Got out a little today....................

[wildminer]

Oh, ok. I didn't realize that, but whatever you guys decide I'll do my best to make it fit in to my schedule. If not salmon there will be tuna around by then for bbq.

[Reed Lukens]

Yea, I'm open after for sure. We've got birthdays, etc until the end of June and figure that we will start heading your way sometime after the 4th of July. Then in August is the eclipse and we don't have any set plans for that either

[johnedoe]

Yea, I'm open after for sure. We've got birthdays, etc until the end of June and figure that we will start heading your way sometime after the 4th of July. Then in August is the eclipse and we don't have any set plans for that either

Sounds good, The eclipse is going to be madness.... especially at Depot Bay... although that time of year it will very likely be foggy on the beach... Here at Florence we will get about 99% of the eclipse.
I will have to pick Sherry up in Eugene on the day of the Eclipse...lol ... She will be coming back from AZ.

[johnedoe]

Had some fantastic weather Saturday so We hit the beach......

arizau stoped buy on his way to Bandon and so we gave the beach the ol college try..
The gold wasn't as good as the weather unfortunately, but we had a pretty good time of it anyway.
It was great to finally meet arizau, we had communicated over the net and the phone for nearly 3 years.
I always enjoy meeting up with members of the forum when possible.

[arizau]

As johnedoe said the weather (and the company)* was better than the gold. The weather there the next day was p...poor so I headed South and got in one more day of decent conditions at another beach before heading home. Too bad since I had time to stay a couple more days but bad weather was forecast again so.... No panned results yet but I expect a little more gold since there were better black sand deposits where I sluiced. The lack of beach black sand deposits, low to no creek flow and weather conditions usually confirm the saying "you should have been here yesterday" or last month or last winter or....

*It was great to meet finally and I expect that is just the first of many since I usually make an annual trip to Oregon with time dedicated to beach mining.

[johnedoe]

Well I hope we can actually get some decent gold next time your here arizau..I found the beach today and we will just go to that one and not waste any time with the les productive beaches.

Was great to finally meet you and look forward to more of your visits.

[Reed Lukens]

Beach mining is still fun for me, basically because it is the beach on the Pacific Ocean. I love getting Beach gold I've panned gold in San Francisco on the beach back in the 80's and in different locations along the Pacific, and each time I come away smiling
For years when Dredging if I pulled less than 1/4ozt an hour, I'd move on and now days, I go to the rivers and usually shovel for someone else because I can't make a living here myself simply panning anymore with my creaking bones and we'll worn hands... But I love seeing the smiling faces of others after I've filled a few buckets with them and added gold to their sluice. When I'm at the beach, things are different. I may not walk away with a bunch of gold or a hand full of nuggets, but I walk away with that smile on my face and a feeling of satisfaction

[johnedoe]

Been working on the high banker configuration .... still have some mods to do but getting the basic concept down.... I will have to make an external fram rather than one that is incorporated on the sluice itself since this is entirely to unstable.
The sluice is 8 feet long by 16 inches wide. the hopper is 16"x24"
The mats are a short section of deep "V" then a short section of semi vortex, then a 24" section of magnetic followed by a 24" section of 1/4" sawtooth followed by another 24" section of magnetic mat.....cleangold.
This system is dedicated to beach mining but would work in some river situations.

I will be taking this to the beach this coming weekend for a test run without the hopper.

I have 3, 100' rolls of 2" lay flat hose coming as well as the fittings to join the hose into various lengths.

I also have a beach in mind that has shown shown some promise......

[arizau]

Don't forget to put blocks of wood under the legs to help prevent sand erosion/settling taking the sluice out of level especially when you are in highbanker mode.

[johnedoe]

Got those all taken care of too......

[johnedoe]

I did get out a bit Friday with a gent I met a couple weeks ago...
He was kind enough to invite me to dig with him and we did some tests then some cleanups.

The tests were to check for losses in his system. There were some but no more than expected to happen.

He was using Gold Hog Low turbulence scrubber mat. The UR mat and moss at the end of the sluice.

Anyway he had about three weeks worth of cons that he hadn't cleaned up yet so we ran them through the Gold Cube.
Here's what showed in the first tray. As expected the second tray had some but the cube caught most of it in the first tray.

Someday maybe I will have a cleanup like this...

[Digzit2]

That looks great.

[GoldpannerDave]

WOW!! That looks more like a commercial for GoldCube than cons from the beach--even 3 weeks worth! Beautiful....

[johnedoe]

We managed to get out a bit today and a little yesterday to do some testing of the high banker configuration.
Here's what we got............ There is still more but it is going to have to be classified further to get it out of the black sand.
When these two pans dry out I will get it weighed and update here.

[johnedoe]

OK... Got it dried, the magnetics pulled, and weighed. Came to 8.36 grain. about 4-5 hours shoveling and a hole 3 feet wide by 2 feet deep...... have moved more material for a lot less gold in the past.
I am not gonna retire or quit the day job but I will go back to that spot in the future.......