Gold wheels

[gold tramp]

Don't see any of you guys are using the old spiral gold wheel ?
has it become a dinasuar? or just not popular any more,or Nobody producing enough cons to use ?
Anyways whats up with gold screw? Something new to talk about.
GT..............

 

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[ALewis]

Would love to hear the pro's & con's.....

I have saved a bunch of black sand and small specks that was too lazy to recover.

Kind of looked into the blue bowl, but seemed a little expensive. There is a shop somewhat close to me that is very cool. He has the spiral screw set-up (at least I think thats what it is) and will let you bring in con's to run. Haven't tried it yet tho.

I've started working on a small miller table, using chalk board paint...seemed like a cheaper alternative, but no idea how it will compare to some of the other methods of recoverin the fne stuff. Or, if my attempt will even work

 

[KevinInColorado]

I think they are a waste of money upfront and then an even bigger waste of time. Too slow! I can classify, magnet out the iron and pan faster than a wheel and just as complete in terms of gold separation. Learn to pan well (see Doc from Goldhog for YouTube videos) and you are set!

 

[Hoser John]

Gold wheels are like any other piece of equipment as new folks want all the latest newest goldfarb on the market-even those that don't work ,over tried and true old school hahaha. Done right wheels work just fine but you end up using the blue bowl on the micro sized gold anyhow. Wheel much faster for bulk to reduce down. Preclassify for any unit to be used-then run the wheel rather laid back to get all the heavies-ie gold/black sands/magnatite. Then run more vertical to remove the gold. Screen leftover to 50- and run through the bowl and good to go. You have thusly sized through classification-run for specific gravity all contents-then removed as much gold as possible from like materials in accordance to specific gravity. Never ever use a magnet as think of a oreo cookie except your black sands on the outside with your gold in the middle held there. GPAA mag cover a few months back had a pic of many ounces of gold stuck to a pick with a magnet on it, as iron and gold run together and sometimes contains a lot-err on the side a caution-John

 

[KevinInColorado]

So I actually agree with John on the gold in the magnetic materials. I use a magnet to pull out the iron as it speeds the rest of the panning but you do then need to process that material separately. Let it build up then take it on when you've nothing better to do. HoserJohn, what do you do with your black sand to get the "Oreo cookie" gold out?

 

[gold tramp]

So I actually agree with John on the gold in the magnetic materials. I use a magnet to pull out the iron as it speeds the rest of the panning but you do then need to process that material separately. Let it build up then take it on when you've nothing better to do. HoserJohn, what do you do with your black sand to get the "Oreo cookie" gold out?

I just use HG its the best bet for grabbing that fine gold, the fastest way to get your fines from black, if you are a good panner you just keep your hg ball handy toss it in when you've picked out the bigger stuff. it sucks up the gold fast you can further pan without worry of fine values being lost.
Gt...........

 

[KevinInColorado]

Hg doesn't grab dirty gold well at all. So how do you choose to clean the dirty stuff, especially the stuff coated with iron?

 

[gold tramp]

Hg doesn't grab dirty gold well at all. So how do you choose to clean the dirty stuff, especially the stuff coated with iron?

If its real dirty the gold wheel does a very good job at cleaning through abrasion,
I also use sodium hydroxide its does a very good job at cleaning not good on the skin be carefull, if its really coated and you have a fair amount of this type concentrate just ball batch for 10 minutes then hg will stick.

Most of the time I find that classifying and panning provides enough abrasion to get the merc to pick up the fines.
Gt......

 

[goldenIrishman]

Getting back to the gold wheels here (and away from processes like using Hg that the newbies don't need to be thinking about yet)......

We've got a Desert Fox wheel and it works pretty well as long as you get it adjusted right. Angle, water flow etc have to be set "Just right" for it to work properly. It's really a P.I.T.A. in my opinion but Robi had it when we first got together. I set it up and used it just enough to learn that if you don't constantly keep an eye on it the thing goes out of adjustment on the water flow due to a junk valve that keeps shutting down the flow. When that happens it allows everything to go up the wheel and into the catch cup. If you have the water adjusted to high, then gold is washed out and into the tailing tray so you end up panning everything anyway.

We've been thinking of changing the valve in question out for something that will allow better control over the flow and giving it another chance. If nothing else we will get it working well enough for the Munchkin to play with it while we're out in the field so she has something to do.

If I can get the valve replaced and get it adjusted right AND find a place to set it up permanently, I could see it being handy for roughing out the larger gold when I bring home full buckets of cons. But due to the nature of ow it's made I don't see that happening any time soon.

 

[gold tramp]

Getting back to the gold wheels here (and away from processes like using Hg that the newbies don't need to be thinking about yet)......

We've got a Desert Fox wheel and it works pretty well as long as you get it adjusted right. Angle, water flow etc have to be set "Just right" for it to work properly. It's really a P.I.T.A. in my opinion but Robi had it when we first got together. I set it up and used it just enough to learn that if you don't constantly keep an eye on it the thing goes out of adjustment on the water flow due to a junk valve that keeps shutting down the flow. When that happens it allows everything to go up the wheel and into the catch cup. If you have the water adjusted to high, then gold is washed out and into the tailing tray so you end up panning everything anyway.

We've been thinking of changing the valve in question out for something that will allow better control over the flow and giving it another chance. If nothing else we will get it working well enough for the Munchkin to play with it while we're out in the field so she has something to do.

If I can get the valve replaced and get it adjusted right AND find a place to set it up permanently, I could see it being handy for roughing out the larger gold when I bring home full buckets of cons. But due to the nature of ow it's made I don't see that happening any time soon.

I am more wanting to hear about real gold wheels.
all miners new or seasoned should know of hg and it uses right from day one as it is a very usefull gold recovery method and is ecountered by most placer miners on a daily basis, so a new miner should know all he can about the stuff, enough on HG.

I was just wondering if there were folks that had used some larger wheels. for placer or hardrock milling ?
We used a 4 foot monel wheel for years and it was no toy, it was our main finisher on our mill, later we added a wave table to concentrate the tailings off the wheel, as wheels aren't real good at recovery of micro fine gold but great for scalping and cleaning the final product.
in my opinion Gold wheels are very important and usefull tool if you are into production and need to clean and recover concentrates, they are old scool but as with any gold recovery tool the operator has a great deal to do with his final recovery.
GT.............

 

[Rutnbuck]

I am more wanting to hear about real gold wheels.
all miners new or seasoned should know of hg and it uses right from day one as it is a very usefull gold recovery method and is ecountered by most placer miners on a daily basis, so a new miner should know all he can about the stuff, enough on HG.

I was just wondering if there were folks that had used some larger wheels. for placer or hardrock milling ?
We used a 4 foot monel wheel for years and it was no toy, it was our main finisher on our mill, later we added a wave table to concentrate the tailings off the wheel, as wheels aren't real good at recovery of micro fine gold but great for scalping and cleaning the final product.
in my opinion Gold wheels are very important and usefull tool if you are into production and need to clean and recover concentrates, they are old scool but as with any gold recovery tool the operator has a great deal to do with his final recovery.
GT.............

Gold Tramp
I have and have used wheels I can build one I have a mold. 42" x 8" 12 grove deep v , X 2.5" discharge Polyurethane. One can't wear these wheels out. Motion control double spray bars, variable pitch, there is several ways a guy can set them up. I have run as much as 5 ton of cons a day through multiple wheels. That is a lot of cons. I have't made one for years but need to. I have one liner now ready to put together. No comparison to the plastic, fiberglass things the hobby guy uses. Set up and run right hard to beat. Used them on 1000 ton a day placer operations, and after ball mills at the hard rock in Nv. Nothing compares to recover amalgam. Emaill me if you like . Not one to get into mine is better then yours argument. But I will say I have run about every contraption known to man on commercial operations. In Ut, Mt, Nv, Ak, and the Yukon, 10's of thousands of tons. I like the wheel. they are pricey though.
Rutnbuck