Experience building and using Mikes hand trommel

[kayakpat]

that looks great matt, are the legs shaky when operating it? Love to see a video and that is a great improvement with the funnel. Looks like fun to build, awesome

 

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[matt_unique]

There is some flex based on the nature of pvc of course but I did not find it shaky. I poured 2.5 g of gravel into the hopper and it turned no problem. You need to hold the frame to get the trommel moving the first time when it's loaded but it moves quite smoothly. The spray bar makes a huge difference with wet gravel of course. No buildup of material, falls easily out of the chute, etc. I'll know more once I've used it in the field for a few days.

 

[vaquero44]

yeah I think your going to be very happy I got to get a battery for my set up

 

[tvanwho]

Looks good guys but I noticed on Ebay , there is a dirt cheap steel trommel for $200 plus shipping from a small company in California and he has several drum hole sizes to choose from . It is hand cranked and the drums can be switched out ,hole sizes from 1/8 -1/2 inch. He has a website too, dunno if allowed to post it here? You can get the base unit for like $150, add 25 more for the flare underneath to feed a sluice and 25 more gets you a toothed ring welded to the 1 end so you can motorize it somehow with a chain drive, maybe like on the LittleFox trommel on YouTube where they use a windshield wiper drive motor? Homemade is nice but can add up after fixing mistakes and add-ons I have found.

-Tom

 

[vaquero44]

well I 've got a total of $80.00 in mine so I'm pretty happy with it

 

[matt_unique]

I've got $150 in mine but it includes the spray bar and a stand up rig (no bending over to turn the trommel). I guess Home Depot is expensive near Boston.

 

[vaquero44]

yeah everything is expensive up here right now trying to find a place where I can get punch plate reasonable priced

 

[matt_unique]

I just double checked my Home Depot receipts and I paid exactly $108.38 for the materials.

 

[PIGSTI13]

I've been looking for the parts list for Mike's hand trommel. If you have it , could you please post it? (His web address hasn't been working for me.) Thank you.




I found it. The site is back, thanks.

 

[matt_unique]

Sorry for the late replyPIGSTI13. I used Mike's webpage for the bill of materials and do not have a copy I can send. I just checked and it's working fine for me: Mike's Hand Trommel

I finally got to try it in the field. I am VERY impressed! It was very slick at classifying A LOT of material. I really loaded the hopper and only once did I overload it with two days digging. In that one case I picked up a heavy rock in my shovel and did not notice it. The hopper popped below the trommel and it was an easy fix to pop it back into place. The only other issue I noticed with my spray bar running and while loading the hopper there was a dam effect causing some fine material to flow 'uphill' and spill out between the hopper and trommel. I just placed another bucket under that spot to make sure I did not lose a grain of material.

The river conditions did not allow me to conveniently dig at my preferred site. I did a test pan at another site behind a giant bolder, found a color, and then dug like hell for two days. I did a quick run of my material and ended up with just a few colors. When I have a chance I will re-run thoroughly to see what I really got but I suspect I chose the wrong spot. BUT the trommel worked like a champ. I was blown away with the amount of material I could classify. I highly recommend this build for those of us who classify.

 

[matt_unique]

I finally went through all my concentrates properly and ended up with just two colors. One from my test pan and only one more from 80 g of material. Ouch! Definitely my worst outing on a sluice box but it happens if you don't dig in the right spot and foolishly dig for two days without checking concentrates. I'm returning this week and we'll see if I can do better. The trommel is a great piece of equipment though and makes classifying so much easier.

 

[getgoldct]

I love all of your builds, I'm going to stare on one myself. Have any of you tried a paddle wheel to spin the trommel, Let the water do the work for you?

 

[matt_unique]

Videos

I made two videos showing my trommel in action (as well as my apparently terrible dig site from my last outing - ha). You can't really hear my voice from the noise but you can see it in action. You can also see the water dam/feedback pushing some fine material slightly backwards and falls between the hopper and the trommel when using a spray bar. This would not happen if you were running dry and a pan/bucket underneath catches everything easily. I just dump these fines into my bucket when I'm ready to run the material through my sluice box.

https://youtu.be/Pv5idWfhSbE

https://youtu.be/fCX26NvdQ1E

I also made a short video of my sluice in the water:

https://youtu.be/5w9pk3LSIGI

 

[matt_unique]

Last outing much better

I only had one day, and it was tough digging, but I processed 20 G of material and found 10 flakes. Not a bad day on the Swift River for me.

 

[vaquero44]

hey matt not bad really for the swift but you don't even have to go that far north to get that almost any stream in oxford hills and rumford area will give you that I'm finding the swift not worth the effort and finding stuff closer to home if your not far from the oxford hills area give me a call maybe we could go on a outing if interested?

 

[malo]

I have a new url for Mike's Trommel: http://www.mlaine.epizy.com/Trom

 

[russau]

Mike's device looks and work's fine for being light weight ,simple in design and it works BUT PVC gets brittle in the U.V. light and in the cold / cool weather and it will crack plus the legs act a little wobbly and maybe they should be at least increased in size to stiffen up the legs and the option of the spray bar , to run wet when needed is also a good idea! I can see also that a 12VDC car wiper motor would be a good up grade also ! No telling what a prospector / miner will think up to get the gold !