Blue bowl question

[MOOREMAN123]

I am going to get a blue bowl but was wondering what size classifier do In need for it?

 

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[Goldwasher]

make sure to get a pump dont plan on usin your garden hose. i classify my cons with a 1 /4 inch screen first set aside everything that doesnt go throught the first screen or quick pan right then anygold that doesnt fit through 1/4 you will most likely see before this step, but, i still check then pretty much do the same with smaller and smaller classifiers as available.black sands and gold that youll have the most of is gonna be smaller than window screen.the idea behind it is to run material that is pretty much the same size. "grade" ? not small stuff with big stuff. i just pan the over size material as i go suck up any flakes i see. the panning is easy cause you dont have small gold or black sands to deal with use a big pan.then when you get to what like under 100 mesh? someone else what size do you go down to? so after your smallest screen run that slowly into the blue bowl and watch the magic then run the stuff in your pour out bucket if you find gold in there you suck at using a blue bowl im just kiddin if you see gold there you need to slow down your feed rate water speed maybe ad some dish soap to your water and stop finding such tiny gold. hope this helps others will also have some fine tuning im sure.

 

[Sierra Kid]

I just bought one two weeks ago at the Gold Show in Lancaster, CA. The vendor had a pretty good setup and demonstration going. He said to screen the cons with a 30 mesh screen. I did exactly as he said and it works like a champ. I also processed the cons that did not make it through the 30 mesh but they were too big. Keene engineering sells a great set of classifying screens.

 

[buckaroo]

The maker recommends 30, 50 and 100 mesh. I have used the bowl for years and originally used only the 30. Then bought the 50 and 100. Big difference in recovery.
Just like in all wet systems recovery is all about classification. I would also recommend a drop of dish soap in the water to help with surfice tension.

 

[strickman]

when using a blue bowl it helps to come off of your pump,couple of feet with hose---then add a valve(for regulating)-then add another 3or4 feet of hose ,,,then hook to the blue bowl.you will have a more even flow,when water goes thru a valve it will cause a vortex,and be uneven.this will help esp. when you get down 50-100 mesh...it will be a lot smoother.

 

[Sodbuster27]

The whole key to recovery is classification. The more you classify, the greater the recovery. Why? If you only classify to 30 mesh, then you have 30 mesh knocking out 50 and 100 mesh gold.

Classify down as low as you can and then only run those values with the same values. In other words, when you classify to 30 mesh, only run the 30 mesh concentrates in the bowl. Ditto for 50 and 100.

Since we are talking about concentrates being used with the blue bowl, you can get smaller classifiers. The new 49'ers sell a stack of classifiers that are about 2 cups in size. You can stack them up on one another and work the concentrates down to the smallest value. Or, there are some about the size of a clay pot found on eBay.

Sodbuster

 

[kiwi jw]

G'day Sodbuster, Absolutly 101% right. Classification is the key to fine gold seperation & recovery for just the reasons you say & just enough water flow/pressure to do the job.

JW.

 

[MOOREMAN123]

Hi sodbuster what do you type in on ebay to find them I typed in classifiers and only 6 results popped up and they were books.

 

[strickman]

i think 49er site has them.

 

[Sam Burgin]

Gold recovery improves drastically when the gold is the heaviest thing in the system. The problem with screening to 50 and 100 mesh is that you will have lots of gold in the 70-100 mesh range that is lighter than the gangue in the 50-70 range, this will cause gold to spin out of the system.

If you will take one additional cut at 70 mesh, you will see improvement in your recovery.

The reason that most of us do not use 70 mesh screens is that they were not available. You can go to Jobe Wholesale, or NextStepMining.com, and get a 70 mesh stackable screen, available now, it will make a difference.

You might want to put your pump on a wye-splitter before it goes into the blue bowl, that way you can control the water pressure by bleeding off excess water, rather that cutting down the pump and causing a surge in water flow.

Sam

 

[Jack Hamilton]

What mesh is metal window screen? I have a home made 1/4" classifier and some metal window screen. How do you figure it? Is it 100 squares per inch for 100 mesh etc? I also have my own home made blue bowl, made from a dog bowl. After playing with it some and finding my test cons losing my gold into my catch bucket I added a valve. I'm using a 100 gph pump and 1/4" to 3/8" inch tubing and the water was spinning too fast. After adding the valve I see my gold is still going over the top into the bucket and I realize now my center cone is too steep again. I have replaced it several times during my experiments. The key is just the right angle on the cone, just the right water speed. I'll get it sooner or later. Since I have never used or seen in person a blue bowl can anyone tell me the inner diameter of the bowl, cone angle and height? Cheers! here is my project still in the works...

 

[Jack Hamilton]

I totally get it now I got no reply so I googled how mesh count works. Its the squares in a lineal inch. I was using 10 mesh screen and wondering why I had such big pieces rolling in my bowl. After panning my cons down as fine as I could, I slowed my water speed down and began seeing very fine gold, almost too small to see sitting in place as the black sands moved past. I need to get myself a set of fine mesh screens to work this better, but my bowl does work and I am really pleased.

 

[strickman]

glad to see you've got it going your way

 

[golddust77]

and do yourself a favor make shure the bowl is level i run one and if it aint level it aint workin right thanks..

 

[Hoser John]

See that righteous vortex swirl like a toilet bowl-now thats the absolute best thing to see for max production and efficency. Run that puppy to the top,prewet everything,NO BUBBLES allowed,absolutely flat and no soap never,jetdry or equivalent EVER in any all recovery units by anyone. I was the 2nd dealer ever for these bowls and look at the bottom because they all have a heat stamp serial number,Frank still does it too as the newest owner. Mine is 116 and over 27 years of use/abuse/and righteous recovery$$$$$$$$$$$$-tons a au 2 u2 -John

 

[Hefty1]

Hey John
New to this sight......as the 2nd dist of the blue bowl?
Who was the inventor of this

Hefty

 

[TerryC]

I bought a blue bowl recently. The included instructions said 30-mesh. But BEWARE! About half of the color I got from Stanton was LARGER than 30-mesh. Look that classifier over GOOD before discarding the contents. Don't do it in the dark. TTC

 

[AuMember]

I run every thing smaller than 30 mesh together...I probably loose some micro gold but I ran out of patience when I got to 60 mesh in trying to get the fines through. I actually make my own screen boxes....you can get just about any mesh size from smallparts.com, be sure to get the 304ss as the regular steel will definitely rust on ya.

 

[FiresEye]

Who was the inventor of this

King Solomons ancient mines and the gold miners of Egypt used the gold wheel and gravity water seperation by swirling too. They just did it by hand, and the loss rate was probably higher than today.


Foundries, Metals, and the Human Population

Foundries and the men, women, and machines that process their metals, inevitably drive every aspect of modern life. The precision and design of these factories is only the face of the operation. Every exquisite detail and floor must be planned, implemented, and in short, perfected, to produce the desired outcome. Anytime a person sees a metal they probably don’t think of the craft and intellect behind the production of that industrial or commercial metal casting. A world without foundries is a planet without cars, boats, or buildings. And yet now in an age of technological boom, advanced and exquisite engineers and managers produce feats such as digital readings, robotized mechanics, and precision air blasting to refine castings. The world was not always this way though…
Around 6000BC humans harnessed the first metal: gold. While still in the stone age, nations rose and fell over the art of metallurgy and casting this precious metal. Heavy, and with skill, this metal could be crafted and even melted. Surely not the first metal to hit planet earth 5 billions years ago during it’s forming stages (countless meteoroids struck earths molten core to add significant amounts of metals to the crust, like Platinum), but the first metal recognized by a civilization that evolved from primitive animals to one using stones for war and to fasion objects.. Once metal was found to not only have artistic value but destructive and creative value, the search for metals and ways to use them began to intensify. With a world population of less than 20 million, it soon dawned on the most intellectual of the pack that metal was in, and wood and stone were out. During the bronze age, copper and tin ore was rare, and contained arsenic and significant quantities, yet empires rose and fell under the oppressive power of that metal. Now a day, bronze can be smelted without releasing toxic vapors, because of technological advances in the foundry industry. Soon, massive metal drills extracted finer ores and large populations hammered out and fed the fires of civilization.
As time evolved, to work and know metals was to build a craft. The secrets and formulas were well kept, and it is said empires were bought and sold over the technology behind metals and their production. Casting copper( 4200BC) and Smelted Iron(1500BC) were the next advances for the ancient foundries, and now the world had the first exquisite arms and amour crafted, mostly for the use of war. Historically the use of metal for war was a large percentage of use. The revolution had dawned and paved the way for modern foundries to rise. It now meant life or death for the metallurgists to produce the highest quality metal with the least amount of waste and time, and even today, the safety of the worlds population relies on good metals and the processes that go into designing them.
Right now in history, the world is at its highest population ever, yet the yearly growth rate percentage is going down. This means that while there are more people than ever on earth, less of them are having children. This also means the world is at or near peak capacity because to survive in today’s world, the new businesses must use skillful capability to adept and survive, to refine and refinish. The parallel works for the metal industry as well, because resources are becoming scarcer and more costly to obtain, so precision in the foundry side of the business can drastically reduce costs and dangers. This drastic change in material and economic resources requires measures to sustain it. With population highs, the accuracy and quality of metal casting design and planning must also be high.
In an age of economic depression, intricate minds must correlate to produce manifested results, not just talks and ideas. This boom in refining the processes previously used to produce an outcome have drastically been improved, and are practiced by modern companies.

 

[TerryC]

Good read, Fireseye. And to think, after thousands of years, (and all that technology) your basic PAN is still used to locate that yellow stuff. TTC