SHERRYs THREAD - My Gold Prospecting Journey

[H&F909ORO]

Kiddo, thanks for the tip but the closest place to me, which is where I prospect, is 1.5 hrs away. So, unless I strike it rich or win the lottery, it's my only choice right now. This river has good gold it's just that "Gold is where you find it!" ;-) the East Fork of the San Gabriel River was mined hard in the 1800's and early 1900's in which they used a lot of mercury to recover the gold: so, we get a lot of that with the new gold. However, our river recently had a flood from a non-goldbearing canyon and it brought down a lot of overburden, about 3-4 feet in most areas, so it's just time consuming to get down past that to get back to the gold. I had dug my good hole down about 4 feet and was hitting a slope of bedrock when the flood happened. It completely filled in my hole and added 3 foot on top of it so now it's 7 foot of digging down which would certainly take me quite a while sense I mostly prospect alone alone. It's especially much harder with all of the big boulders that it brought down too!

Only 1.5 hours? I wish I had it that good, my round trip is a total of 5 hours (excluding traffic on the way back) that's why it's so hard to get up to the place I love to go to. Gas is another problem as it's about 70-100 dollars for the total trip. My brother does help pay a little.

That overburden sounds like a pain to work with. I'm not much of a digger anymore, I like crevicing but those last pics I saw were nice. I normally see flakes but you got some chunky little pieces in there. Those look amazing! How did you make your hand dredge?

Keep Diggin!

 

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[Sideways Sherry]

Hi H&F, I just watched a few videos on YouTube and got my ideas from there. I made it real basic and from what I can tell it works better than the guys that put a lot of money into theirs and made them all fancy with hoses and buckets and check valves... I just suck it up and expel it into the classifier of a 2.5 gal bucket. The lower the bucket the better so you don't lose material trying to raise it so high to the top of the 5 gal bucket. 90% of the time, I dont even use the white tip, I can clean out larger rocks etc. with out it.

In the planning stage of building a 3" one now.

 

[KiddoTheMiner]

Only 1.5 hours? I wish I had it that good, my round trip is a total of 5 hours (excluding traffic on the way back) that's why it's so hard to get up to the place I love to go to. Gas is another problem as it's about 70-100 dollars for the total trip. My brother does help pay a little.

That overburden sounds like a pain to work with. I'm not much of a digger anymore, I like crevicing but those last pics I saw were nice. I normally see flakes but you got some chunky little pieces in there. Those look amazing! How did you make your hand dredge?

Keep Diggin!

5 hours LOL
The longest my dad is willing to drive me is 1.45
The longest i have drived is 0.40

 

[H&F909ORO]

Hi H&F, I just watched a few videos on YouTube and got my ideas from there. I made it real basic and from what I can tell it works better than the guys that put a lot of money into theirs and made them all fancy with hoses and buckets and check valves... I just suck it up and expel it into the classifier of a 2.5 gal bucket. The lower the bucket the better so you don't lose material trying to raise it so high to the top of the 5 gal bucket. 90% of the time, I dont even use the white tip, I can clean out larger rocks etc. with out it. In the planning stage of building a 3" one now.

Ya I hear you on that expensive stuff. I built a 2in one, actually I built 2 of them. The first one is flawed because the plunger gets stuck when you put it down. Next one I built was more efficient. Remember you got to haul that 3in to where you go. My 2in is heavy enough, but your build is different so I'm sure it's probably lighter. What did you use for the suction? Your build is probably a lot better than mine. Next time could you take a pic of its total dirt that it brought up? That would be greatly appreciated!

 

[H&F909ORO]

5 hours LOL The longest my dad is willing to drive me is 1.45 The longest i have drived is 0.40

Well me and my brother have a deal, he drives me to get where I want to go mining and in return me an him go to monterey to scuba dive. It's his turn to take me mining. I wonder when that is......

 

[goldog]

Sherry is doin' OK guys. Don't worry about her. Just like all of us she just wants to get the gold.

That EF gold is fickle. Now that it's all moved around up there it's hard to pick up the good pay-streaks again. Tough to get a couple bucks a day on some trips. Picture looks like just about that, plus or minus the silver grey chunks. (Hard to tell from the pictures; lead, merc gold, you never know maybe platinum)

You'll have a good trip soon Sherry. With your tenacity you're due for a nice clean out. A nugget or picker at least.

If you really want some frustration come try our new (old) metal detector up there with the Bighorn Sheep.

 

[Sideways Sherry]

Yea well the last time some of my friends were up there with the big horn sheep one if the started having abdomen pains and had to be "choppered" outta there. My son was with them an exciting but scary event. The person is now nicknamed CHOPPER. LOL!!!

Thanks for the compliment, I feel that I'm doing ok, as well. Next weekend I'm gonna hike up about 2.5 miles and give that a try.

I'm not sure what type of piping you made your hand dredge out of but I made mine out of the black ABS piping instead of the white PVC just because it is lighter.

I made my 2" dredge 4 ft long so I can get a decent amount of material in it, about 3 or more shovels full. Then once all the small material is gone from around the bigger rocks I just go down in the water and fill my extra bucket with all of the rocks and dump them out or I just throw them out by hand and then go back to suctioning again. I prefer not to use the white sniping tip, I can move more material without it.

 

[Sideways Sherry]

H&F, tell me about your plunger that gets stuck. I may have a fix for it...

 

[H&F909ORO]

H&F, tell me about your plunger that gets stuck. I may have a fix for it...

Well to start, when you pull the plunger up it works fine. When you push it down if you do it some what hard and it will get stuck. Then I have to muscle it open sometimes even turn it over and use my feet. With that said what's your idea on how to fix it?

 

[arizau]

Hi H&F, I just watched a few videos on YouTube and got my ideas from there. I made it real basic and from what I can tell it works better than the guys that put a lot of money into theirs and made them all fancy with hoses and buckets and check valves... I just suck it up and expel it into the classifier of a 2.5 gal bucket. The lower the bucket the better so you don't lose material trying to raise it so high to the top of the 5 gal bucket. 90% of the time, I dont even use the white tip, I can clean out larger rocks etc. with out it.

In the planning stage of building a 3" one now.

To lessen the chance of spillage while transferring the material try submerging a low sided plastic storage container next to the hole you are dredging and do the transfer under water. It's possible that pickers and maybe a nugget will be the first thing that spills and you don't want to miss them. It may be a good idea to check the hole or crack with an underwater viewer or with a mask when you think you are done to see if you missed anything. Weight the container with a rock to keep it in place if there is a current. Good luck.

 

[Sideways Sherry]

H&F,
What is your plunger made of? The part that creates the suction, is it a rubber test plug?

 

[H&F909ORO]

It's a test plug. I fitted a piece of round wood in my 1 1/2 in tube (plunger). Then I drilled a hole to fit a all thread in it, glued it up to stay in place and added my test plug to that.

 

[triple d]

If you used threaded rod and and test plug. Just double nut the ends with washers to hold the plunger part together. And on the inside end of the test plug. Use a wing nut so you can adjust the tightness of the test plug.Too tight it will be too hard to plunge.This a way to adjust the plunger.Hope this helps.

 

[Sideways Sherry]

H&F,
Take circle cut of leather about 5" across, punch a small hole in it and wrap it around the test plug with the smooth outer skin side out. When wet, the leather will swell to form the seal and acts as a natural lubricant too. Always soak the leather in water several minutes before use so it will seal properly. From experience, I do not recommend using a wing nut as it will back off too easily, even with a lock washer. I use a Teflon insert locknut and never have a problem and don't have to adjust it. Just be sure to soak the leather in water for a good while before tightening it down the first time. I keep an extra leather circle in my back pack just in case but the first one lasted me 4 months.

The alternative is purchasing actual leather cups which I intend to do soon.

Let me know if you have any further questions.

 

[triple d]

Thats a good idea with the leather insert. But at some point the test plug will need to be adjusted. Thats the way they work they need to be adjusted. The one i built the test plug is attached to the 1 1/2 pvc pipe. And that piece of pipe with the test plug slides inside the 2" pick up tube. Only needed to adjust the test plug when I built it. Sherry"s is a more simple design. I have another one I bought its the same as Sherry"s. They both work great.

 

[H&F909ORO]

Nice idea with the leather piece although I might have sealed my piece up too soon. Which means getting to the test plug is impossible. I will post a picture on what I mean later this evening. Thanks for the tips.

 

[scoy]

I used pipe insulation as a plug and it works great. I will take a pict and post it.

 

[Sideways Sherry]

H&F,
Yea I sealed mine up too. I plan to make some modifications to mine, I hope before this weekend. I'm just going to use my hacksaw and saw off the upper end cap so I can remove the plunger and just replace it with a new glue on end cap as it will only make it about 1 1/2 to 2 inches shorter which is not a big deal or I just might put a screw on off cap but I doubt it as I am too cheap. ;-)

When I take it apart, I will take photos of how I built the plunger. I had initially tried the test plug without the leather and ran into the problem of it getting stuck on the material when pushing it back in and then to have it loose enough to go back in was causing loss of suction. That's when I searched the Internet for the best product for suction of the pump and I came across sludge/mud pumps and windmill pumps which had leather cups and then I got the idea of putting the leather on the outside of the test plug temporarily until I could afford to buy the leather cups. Yes, you can continue to use it this way with your test plug for as long as you want or until the thinner leather wears out and needs replacing or you can upgrade. This has worked great for me for the last four months (used mine once a week for est 8+ hours per day) and I will probably continue to use it until I have worn out all of my extra leather pieces and then I will purchase leather cups. The leather certainly took care of my problem immediately.

You can get craft leather from your local craft stores like Michael's and Joann's for $10-15 but that's not worth it to me! I would check out the local Goodwill or thrift stores for a REALLY REALLY CHEAP leather jacket or purse… Just be sure that it is genuine leather and not the fake plastic stuff. Maybe you can sign up for www.freecycle.org and find someone giving away a small genuine leather chair or couch for free in which that would be perfect! The thicker the leather the better but not so thick that it won't bend over the plug. However, if you find really thick leather like 1/4 inch or so and somewhat stiff, I can send you the link to a video on how to make your own awesome leather cups or you can search the Internet for it yourself (but then again after buying the paraffin wax etc. and considering the messiness, it may wind up being cheaper/easier just to buy them pre-made online anyway.

Again, a set of 2 cups (you would use both positioned back to back) from www.gold-n-sands.com is $14.95 plus est. $5 shipping. So $20 is really not that bad. I have searched all over the Internet and the cheapest ones other than these that I have found were $9.95 each but the shipping is about $18 itself so in my opinion the above website is hands-down the best deal.

But I just used a piece of leather I had laying around the house from years ago.

 

[H&F909ORO]

Wow you sure work your dredge. I only occasionally take it out with me only because I'm crevicing all the time. Sounds like a good mod for the dredge. Maybe if I start using it more or get out mining more I will put it on. Right now I haven't been out for 2 months and I'm really sick (gold fever). I'm going to try my new hand dredge I built oppose to the other one and see what happens as I'm going to try out sniping. Thanks for all your help Sherry.

 

[KevinInColorado]

Sherry I'm totally impressed with the research and inventiveness you are bringing here...like an old hand!