Dizzys Diggin Thread - 2014

[DizzyDigger]

Hey DD. How's come you extended Phil's hole towards the river instead of running parallel?

I'd already worked the areas on both sides, so the only way I had to go
was towards the rivers edge. With the water dropping it gave me
several feet of material to work with. As for it being Phils hole or
my hole, no matter really, as Phil and I often dig from the same spots.
We're friends, and he suggested (before I left) that I work that area.
We sure don't get too worked up over $2.00 in gold..lol

Here's my take, and this was from 49 3gal. buckets of material. Nothing
to write home about, but looks like my usual 1/10th of a gram.

I may be slow, but I'm consistent.



I do love the ease of using the Bazooka, but got to be honest...when
using the Gold Cube I brought home a lot more small gold (<#60 mesh).
I've noticed that when I run Phil's cons for him there is a lot more of the
-30 to +60 material than there is -60 to 100 mesh sized, and it held true
with the material I ran in the Bazooka. This is the opposite of what comes
from the Gold Cube, as I'll have substantially more material in the -60 range.

Could have been the way I set it up, but I've seen Bazookas running enough
times to know how to operate it correctly. For whatever reason though, the
above is what I've experienced.

Working on a new classifier for the Gold Cube that will rest on top, and
feed the material directly onto the Gold Cube's slick plate. If it works
as planned, I'll be able to run material just as fast as the Bazooka, but
get the added benefit of the gold catching ability of the Gold Cube.

Some might not understand, but I try to stay out of the river whenever
possible. If I had a bad attack and fell on dry land, the worst I could do was
break a bone, but falling in the water I could easily drown when not knowing
which way is "UP". I can handle breaking a bone, but if I drowned my wife
would kick my ass..lol

Need to do a bit of engineerin' and fabricatin'..no doubt gonna take
a few days, but if it all works right I'll be one happy camper.

 

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[KevinInColorado]

Glad you are careful Dizz!

 

[425jesse]

Hey Dizz,

You ever find the mini classifiers you were looking for?



These 4" guys are pretty darn compact!

JB

 

[DizzyDigger]

Hey Dizz,
You ever find the mini classifiers you were looking for?

These 4" guys are pretty darn compact!JB

They look great..where did ya find 'em??

I have 2 good small ones in 30 and 60 mesh, but
need a 100 mesh.

 

[H&F909ORO]

Doesn't the bazooka gold trap site have them? Or are they too big?

 

[425jesse]

I got the bunch off of the BGT site. Has the 3 screens, a lid and a bottom. Haven't used them yet, as I just got them Monday, but I hope to out on the raging on Thursday after work.

 

[KevinInColorado]

I got the bunch off of the BGT site. Has the 3 screens, a lid and a bottom. Haven't used them yet, as I just got them Monday, but I hope to out on the raging on Thursday after work.

These look good, thanks for highlighting them, I just ordered the set of 3 myself. FYI the shipping showed on the order form as $14 but they actually fit in a smaller box so Chris at Bazooka credited me back $6! Gotta love how those guys at Bazooka treat us small scale miners right? Looking forward to using them for smaller batches of material when my full sized classifiers seems silly/large!

PS gotta point out that I placed the order first thing this morning and it was shipped by mid morning!! Can't always expect that but wow!

 

[425jesse]

Yeah, chris and Todd are awesome, they help us little guys out for sure. $6 can mean a lot some days.

 

[425jesse]

Used the mini classifiers after 4 hours on the raging. They work great, and it was a pretty good
Day on the raging river gold!



The -100s are great too, the photo is while they are running in the blue bowl, so they look like they are swimming around?

 

[goldenmojo]

You conquered the raging river and captured it's gold.

 

[DizzyDigger]

Nice job Jesse! I haven't been down to the Raging in many years;
are there spots where the access isn't too difficult? (or would ya
pick me up when I fall down? )

Would love to get together with ya soon, so drop me a note
and maybe we can try making some plans. I've still got some
good area there on Longhorn Bar, and would like to finish it
off so's I can get back to prospecting for a new spot..

BTW, it's a perfect Gold Cube area, and parking is within 10'
of where we're working. If you don't have 4x4, we can meet
up about 1/4 mile from the spot, and then transfer you and
your gear to my truck.

Been too frickin' sick to get out since my last trip (usual stuff),
but have been working on the attachment to make my Cube into
a Gold Banker. Think it'll work well, and plan to make another
one after I get a piece of that punch plate from Ducky.

A lot of days I wake up with gold diggin' on my mind, but then my
damn body speaks up and tells me different. Still, I
know it will pass in a couple days, and I'll be back washing rocks
once again.

Damn good thing I'm stubborn, cause first day I feel like it I'm
back on the bar again....

 

[DizzyDigger]

Built a top mounted classifier for my Gold Cube..

After seeing how fast you can run material through a Bazooka
I decided that a top mounted classifier for the Gold Cube was
an absolute "must have". The oversize tub classifier I made a couple
months back works fine, but it is still labor intensive, plus it takes
at least an hour of time to feed all the classified material through the Cube.

Had to build it with the materials I had on-hand, so I hunted through
my stock of assorted materials and came up with what was needed. Not
fancy, but definitely functional.

I have a couple of old steel framed shelves that are covered with an 18 gauge
galvanized steel sheet, with the steel riveted to a steel frame. Drilled out the
rivets, and had a nice piece of metal to start with. I first cut it to 32" long,
and then used a rather dull Sharpie to draw in the lines for the edges and the
area to be drilled out like punch plate.



Started with an 1/8" bit, and then moved up to 5/32 and 3/16 bits when I felt
the holes were just too small to allow water to flow through at a sufficient speed.

BTW, here are all of the tools I used, so ya don't have to own a shop
in order to build something like it. Construction is slower and it may not
be as nice looking as factory made, but it'll work just fine.



In order to get a nice bend in the steel, I first used the chisel to scribe a
line for the bend, then worked it with the hammers and mallet over the
sharp edge of the bench to get the 90º bend. A metal brake would be
much easier, but then it's kinda fun pounding on that steel and making
it into what you desire. (BTW, if you live in the city be sure to do this
at 0300..your neighbors will love ya...lol)

Before I bent the sides up I drilled all the holes. There's a mixture
of 1/8, 5/32 and 3/16 holes, and in one spot I got a bit greedy and
ended up breaking the barrier between 3 holes

,
but the water and material should flow through it well.



One of my biggest concerns was keeping the natural water flow of
the Gold Cube, and I didn't want the material and water dropping right
on to the slick plate. I wanted the water and material to flow from the
top of the slick plate, just as it would if the water was hooked right to
the Cube.

First I cut and shaped a piece of the galv. steel so it acted as a tray
underneath the holes, and then made a "U-turn" for it to flow into
so the water and material would make a smooth directional change.










(continued next post)

 

[DizzyDigger]

To firm up the sides and make the box easier to handle, I added
some 1x3 pieces to the sides. For the back legs, I took an old
aluminum crutch bought for $1 just for the rubber foot at the bottom
(for my walking stick), and drilled out the rivets separating it into
3 pieces. I used the long, side sections for the legs, and saved the
adjustable center leg for a future project.

Time for trials...

I put the Gold Cube together, and set it up in a tub for recirculating
at the front of my garage. The front edge of the top unit fits right up
against the top edge of the slickplate, and the back end sits on a piece
of 1x4 (or 2x4) and is additionally supported by the legs. The top unit
is secured using a bungee cord through the first tray and connecting to
eye bolts. It's a fairly solid mount, and I should be able to dump material
right onto the top tray for classifying.



Another view:



The next 2 images (below) show the U-turn area in better detail.





Now, what you don't see is a spray bar. I recall Mike Pung saying
the Cube needed every bit of that 1100 GPH, and that means the pressure
must be free-flowing and unobstructed. I'm also using a 6' or 8' hose, so
there's already less than 1100 GPH reaching the top unit. Haven't made the
mount for the hose (or tried it in the field yet), but from the test I ran
yesterday (when these pics were shot), there was sufficient water flow
for the Cube to run normally. I've used the same length hose feeding right
into the Cube, and have had no issues with performance whatsoever, and
I'll be getting a 2000 GPH pump as soon as I can afford one, so until then it's
just going to have to work.

I set it up for the trial as shown, but added a large tub sitting off the end
as I expected some water to flow off that didn't get through the punch
plate. With the battery set up on a table beside the Cube, I held the hose
right over the upper end of the top unit, and hooked it up.

Right off I could see that I needed a back end on the top tray, as small
amounts of water was able to flow off the back too easily (hence, the wet
ground). During the trial the holes were only drilled to 1/8 and 5/32, and
the punch plate surface was flat as the rest of the bottom, and that caused
some water to not drop through the punch plate, and flow off the end.

The U-turn piece worked as designed, and I was very pleased to see a
very even (side to side) flow. The slurry will flow smoothly from the tray
into the U-turn, and then down the entire length of the slick plate while
maintaining the natural flow of material the Cube was designed for.

No pics yet, but today I mounted a 1x4 back plate on the top end, and
drilled as many holes as possible out to 3/16. I also used a small hammer
and formed a 4" wide (lengthwise) dip across the section of punch plate, so
with the larger holes and the slightly uphill section as the material flows off the
punch plate, all of the water and -3/16 material should flow smoothly right
through the punch plate.



Attached a bungee cord on the back side of the Cube trays so they wouldn't
separate or tilt up from the pressure on the front side, and that really firmed
up the entire system. Next time I'll put that bungee on the side, as it interferes
with the 1x4 on top.

I do want to add here that Gold Cube makes an awesome High-Banker unit
that's tailor made to fit the Gold Cube. It's not overly expensive, but more than
I can afford, and as most of us have learned in life there's times you just have to
make do with what ya got. My goal was to reduce/remove any need for separate
classifying, and be able to run material at the same rate you can feed a Bazooka.
If it works as planned my back will thank me forever.

BTW, none of this would have been possible had I not had the help of
the best shop cat in the country..



With the mod's I made today the unit is now ready for field trials, and tomorrow
is supposed to be decent weather (ie: not raining). Haven't been out since the end
of last month, and it's high time to get some more gold in my poke! Plan to bring the
Nikon and attempt to make a video, but no promises. I made a living at still photography,
but honestly don't know squat about video.

The Longhorn Bar has a couple decent spots left to work, and the USGS site
says it's flowing at a nice level.

Wish me luck!

 

[425jesse]

Mike, the spots on the raging with the best access still hold a little gold, but miners that don't follow rules, don't fill holes and leave their garbage have really made a mess of it. The place on the raging I go is just down stream by less than a mile, it's been worked pretty hard, but still has some of that yellow stuff to offer.

I would rather break my back with you at the longhorn if I had the option.

I hope you are feeling better buddy.

JB

 

[DizzyDigger]

The best laid plans....

Yep...the most well planned efforts often don't turn out as predicted...

It's not all bad though..

Finished up the classifier sluice on Friday, but it was warm on
Saturday so I waited till the evening to head out to the bar. One
beauty of living so far north is the very long days this time of
year. No, it ain't like Alaska, but daylight comes at about 4:30,
and sunrise just after 5:00, and it won't be dark till after 10pm.

Few pics of the classifier sluice (or highbanker top....don't really
know what the hell to call it..)

First, the custom hose holder whose design required several
hours of serious consideration before production:


(very difficult item to manufacture; should be patented!)

Here it is complete with legs taken from the old crutch:



Got to the bar about 7pm, picked out a spot to dig a few buckets
and then set up the Gold Cube:



Went together quite easily, and I got to diggin' material to run. I've
worked the majority of the area, so there's only a couple 5x5 areas
left to dig.

Once I started feeding the unit I could see some issues that needed
to be overcome, but it did function as designed. Ended up running
16 buckets of material, and after cleaning it up at home this is what
I ended up with for about 2 hrs. work:

Click on the pics and you get a much sharper image.





Total take was nothing to shout about, but was very happy to see that
one large flake when I panned out the +30 material..

Monday, June 23..

Was supposed to be a warm day (for here), and with the idea of
getting in as much work time as possible before the heat got to me,
I left home at 5am, and got to the bar just as the Sun was peaking
over the North Cascades. This river runs in a deep valley, so I would
still have the early morning coolness for a couple hours.

The bar is so rocky that I start off by using a heavy rake to move
off as much of the top layer of rocks as possible, then break up the
rocks/gravel down to about 8" with a pick.



Dug the first 8 buckets, and proceeded to try out the "fix" I'd came
up with. I was wanting to have more control over how much material
got dumped into the tray at a time, so I dumped 3 of the buckets
into a 10 gal tub, and then the plan was to scoop the material from
there with a smaller container. Problem was the aggregate on this
bar is so rocky that "scooping" is difficult with the assorted sizes
of rocks.

Ended up dumping in about half a bucket at a time, and no doubt
lost gold bearing material due to the classifying issues. I needed
about 8" more of the punch plate holes.

After running those 8 buckets I took a coffee break, and caught the
morning sunlight on some hills above me:


(for those of you in flat country, those are hills, not mountains..)

By 11:30 I'd run 40 3gal. buckets of material through the Cube,
and was really hoping for a nice clean-up later on. There was a
real load of concentrates that came out of the Cube, most of
which was black sand. (more on this later)

Here is the "after" pic of the area;:


(The Gold Cube is actually level, The angle of the shot makes it look off)

Rocks, with a bit of gravel in between;



When I got home and started running the cons, the massive amount
of black sand got me to thinking about why there was so much. Easy
answer, really....this spot was directly downstream of where I'd run
the Cube the previous 9 trips. All the black sand that the Cube tossed
before was run through it again.

It gets worse. I'm compelled to add this to the "Dumbest things
you did prospecting" thread. I knew there was a rounded area nearby that
I'd previously worked, and then refilled with the tailings.

Ever have one of those days where you feel like you are the very
kind of person this kid is talking about?

There had been a couple of high water level events since early May, so I went
back and looked at some pics of previous trips. Yep, I'm guilty of "double-digging".

Did get a bit of color in all those cons:





All in all it was a gorgeous morning, and I've set about fixing the issues
with the classifier...in fact, that prototype is retiring and I'm starting
over with a piece of Ducky's punch plate material.

Keep on Diggin!

 

[425jesse]

I love waking up and seeing a new segment from dizz, great way to start the day!

JB

 

[DizzyDigger]

Classifier Issue...SOLVED

Thanks to Ducky, I believe I've [finally] found a decent solution
to my classifying problem. (Now, we're not talking about "class"
here, as I have no problem at all with it, and in fact have some..
...it's mostly 3rd Class...but at least it's class!)

Classifying is not only a time taker, but it wears out my carcass
with all the shaking and dumping, etc. Initially, I built an oversized
classifier out of a 38 gal. tub, and it worked quite well, however
there's still required bending over and shaking a 10 gal tub full
of aggregate, then dumping the dreck and refilling.

Great for a young, healthy fellow with a strong back. I don't know
anybody like that, and my grandsons aren't old enough yet
to come out and work with Papa. I considered hiring this fellow
to do the hard work 'cause he's strong as an ox, but not too
bright ....

After seeing how fast the Bazooka could eat material, I decided to
build the highbanker type top for the Gold Cube. It worked, but
poorly. I would dump in half a bucket at a time, meaning I've got
to set the bucket down, and then bend and pick it up again. No
problem to do a few buckets, but when you're goal is to move as
much material as possible a few buckets won't cut it...try more
like 40-60 buckets. It also messed with the water flow into the
Cube, and the Cube isn't too tolerant of running on low water flow.

So now what...

Ducky was kind enough to ship me a couple pieces of the server
door punch plate, and the initial plan was to incorporate a piece
of it into the highbanker unit. Chewed on the issue for a bit, and
while looking over the punch plate pieces I realized they could easily
be connected along an overlapping edge.

Messed around with it a bit more, and found that the two pieces
would fully cover the top of a 38 gal. tub. I've got a pump and hose,
so all I'd need is a spray nozzle on the end for washing the material.

So, I set about making it a reality..



Measures out at 33" long and 23" wide, so there's a massive punch plate
area for washing material.

First I had to hacksaw off about 2" from one of the panels so they'd be
the same length, then I connected the two by drilling 3/16 holes through
the overlapping edges, and then bolting the two. Also made 2 brackets out
of sheet metal, and connected them for added support down the middle where
the joint is. Now it fits the top of that tub as if tailor-made for it.





In order for it to be truly efficient I'd need to add either a spray nozzle on
a hose or a spray bar. I decided to make my own spray nozzle, as that way
material can be washed much more efficiently, and faster than if I had to push
it all under a spray bar. By dumping a 3 gal. bucket of mixed aggregate into the
center of that large space, all I have to do is spread it out, wash it down
and push it off the end. Repeat.

I truly enjoy sitting by the river and feeding material to the Gold Cube,
and the "highbanker" type of a setup will keep one guy working non-stop,
either digging or feeding the machine. Classifying is a time and energy
drainer, but it's a critical step in working most any placer gold deposit.
With such small gold you really need to wash the material well, and I've
tried several methods...this should be the least labor intensive, but also
the fastest and easiest way there is to classify a volume of material next
to running a bunch of gas burning equipment.

Spread it out, wash the small stuff through the punch plate and slide
the rest off the end.

My pump puts out 1100 GPH (at the pump) and I use 8' of 1-1/8" ribbed
plastic hose from the pump to the cube, so I wanted a nozzle that would
be very efficient, but also easily installed/removed from the 1-1/8" hose.
It also had to create enough pressure on the line to get a heavy spray,
while not creating too much back pressure which might damage the pump.

Dug out my big bag of assorted PVC fittings and short pieces of various
sized PVC pipe, and started fiddling around looking for a solution. Turns
out the 1-1/8" flex hose end will fit quite snugly into the end of 1-1/4"
PVC pipe, so now all I had to do was make an end cap into a spray nozzle.
Drilled a bunch of 1/8" holes in the end cap, and glued it on to a 6" piece
of pipe, plugged the hose into the other end and I had a very efficient sprayer.
Great water flow with plenty of smooth pressure to wash the sand/mud off of
any pile of rocks, but not so much it blasts the loose material off the punch-table.







Tested it out by dumping a full 3gal. bucket of mixed bank material over the
surface, and it took no more than 30 seconds to have it washed very well,
and the over sized material just slides off the end. I can also dump the dreck
simply by lifting up on the boarded end and dumping the unwanted rocks.

Had thought about adding a spray bar to my manual trommel, but with this
method I can probably hand wash the material faster, and far more efficiently
than the trommel, with less overall effort.

If anyone's got any better ideas then feel free to share 'em. My dad always
told me "Don't work hard, work smart!". Well, any way you slice it mining
is hard work, but sure don't hurt finding new ways to do it better, faster,
run more material and get more GOLD as a result!

 

[Duckwalk]

I am amazed at some of the things you guys come up with

 

[DizzyDigger]

I am amazed at some of the things you guys come up with

Necessity is a mother...so, we improvise, adapt, and overcome
challenges to get the job done.

 

[DizzyDigger]

Blast from the Past

Was going through some older digital pics from many years
back, and came across these from a trip my wife, daughter
and I made to the Sultan River. This has to be from around
late summer 2001, and as best I can recall we had a great time,
and got a few flakes in the pans.

It was the first time out prospecting for both of 'em, and we
all had a blast..

My daughter (then 13) and I headed down the steep hill to the
river:



My wife working a pan and hopin' for color..



My daughter digging up another pan. She's now been married
for several years, and has 2 boys of her own!



I'm settling in to work a pan while the wife supervises..



Couple pics of the river area we were working..





Need to look at that old pic file more often...lots of good memories in there..