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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[bigfish31]

Rube would be proud! If it works, what the heck.

 

[Jeffro]

A man after my own heart- LOL!

I once set up a recirculating pump, an extra wide sluice, the ribbed mat, and a rubber damper the full length with minimum flow to run my black sands.

Worked pretty good, and I still have the setup although its in pieces around here somewhere-

Got whatever would settle out, although not down to the micron size.

May have done a little better with a grind first, but I never tried it.

Nice setup you got there! If it works, use it!

 

[JamesE]

Nifty setup, if you have the flow, you might be able to 'reverse flow' a water pump with an eccentric to shake yur sluice, instead of the recip. saw.
Also, for gold that fine maybe electrolysis, like in copper mills or plating.

 

[Needle]

When the Ore gets ground real fine there probably is ionic Gold that could be electroplated out, that is a whole different ball game though. I just want to recover what I can through simple mechanical separation for now.

 

[russau]

well Needel, you have the insight to see what it needs to capture the fine gold! many of my projects looked just like yours untill i got it working just right, then you can make it look puuuuuuurty! thinking it through is the hard part and youve done just that!

 

[Needle]

well Needel, you have the insight to see what it needs to capture the fine gold! many of my projects looked just like yours until i got it working just right, then you can make it look puuuuuuurty! thinking it through is the hard part and youve done just that!

russau, this definitely drives the micron gold down into the carpet to help get a concentrate, but now I am thinking about making it even more simple to get clean micron Gold product.
That darn wave table from Action mining would do it and all I would have to do then is just collect the Gold as it becomes visible, using their Model M4, The cheapest one they have.
I have been procrastinating on this because of the few thousand dollars for it, but now days with the price of Gold, it wouldn't take that much Gold for the table to pay for itself.

 

[Eu_citzen]

Needle thanks for putting up our Rube Goldburg Doodads again.

 

[JamesE]

Saw this at a friend of a friends place in OR City when we dropped by to pick up a sluice. I don't have a clue if it works, didn't have time to get any particulars.
He had an old paint shaker and a can made of water main pipe and some 3/4'' ball bearings, I don't know if the can was rubber lined. He said he planned to use it to pulverize samples. The principle sounds good, but what sounds good and what works sometimes ain't the same thing.
Anybody else tried this?

 

[kuger]

Saw this at a friend of a friends place in OR City when we dropped by to pick up a sluice. I don't have a clue if it works, didn't have time to get any particulars.
He had an old paint shaker and a can made of water main pipe and some 3/4'' ball bearings, I don't know if the can was rubber lined. He said he planned to use it to pulverize samples. The principle sounds good, but what sounds good and what works sometimes ain't the same thing.
Anybody else tried this?

Let us know if it does I am looking for something like that I am getting Arnold arms from using the mortar and pestle!!

 

[JamesE]

That's been 10 or 12 years ago since I was in OR, I don't have a clue if it works, was thinkin' it might be a helpful idea to a guy that wants to reduce smalls and black sand to micron for a table. (if it works)
Sheeoot, tha only thing that get pulverized in IA is pud!!! jim

 

[Needle]

Needle thanks for putting up our Rube Goldburg Doodads again.

Yeah EU, This is the place to Explore those Ideas and suggestions that work to get the Gold, weather from conventional ways or not.
Here is another example of a Rube Goldburg Doodad...



This drill is just a 1/2" drill, but the pestle could be adapted to a Hammer drill.

 

[Old Dog]

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

 

[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

OK OD, I've ordered one of those Micron Mill Wave Tables - Model M4 from Action Mining Co. I had to get on a waiting list which will take 4 weeks before I get it. In the meantime I will be making concentrates for it - ( grinding rock and running it over the Rube Goldburg Doodad ) Hopefully there will be several buckets of concentrates when it arrives. I will reply how well it works.

Needle

 

[Old Dog]

Thanks Buddy,
If yours works as good as it looks, I may have to get with you and make one of my own.
we have some very fine stuff that comes out of the conglomerates here and it might be fun to see if we can get some of it out. So far a pan doesn't work by itself the gold will float off.

Something you might have some luck with is put a drop of liquid soap (one drop only) in the pan to break the suface tension of the water. the super fine won't float off.

It works here.
I have found it also works in a standing puddle for mosquitoes. They sink and drown, and wrigglers can't get a footing on the top either.
The mosquitoe thing is what gave me the idea.

Thom

 

[Old Dog]

Thanks Ed,
Hadn't thought about it. I'll give it a try.
My wife has some under the sink.

On second thought I'd better go get some of my own.
LOL

Thom

 

[Needle]

That's right, I used jet dry in my Gold Genie recirculating water, the piece of equipment works great, but sadly my gold is just too fine and 99% of the gold winds up in the recirculating water as tailings.

 

[Old Dog]

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

 

[Eu_citzen]

Yes jet dry is ok just be sure not to get any bubbles as the gold can float on them, you don't want that.

Needle have you tried a dampener for your sluice doodad? Or looked into that fine mesh thing I was talking about? (I'll post a pic to help your memory)

 

[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.