MY NEW TROMMEL PROJECT FOR A FRIEND

[jog]

I HAVE BEEN BUILDING THIS NEW TROMMEL FOR MY 74 YEAR OLD MINING PARTNER. I'M ABOUT HALF WAY THERE....

 

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[AzViper]

I like his idea and will be building mine with the spray bars on the outside. If I find it doesn't work that well then I can easily change it and if I do it will also be metal tubing inside so that it doesn't break like pvc.

Mine will have the spray bar inside the drum made of black pipe. With the rotation of the drum and with the spray nozzles mounted to the outside the rocks are not receiving the washing as they would with the spray nozzles mounted inside the drum. The drum while turning is deflecting the spray of water. I am building mine with 1/2 holes perforated steel rolled into a drum and welded. This will keep the drum straight and true and not having to deal with 3 separate pieces of metals in getting the 3 pieces aligned and true. I have everything but the drum. Until the drum is in my hands I will not start the build. By my calculations the drum will have 1754 holes...

 

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[JeromeAz]

Mine will have the spray bar down the drum made of black pipe. With the rotation of the drum and with the spray nozzles mounted to the outside the rocks are not receiving the washing as they would with the spray nozzles inside the drum. The drum while turning is deflecting the spray of water. I am building mine with 1/2 holes perforated steel rolled into a drum and welded. This will keep the drum straight and true and not having to deal with 3 separate pieces of metal, not that it would not be easy to align and make true but just a simpler approach.

<img src="http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=821185"/>

So what your telling me is I need to put the spray bar in the drum. I know what your saying, that was the problem with Jogs because of the way he built the drum but even with a complete open screen the water will still hit the screen. Your right. The reason I wanted it on the outside and I'm sure the reason why Jog did was because of Jog's experience with a rock breaking his pvc. I would really hate to get all the way out to a remote spot, get started then the pvc breaks. There goes your whole day!

I could still leave the spray bars on top and cut 8 long slots in the screen then mount a V8 distributor on it and time it just right so each slot comes around and gets a big burst of water. The hard part would be timing 2 spray bars to the 8 slots! Lol!

 

[JeromeAz]

Everybody uses pvc. Because its lightweight and easy to use. I wasn't planning on using pvc then again I wasn't going to use pipe either. Jog used exhaust pipe on his. I thought it looked like aircraft hydraulic lines. So I'll probably us either one of those. They're lighter than pipe but won't break

 

[pippinwhitepaws]

cool portables...

 

[dieselram94]

All of these look great. The galvanized pipe would be the ticket over pvc for sure. Even just black iron would be ok.

 

[JeromeAz]

Trying to make it light as possible. If my truck breaks down I can drag it back home. Hell with the truck! Lol!

 

[dieselram94]

Trying to make it light as possible. If my truck breaks down I can drag it back home. Hell with the truck! Lol!

LOL! that's why I got a Dodge!

 

[JeromeAz]

I have a dodge 4 door 4x4 too but its a durango. One day I'll get rid of it and buy a chevy truck.

 

[jcazgoldchaser]

Mine will have the spray bar inside the drum made of black pipe. With the rotation of the drum and with the spray nozzles mounted to the outside the rocks are not receiving the washing as they would with the spray nozzles mounted inside the drum. The drum while turning is deflecting the spray of water. I am building mine with 1/2 holes perforated steel rolled into a drum and welded. This will keep the drum straight and true and not having to deal with 3 separate pieces of metals in getting the 3 pieces aligned and true. I have everything but the drum. Until the drum is in my hands I will not start the build. By my calculations the drum will have 1754 holes...

View attachment 821195

I don't understand the huge classification area on these trommels. In my mind, 90% of the trommel should be holding water and washing rock. Then allow the rinse to pour into the sluice. Sort of like on this Angus Mackirk




And then instead of a little feed hopper, why not a larger hopper with washbars (not this big, but maybe 5 gal bucketish sized)



I just remember watching this thinking a smaller shovel sized, or bucket sized trough with the spraybars just before the trommel.





Oh, something a bit like this one

 

[JeromeAz]

The first link you have isn't a trommel its a wash plant. A trommel works better. All trommels have spray bars in the hopper. You could have a big trough with spray bars. You could built it however you want or buy one however you want. I want mine to be light weight and portable. So a large trough is just more weight. The dirt starts getting washed once it hits the hopper and washes through the trommel. You can wash the bigger rocks that don't drop through as long as you want. It just depends on the angle of the trommel.

Hope that helps.

 

[AzViper]

I don't understand the huge classification area on these trommels. In my mind, 90% of the trommel should be holding water and washing rock.

I believe I have to agree with you. The idea is to wash the rocks as long as you can, the dirt/rocks that's going to pass through classification area is going to pass whether it 12", 18", or 24" long. The angle of the drum determines how long the paydirt gets washed.

 

[jog]

The reason I put the spray bar on the outside of the drum is because it's a 12" drum, If you add a spray bar to the inside of the drum now you have reduced the the drum size down at leat another inch or two by the time you mount the spray bar into the drum, if you don't have a large drum then what happens is the rocks will roll up the sides and wedge them selves between the spray bar and the drum. The spray bar works great in a bigger drum but I found that with a 12" drum it didn't work for me. I don't wan't to spend all day classifing material that the trommel should be doing for me, if it's on my shovel it should go through....

jog

 

[DizzyDigger]

You are all way ahead of my little trommel...lol



The hopper on mine holds almost 5 gal. of material, and I found that the best way to
wash it is to simply pour a 5 gal. bucket of water over the material in the feed hopper.
It washes most all the small stuff right out into the collection tub before the aggregate
ever hits the screens, and another gal or so poured over the screen while turning
gets pretty much all of it. It can handle rocks up to about 4" just fine, but I try and
wash them off in the bucket and toss 'em before running the material as it saves
the wear and tear on the whole trommel.

Was easy to build once I got all the parts together, and although I made a couple
of changes to their build, I followed this set of plans:

http://mlaine.homeip.net/Trom/Trom

 

[JeromeAz]

Well that's definitely light weight and portable! Nice job! Now if only you had a wiper motor, an electric pump and a battery then all you have to do is feed it.

 

[jcazgoldchaser]

The first link you have isn't a trommel its a wash plant. A trommel works better. All trommels have spray bars in the hopper. You could have a big trough with spray bars. You could built it however you want or buy one however you want. I want mine to be light weight and portable. So a large trough is just more weight. The dirt starts getting washed once it hits the hopper and washes through the trommel. You can wash the bigger rocks that don't drop through as long as you want. It just depends on the angle of the trommel.

Hope that helps.

But your scoop underneath means that after 18", all the flowing water leaves the trommel. For the rest of the screening, only the spray bars are washing the rocks. During the first 18", the rocks are tumbling with the water from the trough and the first 18" of spray.

If you reversed the design so only the last 18" were perforated, the rocks water and muck would tumble together much longer.

Or is 18" enough to completely breakdown dirt clods so they aren't flowing through the screen and over the sluice {still trapping gold}?

 

[JeromeAz]

You mean there's a scoop under there? Lol! I'm no expert on trommels. I've looked at all the trommels out there to figure how to build mine and I like Jog's the best. His design, the dirt starts getting washed as soon as it hit the hopper then through about 1' 1/2 before it even hits the screen. So there's your18". I'd say that's plenty. Not only is the water washing the gold off but the rocks rolling around in there is going to do it too and break up the clumps.

 

[Doitlaynstyle]

I'm posting to subscribe to this post. I'll be building a trommel this winter and I need a few ideas. Looking good!

 

[AzViper]

I have decided that its more important to have a longer wash area and a smaller classification area. For me its a no brainer. The entire idea is to wash the rocks clean before the rocks move onto the classification area of the cylinder. Anything larger goes out the end of the cylinder while everything smaller than 1/2" will be deposited into the sluice. The cylinder will be ready for me to pick up once I am back from Las Vegas. I am having the cylinder rolled from 11 gauge mild steel and the finish cylinder will have over five hundred 1/2" holes. Also my latest drawing will have the 6.5HP engine mounted under the cylinder instead of being mounted on the side of the trommel. Again this seems more logical as in this design its free of the dirt being placed in the hopper while making the entire trommel shorter due to having a removable hopper. Trommel will have a metal spray bar through the cylinder.

JeromeAz your concern of the weight but I will tell you the weight of the lid of the enclosed trommel will outweigh an open top trommel with a metal spray bar through the cylinder. Even the author and builder has stated that he dislikes having the spray bar on the outside of the cylinder. Spraying from the outside through the mesh just cannot wash the rocks at the same level as being washed with the spray bar on the inside. Jog is craftsman and his build is top notch, I just don't like having the spray nozzles spraying through the mesh.

 

[jcazgoldchaser]

I have decided that its more important to have a longer wash area and a smaller classification area. For me its a no brainer. The entire idea is to wash the rocks clean before the rocks move onto the classification area of the cylinder. Anything larger goes out the end of the cylinder while everything smaller than 1/2" will be deposited into the sluice. The cylinder will be ready for me to pick up once I am back from Las Vegas. I am having the cylinder rolled from 11 gauge mild steel and the finish cylinder will have over five hundred 1/2" holes. Also my latest drawing will have the 6.5HP engine mounted under the cylinder instead of being mounted on the side of the trommel. Again this seems more logical as in this design its free of the dirt being placed in the hopper while making the entire trommel shorter due to having a removable hopper. Trommel will have a metal spray bar through the cylinder.

JeromeAz your concern of the weight but I will tell you the weight of the lid of the enclosed trommel will outweigh an open top trommel with a metal spray bar through the cylinder. Even the author and builder has stated that he dislikes having the spray bar on the outside of the cylinder. Spraying from the outside through the mesh just cannot wash the rocks at the same level as being washed with the spray bar on the inside. Jog is craftsman and his build is top notch, I just don't like having the spray nozzles spraying through the mesh.

View attachment 822436

Scoop thingy - that trough under a trommel's screening area that collects the fines and directs them to the next gold processing area. Brown in the diagram in the above post.



One of my 'vizons' is a barrel cut in 1/2 10 or 35 gal plastic barrel (search craig's list for 55 gal barrel for used food drums)

View attachment 822548

Such that it can be removed and placed over the trommel for transport. Perhaps folding up and over like a concrete mixer chute.

View attachment 822549

Looks like a 30gal weighs 13lb, a 55ga 24 lbs.

So 6lbs for a 20"x30" pre wash/soak trough. If you play with heating and bending plastic, maybe larger.

Somewhere someone called a trommel a clayball rolling machine. I'll have to see if I can find that post and why they said that. Maybe too much slump time causes the clay to ball up?

Gold n’ Clay
Building The Ultimate Spraybar

 

[JeromeAz]

I have decided that its more important to have a longer wash area and a smaller classification area. For me its a no brainer. The entire idea is to wash the rocks clean before the rocks move onto the classification area of the cylinder. Anything larger goes out the end of the cylinder while everything smaller than 1/2" will be deposited into the sluice. The cylinder will be ready for me to pick up once I am back from Las Vegas. I am having the cylinder rolled from 11 gauge mild steel and the finish cylinder will have over five hundred 1/2" holes. Also my latest drawing will have the 6.5HP engine mounted under the cylinder instead of being mounted on the side of the trommel. Again this seems more logical as in this design its free of the dirt being placed in the hopper while making the entire trommel shorter due to having a removable hopper. Trommel will have a metal spray bar through the cylinder.

JeromeAz your concern of the weight but I will tell you the weight of the lid of the enclosed trommel will outweigh an open top trommel with a metal spray bar through the cylinder. Even the author and builder has stated that he dislikes having the spray bar on the outside of the cylinder. Spraying from the outside through the mesh just cannot wash the rocks at the same level as being washed with the spray bar on the inside. Jog is craftsman and his build is top notch, I just don't like having the spray nozzles spraying through the mesh.

<img src="http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=822436"/>

Go easy on me now, I'm not a craftsman like Jog. Like I said before I may put the spray bar inside and it will be metal. I agree it needs to wash good first before it hits the screen. It's got at least a 1' 1/2 before it hits the screen. If you have it tilted too much then no it won't wash enough. Its more in the angle then the length. Below are some pics of commercial built trommels. They obliviously thought it doesn't need much before it hits the screen.















OK so the one's a little big but you get the idea.

I do have some other ideas in mind.