached to it for a portable hooka .

 

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[Mad Machinist]

Thats a good little engine, same one I used on my crusher. Just follow the owners manual for proper break in and it will serve you well... It may vibrate a bit at first during break in but that will soon smooth out with a little run time.

GG~

Those little Predator engines are surprisingly solid, especially coming from Harbor Freight. Rumor has it they copied the design of the Honda GX series. I've never had one apart to see if this is true, but if it is, they will be easily repairable.

 

[SaltwaterServr]

Those little Predator engines are surprisingly solid, especially coming from Harbor Freight. Rumor has it they copied the design of the Honda GX series. I've never had one apart to see if this is true, but if it is, they will be easily repairable.

Heck, for the price just toss it out and get a new one.

 

[Mad Machinist]

Heck, for the price just toss it out and get a new one.

Yea, on the little ones anyhow. But I like having too much power so it gets a little more expensive.

 

[FFFPatriot]

Howdy folks. I've been lurking around this site for years and joined up a few days ago. I came up with an idea to crush rock that I'm getting ready to put together. I've got a 60 lb. electric jack hammer that I just picked up, a 16"x 16" steel plate that's 1-1/4" thick that will have a 6" diameter square steel tube that will have a bottom plate welded to it that's a foot in length that is gonna sit on the plate that will be held in place by 4 pieces of angle iron welded to the plate. I have a 2" thick chunk of square steel that fits into the square tube that I'm gonna have a center hole punched through to be welded to a shaft that attaches to the jack hammer. I'm hoping the gold rich chunks of material from a couple areas that I prospect will be pulverized into a powder pretty quick with some Jack-Fu.
I've looked all over, and haven't seen anyone try this. Have anybody else seen or heard of this idea? Didn't mean to hi-jack this thread. Just wanted to share and wonder, since I happened across this "crusher" thread. I'll post up some pictures and/or a video in the next couple weeks when I put it together.

 

[SaltwaterServr]

Howdy folks. I've been lurking around this site for years and joined up a few days ago. I came up with an idea to crush rock that I'm getting ready to put together. I've got a 60 lb. electric jack hammer that I just picked up, a 16"x 16" steel plate that's 1-1/4" thick that will have a 6" diameter square steel tube that will have a bottom plate welded to it that's a foot in length that is gonna sit on the plate that will be held in place by 4 pieces of angle iron welded to the plate. I have a 2" thick chunk of square steel that fits into the square tube that I'm gonna have a center hole punched through to be welded to a shaft that attaches to the jack hammer. I'm hoping the gold rich chunks of material from a couple areas that I prospect will be pulverized into a powder pretty quick with some Jack-Fu.
I've looked all over, and haven't seen anyone try this. Have anybody else seen or heard of this idea? Didn't mean to hi-jack this thread. Just wanted to share and wonder, since I happened across this "crusher" thread. I'll post up some pictures and/or a video in the next couple weeks when I put it together.

Same principle:

Pneumatic Rock Crusher and Mortar [HPP0002] - $149.00 : High Plains Prospectors Metal Detecting and Gold Prospecting Relic Treasure Hunting

In a nutshell you're using the jackhammer pulverizer to act as your first stage crushing, but you'll still need to take the resulting pieces smaller to a uniform size for accurate sampling.

One part of lode mining that I didn't really have a handle at first was understanding liberation size. Not that I didn't have a handle on it, I didn't know the importance is a better way of saying it. If you only get good recovery of gold from your ore at 60 mesh minus, and your crushing circuit only gets you 35% of 60 mesh minus, you're not getting any kind of decent recovery because you're not getting a uniform product to separate and/or leach.

By the same token, if your ore recovery starts to drop off at 200 mesh minus and you're getting 25% of your ore crushed coming in at 200 minus, then you're losing both gold and wasting energy/wear/tear on your equipment.

It could work at breaking down your run-of-mine ore to a suitable size for secondary crushing and grinding, but that's about it.

 

[FFFPatriot]

Thanks SaltwaterServr. What I failed to mention is, the area that I'm getting the material from that I plan on crushing is hard (caligi?) clay that has nice pickers encapsulated within it. The area is loaded with it (high desert in Southwestern Montana). It's soft enough to be easily pulverized with medium hammer blows to break it apart. I figure this set up with my jack hammer should powderize a few chunks in a few seconds. I plan on dumping the tube once it has a few inches of pulverized material into buckets, then run it into the modified mortar mixer that will pump clean water in the top and drain through a raised pipe tube higher up through the back to clean the material (homemade clay-b-gone formula) and break everything apart. I figured this method probably wouldn't work too good on hard granite or quartz. But there is another gold rich area here that I mine that is prevalent with lots of decomposed granite ( that I've also found some decent gold in) that should easily pulverize into chunky powder with my rig (I'm thinking).

 

[SaltwaterServr]

Thanks SaltwaterServr. What I failed to mention is, the area that I'm getting the material from that I plan on crushing is hard (caligi?) clay that has nice pickers encapsulated within it. The area is loaded with it (high desert in Southwestern Montana). It's soft enough to be easily pulverized with medium hammer blows to break it apart. I figure this set up with my jack hammer should powderize a few chunks in a few seconds. I plan on dumping the tube once it has a few inches of pulverized material into buckets, then run it into the modified mortar mixer that will pump clean water in the top and drain through a raised pipe tube higher up through the back to clean the material (homemade clay-b-gone formula) and break everything apart. I figured this method probably wouldn't work too good on hard granite or quartz. But there is another gold rich area here that I mine that is prevalent with lots of decomposed granite ( that I've also found some decent gold in) that should easily pulverize into chunky powder with my rig (I'm thinking).

If you're breaking up caliche, then yeah I think you're on the right track.

 

[Grumpie]

So I was able to acquire 8- 6×6×3/8" steel plates for the drum. Obviously it'll b an octagon shape and with 6" square plates the demisions will be 6× 14.5. what do you all think about the size? Will it be correct for the 6.5 HP engine

 

[Goodyguy]

View attachment 1421173
So I was able to acquire 8- 6×6×3/8" steel plates for the drum. Obviously it'll b an octagon shape and with 6" square plates the demisions will be 6× 14.5. what do you all think about the size? Will it be correct for the 6.5 HP engine

1/4" steel is plenty thick. Not saying 3/8" wont work but sure will be dang heavy. Also 4" wide is plenty for the 6.5 hp engine. 6" wide will require a total of 6 chains (3 on each side of the shaft) instead of 2 on each side of the shaft for the motor to rotate. Not sure that the 6.5 hp would be up to it. Better to have an 8hp or 10hp.

GG~

 

[Grumpie]

OK sounds good

 

[Mad Machinist]

1/4" steel is plenty thick. Not saying 3/8" wont work but sure will be dang heavy. Also 4" wide is plenty for the 6.5 hp engine. 6" wide will require a total of 6 chains (3 on each side of the shaft) instead of 2 on each side of the shaft for the motor to rotate. Not sure that the 6.5 hp would be up to it. Better to have an 8hp or 10hp.

GG~

6.5 hp would be pretty close to maxed out there. Even a 4" wide impact mill will do a pretty stood job of crushing rock.

With the 3/8" thick plate, make a pass with the welder and move onto the next joint. Once you complete a "round" let the metal cool of enough to touch it with your bare hand. Then make another round. This will top the metal from getting too hot and crystalizing.

Its a pain welding thicker metal but in your case that mill will last a long time.

 

[Grumpie]

6.5 hp would be pretty close to maxed out there. Even a 4" wide impact mill will do a pretty stood job of crushing rock.

With the 3/8" thick plate, make a pass with the welder and move onto the next joint. Once you complete a "round" let the metal cool of enough to touch it with your bare hand. Then make another round. This will top the metal from getting too hot and crystalizing.

Its a pain welding thicker metal but in your case that mill will last a long time.

OK sounds good, I'll start posting pics as soon as I get started. First thing I'm gonna do is make a template out of wood for the drum pieces, so everything stays square while welding. The sections won't be put together in any particular order just as I acquire them. I'm a driver for an iron workers company so this project will be done inexpensively. The pieces are put together with scrap material laying around the job sites.

 

[bc5391]

mine is made from a 12 inch pipe 3/8 thick with the same motor you bought. I'm a little slower than Jair (probably older) but can turn a 5 gallon bucket with 3 inch ore into a powder in a short time.