Gold quest 1400 impact mill any good?

[A11]

Title says it all. Has any one used this seemingly inexpensive rock crusher? Any good?
Goldquest 1400 Impact Mill

 

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[goldenIrishman]

First off.... Welcome to the T-Net asylum A11.

Your question would most likely be better answered over in the Hard Rock Mining forum. There are going to be more guys (and gals) over there that would be able to help ya out. Most of the crushing and grinding we do in placer mining isn't quite as heavy duty as we're working concentrates out of a sluice instead of fist sized rocks that the mill you're asking about is designed for.

 

[Clay Diggins]

Crazy Crusher has made some good products through the years. They are known for quality and reasonable price.

I haven't used this crusher. I like several of the design features especially the "vibrating" screen setup. Screened output can be a choke point with this design and it looks like crazy crusher understood the need to keep material moving through the screen. I can't tell you whether this design works on this model but it's a sign of experience that the problem was addressed here.

I'm always leery of short life chain flails, I'm not real sure about using the forged shackles but they are probably better than chain. The gold standard for these types of inexpensive powered crushers is one piece forged, hardfaced hammers. You could probably make and install your own with this design.

Two points concern me from what I can see in this design.

First is the direct coupling from the drive shaft. With a three inch feed the axle bearings are going to be a wear item. Once the bearings wear in a little the shock of the impact is going to be conducted back into the direct drive from the motor possibly leading to premature crank bearing failure. That could get expensive. A flex disk coupling or better a rotoflex type replacement on the drive output should help but I'm more in favor of a drive belt setup to take up the impact shock sent back through the drive axle.

Second is the exposed shackle mounts on the drive bar. The inside of that crushing box is a high abrasion environment. The failure of the swing mount point is inevitable and a normal wear item but a hardened sleeved shackle mount would be a lot easier to replace than the whole swing bar. The swing bar is a balanced part so just replacing with a simple drilled bar during maintenance will lead to more vibration and greater drive system wear.

For the price it looks like a good machine. I like the 3" feed, the bigger the feed the more production possible. You might want to take a close look at the motor output shafts and motor quality to make sure it's a good quality and easily replaced with commonly available gas power plants. The feeder might be a good option too unless you can fab one yourself. Without the feeder the feed end of these crushers become a major source of rock dust - always a consideration with this type of crusher.

Heavy Pans

 

[russau]

A11 that's a good link for DIY kinda people! thanks!!