100 Yeal Old Gold Trommel

[IMAUDIGGER]

I don't think I have ever uploaded these video's yet.

I have never seen anything like it before.

Rumored to have been first built around WW1, then appears to have been "updated" in the 1930's to be powered with a 2-stroke chainsaw engine.
Recently it was saved from the grave and given a final "upgrade" so as to be operational.
Every day we would grease the wooden bearings, screw in the grease cup 1 turn.
Once a week, the drive chains would get a little grease.

It recovered enough gold that we retired it after 3 months of daily use.
Special credit goes to my dad, who had the confidence that this relic could be re-built and be useful.
He also built the sluice box and header from scratch.

The only modern upgrades were the Honda clone engine, an automotive drive line carrier bearing, the spray bar and the sluice box.

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[IMAUDIGGER]

Gear Reduction

Bonus footage of the gear reduction.

Would be an easy and inexpensive trommel for someone to build.
It is light enough 2 people can load it on a trailer if the drum is taken off.

The only thing I didn't care for was the inability to increase the speed at which the oversized rocks exited the drum.
If the material had a lot of oversized rocks, you could easily overload it if you didn't wait for it to clear.

There are two sets of spirals in that drum, an outer one for the fines and and inner one for the oversized rocks.

We were able to increase our productivity by occasionally peeling some of the oversized rocks out of the drum with a shovel....otherwise just had to be patient while the gold piled up in the box.

 

[russau]

Well atleast the rocks were getting washed real good to remove any specks of gold!

 

[Goodyguy]

The only thing I didn't care for was the inability to increase the speed at which the oversized rocks exited the drum.
If the material had a lot of oversized rocks, you could easily overload it if you didn't wait for it to clear.
We were able to increase our productivity by occasionally peeling some of the oversized rocks out of the drum with a shovel....otherwise just had to be patient while the gold piled up in the box.

You could Increase the drum angle to speed up tailings exit.
Just keep raising the feed end until the tailings are not getting clean enough and then lower it accordingly until the sweet spot is reached.

Otherwise you will need to change the gear ratio.

GG~

 

[IMAUDIGGER]

Well this set up found the most gold per yard than any to date with larger equipment...don't know if it was the material or how clean the rocks got. It kept up with one guy shoveling..pretty good.