Denver Gold pan found anyone use one?

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Nope ! I haven't seen one even advertised in sometime now !
Now that I looked at some information the unit looks like the duplex size unit.
 

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Mechanical Gold Pan

(Links deleted for rule violations, links to forums and nonsupporting vendor)
 

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3 - 4 yards an hour seems kind of high on production.
 

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Can the pan be used dry? Anyone try it?
 

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Denver Mechanical gold pan

These are manufactured and known as the “Denver Mechanical Gold Pan” and the “Denver Gold Saver” respectively. The mechanical pan has been well received in the industry over a 30-year period and is generally referred to simply as a “Denver Pan.” It comprises an assembly of three shallow, nested pans 2 feet in diameter with two superimposed screens arranged to wash and reject the plus ¼-inch material. The combined assembly is mounted on a horizontally gyrating base driven by a small gasoline engine and the resultant motion is said to duplicate hand panning. The minus ¼-inch material after passing through the screens, progressively flows over the three pans, one discharging into the next. The uppermost pan is provided with an amalgamating plate, and the two successive pans with special rubber mats or cocoa matting held down by coarse wire screen. Capacity of a single unit ranges up to 2 cubic yards per hour and water consumption is said to be as little as 1 to 2 parts (by weight) per part of gravel which would indicate an average of about 1,000 gallons per cubic yard. Single or double units are available and these can be provided with a scrubber and a trommel-type screen. The largest (Duplex) unit when so equipped has a rated capacity of 4 to 6 bank-run yards per hour and weighs 2100 pounds. The single (Simplex) unit without the trommel weighs 675 pounds. The Denver Mechanical Gold Pan is sturdily built and is suitable for continuous use such as would he encountered in a mining operation.
 

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I could have bought one for $2500. maybe 20 years ago now. A guy I deal with had it. I happened to ask him last year if he still had and he said it sold some time ago. You definitely ain't gonna pack that machine around all that easily.
 

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I don’t think you can run it dry. I know of one for sale out in Nevada.
By modifying the top screen I think it could be run dry with encloses around each 24" pan to keep the dust down. Better yet have a good air flow through the whole setup I think you can run it dry. There is strong snow storms going on now so when the weather gets better I will take a much better look at the set up and think it over.

I'm thinking the guy will not budge much on the price as he may donate it to an institution for the public to see it. Time will tell as I learn more about it.
 

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I could have bought one for $2500. maybe 20 years ago now. A guy I deal with had it. I happened to ask him last year if he still had and he said it sold some time ago. You definitely ain't gonna pack that machine around all that easily.
Correct at the 1,300 lbs. dry (what I think the set up weight is) as the whole unit weights around 2,100 lbs. it will have to be winched or cabled around in the woods for sure. I'm going to take a much better look at it to see how much of the machine can be broken down for moving. I just looked at it for a few minutes and I could not pick up the pans by hand. Been sitting a long time as well out in the rain.
 

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Just found and downloaded the 1954 Denver equipment handbook and there is no Denver pan in it.
 

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I'm thinking the machine is from the 1960's. Maybe there is information on the tag?
 

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I think you’re better off with a drywasher than trying to refit a Denver pan to run dry.
 

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I think you’re better off with a drywasher than trying to refit a Denver pan to run dry.
Maybe. It is not like I can't run water through the unit during some months of the year.
Since this is more of a concentrator the unit should work both wet and dry. It will work best with water for sure.
 

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I think you’re better off with a drywasher than trying to refit a Denver pan to run dry.
The unit I looked at is mounted on a trailer and may have one more pan in it. I will take another look and see.
 

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They made a duplex unit that used a trommel to feed it. I really don’t think it will work well as a dry machine, they have dubious recovery rates even with water. My family’s spot was sampled with one back in the 70ies the story is it blew out all the fines, they had to rerun all the samples through a sluice box, after that they ran a sluice on the discharge trough. I saw this one for sale at Lunds in Nevada they wanted 2,500. It has all parts, the water pump is mounted inline with the shaker mechanism so it used a single small engine. New OEM parts are impossible to find for it, if the rubber pans are shot you will need to figure out how to make new ones. In my opinion they are an antique curiosity and there are cheaper lighter more functional things available now. It’s like the Stampmill, having a small Stampmill would be fun if your a nerd like me but they are slow and need specialty replacement parts such as replacement dies and shoes which cannot be fabricated by shoestring operations on the fly.
 

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They made a duplex unit that used a trommel to feed it. I really don’t think it will work well as a dry machine, they have dubious recovery rates even with water. My family’s spot was sampled with one back in the 70ies the story is it blew out all the fines, they had to rerun all the samples through a sluice box, after that they ran a sluice on the discharge trough. I saw this one for sale at Lunds in Nevada they wanted 2,500. It has all parts, the water pump is mounted inline with the shaker mechanism so it used a single small engine. New OEM parts are impossible to find for it, if the rubber pans are shot you will need to figure out how to make new ones. In my opinion they are an antique curiosity and there are cheaper lighter more functional things available now. It’s like the Stampmill, having a small Stampmill would be fun if your a nerd like me but they are slow and need specialty replacement parts such as replacement dies and shoes which cannot be fabricated by shoestring operations on the fly.
Yep I seeing that these are to heavy, bulky and not the best design. Looks like they sell in the $2,500 - $3,000 range as well.

A very small stamp mill may be the only choice on steep ground along with a sampling jaw crusher. Larger equipment is to hard to winch in on some grounds / terrains.

I'm starting to think that a much smaller panning setup could be cabled in and the Denver pan can't without breaking it up somehow. This would call for a lot of new fabrication work or just rebuilding most of it.
 

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