Kevins own thread - a journal (but feel free to post random thoughts)

[KevinInColorado]

Kevin's own thread - a journal (but feel free to post random thoughts)

Finally got my cons cleaned up from a couple weeks ago. +30 on left, 30-50 mesh in middle, -50 on right (duh)


0.27 grams...Probably a lot more than I'll find today but today is about friends more than gold

 

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[GrizzlyGremlin]

Glad to see your back in Colorful! Quite literally

 

[KevinInColorado]

Kevin's own thread - a journal (but feel free to post random thoughts)

Got out to Big Bend today and met up with GrizzlyGremlin....good times. Ran my Sniper for a little while, got frustrated with poor water flow and decided I was in the mood to do some sampling so I dug out my trusty Proline Professional pan and my prototype Banjo Pan and went sniffing around the lower half of the bar. Nobody goes down there as its a bit of a hike and there's nowhere to set up a sluice due to the river conditions. With GG the sampling showed better gold about 15' from the river vs. closer...interesting. Later I went down to the tail of the bar and sampled in the water just off shore. WOW WHAT GOLD! I had a dozen colors in the first shovelful! Nowhere to put a sluice and a quarter mile walk further from the parking lot so nobody ever goes down there. Ran out of light but I'll be back

Oh, I tried Mike Pung's Banjo Pan method: easy to do and I caught tiny gold with it. Concerned that method might lose some gold the way rocker boxes do (same side to side motion) but it sure is quick and easy to do. Hmm, this technique needs some scientific testing I think. Chances are Red will do that since he is the inventor and all.

Gold pics to follow. Probably tonight since my wife will be watching The Voice (not my show).

 

[AlaskaGold]

Funny, my wife is watching the voice right now while I'm recleaning the moss from my dredge!

 

[Sideways Sherry]

And my husband was watching it while I was running cons. [emoji38]

 

[Sideways Sherry]

and my prototype Banjo Pan and went sniffing around the lower half

What the heck is a banjo pan

 

[KevinInColorado]

And my husband was watching it while I was running cons. [emoji38]

Funny how the roles/interests just swap!

What the heck is a banjo pan

See banjopan.com

 

[KevinInColorado]

April Fools day gold: first makes it seem like the -50 at the top doesn't add up to much. Second with all the little stuff chased together highlights the relatively similar amount of gold in each size range. This is from Big Bend...mostly just sample panning.

 

[KevinInColorado]

Kevin's own thread - a journal (but feel free to post random thoughts)

So I stopped at a good looking cobble bar in the Colorado River at a city park today. Did 3 sample pans and then ran my Sniper for just a few minutes. Pleasantly surprised at the decent gold
Will have to go back there some time for a serious dig!



I should add that I checked the towns Parks & Rec dept website and the signage at the park...no rules against digging in the river . I did see evidence of someone running a sluice there recently so I'm not the only one noticing that cobble bar.

Also, this was not entirely random...this area is downstream of the confluence with a known gold bearing waterway so it seemed a likely spot. Still from that area downstream there are a LOT of good looking cobble bars in the river

 

[GrizzlyGremlin]

Thats nice stuff! I did a few sample pans in steamboat this

 

[GrizzlyGremlin]

Week and came up with one teensey color[emoji20]
Back to the front range!

 

[KevinInColorado]

Yeah, there is gold in that area but only in a couple spots. The Yampa itself isn't known for gold at all. Next time you're headed that way, PM me for tips on where to look...

 

[KevinInColorado]

Kevin's own thread - a journal (but feel free to post random thoughts)

Got out to my honey hole for an hour of digging today and managed to run my Sniper toooo steep. It can be done. Net result, I lost about 1/2 the gold into my tailings. How did I know? By both the small amount of material in my cleanout pan and the exclusively large size of the gold. What did I do? Easy, I just reset the sluice and reran my tailings. A quick and productive process.

Here's a pic of that first cleanout with just larger gold:

And the final result (0.35 grams):

 

[GrizzlyGremlin]

So clean, its so yellow!! I love it!

 

[GoldpannerDave]

Too steep? How did that happen? Just not enough water running so you made it steeper? Inquiring minds want to know....

Nice looking gold, though.

 

[KevinInColorado]

Thanks Dave. What happened is I built a dam in a new spot several weeks ago then came back last weekend to use it for the first time. In between times the creek filled in behind the dam with sand so the top end of my sluice was higher than I intended and indeed TOO high. When I reset the sluice I had to raise the lower end to get back in the high gold retention range. A very, very rare problem

 

[KevinInColorado]

Kevin's own thread - a journal (but feel free to post random thoughts)

Ok time for a rod mill update!
You may recall that I built a tabletop rod mill, ran a couple test batches and then burned out the little motor on it with one of my experiments. I've yet to build a new one but here's why I will:
Crushing in the mill did a great job of flattening the hidden gold... Cool right?

Here's the mill rods (not all rods!) and tumbler. Notice the drywall screws used to maximize tumbling. Worked amazingly well using the chassis of an inkjet printer.

PS the material was all ready processed magnetic super cons with NO visible gold. I removed everything that was still magnetic before panning the post-milling material. The gold and black sand you see is almost all +30 mesh.

 

[GoldpannerDave]

Ok time for a rod mill update!
You may recall that I built a tabletop rod mill, ran a couple test batches and then burned out the little motor on it with one of my experiments. I've yet to build a new one but here's why I will: View attachment 1157113
Crushing in the mill did a great job of flattening the hidden gold... Cool right?

Here's the mill rods (not all rods!) and tumbler. Notice the drywall screws used to maximize tumbling. Worked amazingly well using the chassis of an inkjet printer. View attachment 1157115

PS the material was all ready processed magnetic super cons with NO visible gold. I removed everything that was still magnetic before panning. The gold and black sand you see is almost all +30 mesh.

Wow, I have an old spike like that from the Denver, Rio Grand and Western RR. It looks like a bit of bicycle chain and some small iron rods. I can do that now!

I love the flattened gold picture! That is exactly what it is supposed to do. Have to get started on my rod mill!! Thanks for the update.

BTW, how long did you rotate the mill?

 

[KevinInColorado]

Kevin's own thread - a journal (but feel free to post random thoughts)

Hmm, an hour or two I think. Not longer

The rods are from the printer chassis paper handling mechanism. The chain came out of the creek and is a bit bigger than bicycle, it's rusted solid. The mix of iron and screws was to ensure I got tumbling instead of just rolling. The spike is from Big Bend!

Looking forward to seeing your results Dave!!

 

[mytimetoshine]

Ok time for a rod mill update!
You may recall that I built a tabletop rod mill, ran a couple test batches and then burned out the little motor on it with one of my experiments. I've yet to build a new one but here's why I will: View attachment 1157113
Crushing in the mill did a great job of flattening the hidden gold... Cool right?

Here's the mill rods (not all rods!) and tumbler. Notice the drywall screws used to maximize tumbling. Worked amazingly well using the chassis of an inkjet printer. View attachment 1157115

PS the material was all ready processed magnetic super cons with NO visible gold. I removed everything that was still magnetic before panning. The gold and black sand you see is almost all +30 mesh.

What is this rod mill business? Sound interesting, what's it all about?