12 INCH TROMMEL BUILD

GarretDiggingAz · May 3, 2014

Keith,
Glad to see the work is pretty much done. I finally did my spray bars and need to do a video for Jay. So he can see what's up. I really dragged my feet on this. Heck, I finally ran about 12-15 gallons of dirt from Jeff's claim. Only a couple specks. Still got about 54 to go. The run I did was from the bottom of a hole I dug and was just starting to get into bigger cobble. Surprised I didn't get more, but that's how it goes. However, I do think I found silver in a rock. Didn't take a pic yet. I'll post it on Jeff's page after I take the pic.
Sorry to hear about your dad. Hope things get better with him and of coarse your knee.
Best wishes

AzViper · May 3, 2014

Well I am happy to say that my father is being released today after 9 days in the hospital and after a few doctors at TMC had given him up for the dead on Sunday morning. Last Sunday we were told to gather the family and my brother who is doing very well had made the trip from Lake Havasu to say goodbye. If you know my father you would know he is a very strong willed person who is a vet from WWII and pilot who has seen it all during WWII. As of the first of the year 1,080,700 vets remain of the 16,112,256 members of the armed forces of WWII. Each passing day this proud group of men and women are losing nearly 700 war vets.

Doitlaynstyle · May 3, 2014

Big thumbs up on your dad! I'm proud to say that men like him are the reason I joined the military. My family has a long history of serving this country and those men stood for something that I'm afraid we're losing. You have something special there and I hope you enjoy all the time you get with him. Tell him his service is appreciated by more people than he will ever know please.

GarretDiggingAz · May 4, 2014

My grandfather was in WWII and I grew up not knowing he served. He never ever talked about it. I wish I knew more about what he had been through, but maybe not. That generation of men just didn't seem to talk to others about what it was like. At least not to family. Heck, I finally found out why he wouldn't fly. Apparently, they had just finished an investigation on a plane that had crashed in Africa. Then his plane started to have a problem and they were going down. This was the same problem that the other plane had. So he asked god to get them out of it. If he would, then he'd never fly again. They wound up not crashing. So he never ever flew again. The whole time I thought it was due to a heart problem. Lol.
I was glad I got to find this out before he died. This was the only story I ever heard of his tour there. Then after my grandmother passed away some years later. I wound up getting two pieces of jewelry that he had bought for her while in Africa. So I felt proud to have these pieces.

Glad to hear your dad got out Keith. Plus your brother well being as well. Hope you all stay on the upside for a good time to come. If they're like you. I know they're good people.

AzViper · May 4, 2014

GarretDiggingAz said:
My grandfather was in WWII and I grew up not knowing he served. He never ever talked about it. I wish I knew more about what he had been through, but maybe not. That generation of men just didn't seem to talk to others about what it was like. At least not to family. Heck, I finally found out why he wouldn't fly. Apparently, they had just finished an investigation on a plane that had crashed in Africa. Then his plane started to have a problem and they were going down. This was the same problem that the other plane had. So he asked god to get them out of it. If he would, then he'd never fly again. They wound up not crashing. So he never ever flew again. The whole time I thought it was due to a heart problem. Lol.
I was glad I got to find this out before he died. This was the only story I ever heard of his tour there. Then after my grandmother passed away some years later. I wound up getting two pieces of jewelry that he had bought for her while in Africa. So I felt proud to have these pieces.

Glad to hear your dad got out Keith. Plus your brother well being as well. Hope you all stay on the upside for a good time to come. If they're like you. I know they're good people.

Garret,

You are correct this generation of Vets do not like to talk about the WWII. Like you I wanted to learn first hand from him but he gets very choked up talking about his time spent Okinawa, Iwo Jima, and Mariana Islands. I spent months on end scanning his collection of photographs before he decided to donate the images to war museums around the country. I still want to take him to the Pima Air Museum here in Tucson but he refuses to go.

Anyways I will be going up to Jays shop on Wednesday to have Jay modify the hopper so I can get the trommel in operation in the next few weeks.

GarretDiggingAz · May 5, 2014

AzViper said:
Garret, You are correct this generation of Vets do not like to talk about the WWII. Like you I wanted to learn first hand from him but he gets very choked up talking about his time spent Okinawa, Iwo Jima, and Mariana Islands. I spent months on end scanning his collection of photographs before he decided to donate the images to war museums around the country. I still want to take him to the Pima Air Museum here in Tucson but he refuses to go. Anyways I will be going up to Jays shop on Wednesday to have Jay modify the hopper so I can get the trommel in operation in the next few weeks.

Maybe I could meet ya at jays shop. Maybe I'll bring my sluice with its current setup with some dirt and I can get input from you two on improvements. He told me to get a 3000 gph pump for spray bars, but I used my 1800 for that and kept the 2400 for the sluice. It did seem to do the job. Just going to add more holes at a downward angle.

Frghtshkr · May 5, 2014

AZ glad to hear about your father lost mine 4 years back WWII vet well. never said a word about it but I ended up going through is papers from the military and he was stationed in Normandy at one point. Now I understand.

AzViper · May 5, 2014

Frghtshkr said:
AZ glad to hear about your father lost mine 4 years back WWII vet well. never said a word about it but I ended up going through is papers from the military and he was stationed in Normandy at one point. Now I understand.

Sorry to hear of your lost. Yeah those of that era are tough, the conditions and equipment at hand at that time were rather primitive compared to equipment today. I have an old pair of boots he had worn, very crude.

AzViper · May 9, 2014

Spent a good nine hours up at Jays shop working the bugs out of the trommel. As you can see the hopper is completed and the water that flows from the back edge is outstanding. We did learn that the spray bar needs to be rebuilt. Way to many holes for my 8400 GPH pump. With the open 1" hole in the hopper, spray bar, and feeding additional water into the sluice the pump can not handle it. So not to give up on the pump I am going to make another spray bar with very few holes. Additional we found that water that was discharging from the classifier of the trommel onto the chute, the water was traveling uphill and draining out the discharge end of the trommel. We ran water through the trommel and 5 gallons of Stanton dirt and recovered gold from the Gold Hog mats. I plan to be up to Jays shop next Friday and most likely will disassemble the trommel and get it powder coated. To combat this issue the chute was redesigned at a greater angle of 20 degrees and Jay place a back flow stop in the chute. Jay was at his shop early this morning working on the fix.

I returned to Tucson yesterday and what should have been a 2 hour drive took 4 hours. Phx. rush hour is ridiculous as I took the 101 east to 51 south to I-10. Phx. is a mini L.A. exploding.

SLNugget · May 10, 2014

AzViper said:
Spent a good nine hours up at Jays shop working the bugs out of the trommel. As you can see the hopper is completed and the water that flows from the back edge is outstanding. We did learn that the spray bar needs to be rebuilt. Way to many holes for my 8400 GPH pump. With the open 1" hole in the hopper, spray bar, and feeding additional water into the sluice the pump can not handle it. So not to give up on the pump I am going to make another spray bar with very few holes. Additional we found that water that was discharging from the classifier of the trommel onto the chute, the water was traveling uphill and draining out the discharge end of the trommel. We ran water through the trommel and 5 gallons of Stanton dirt and recovered gold from the Gold Hog mats. I plan to be up to Jays shop next Friday and most likely will disassemble the trommel and get it powder coated. To combat this issue the chute was redesigned at a greater angle of 20 degrees and Jay place a back flow stop in the chute. Jay was at his shop early this morning working on the fix.

I returned to Tucson yesterday and what should have been a 2 hour drive took 4 hours. Phx. rush hour is ridiculous as I took the 101 east to 51 south to I-10. Phx. is a mini L.A. exploding.

<img src="http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=991611"/> <img src="http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=991612"/>

Nice work on the hopper. Looks great!

AzViper · May 22, 2014

SLNugget said:
Nice work on the hopper. Looks great!

Hi Stan,

I hope to be running material soon. Getting back on my feet and the shoulder feels great. Knee is about back to normal. Had another incident with a young family member last night in a car accident after high school graduation that sent 6 teenagers to the hospital. My wife's niece was airlifted to UMC but she and the others are going to be ok. This has been a terrible 12 months and I sure hope everything get back to normal.

Sample Pan Dan · May 23, 2014

Man Keith, you can't catch a break! Hope all the kids will be ok.

SLNugget · May 23, 2014

AzViper said:
Hi Stan,

I hope to be running material soon. Getting back on my feet and the shoulder feels great. Knee is about back to normal. Had another incident with a young family member last night in a car accident after high school graduation that sent 6 teenagers to the hospital. My wife's niece was airlifted to UMC but she and the others are going to be ok. This has been a terrible 12 months and I sure hope everything get back to normal.

Jeez Keith...sorry to hear this latest catastrophe. You have had a horrible time. It's got to get better soon. Hang in there my friend.

AzViper · May 23, 2014

She will be ok with time. She has two broken arms, broken leg, broken back, broken collarbone, and we just learn a fractured sternum. They all were very lucky as the teenage driver was exceeding 100 MPH. The car rolled 7 times, but nobody was ejected. The driver is still in ICU. I have yet to find out what kind of car it is as it held up well for that many rollovers.

SLNugget · May 23, 2014

AzViper said:
She will be ok with time. She has two broken arms, broken leg, broken back, broken collarbone, and we just learn a fractured sternum. They all were very lucky as the teenage driver was exceeding 100 MPH. The car rolled 7 times, but nobody was ejected. The driver is still in ICU. I have yet to find out what kind of car it is as it held up well for that many rollovers.

<img src="http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=999317"/>

The young heal a lot quicker than us old guys. Positive thoughts for a total and speedy recovery coming to you both.

gold tramp · May 23, 2014

Gosh murphys just hangin out there with ya, AZ.
I think if you was to give me one of those new Viper Vacs murphy may go away, just funnin, we have been havin our fair share of troubles latley hope things get better for you.
GT.....................

AzViper · Jun 21, 2014

I started this project last July and amazingly its nearly at the end. Was not my intentions to take so long but many personal and family issues arrived during this project. Final assembly is taking place today. Here are a few sneak peeks of the trommel. The desert sand powder coating is assume and Jay over at Just Bent had seen this color and I told him to go with it. I also want to publicly thank Jay for all he has done to help complete this project as he is going through some personal issues with his back and I know what its like to have disc's touching a nerve, painful and not pleasant. More photos to follow and the first running video will be posted in the next few weeks once I have a trailer. I may buy a 10' or 12' enclosed trailer from my sister once she is back in town.

mu50stang · Jun 21, 2014

What setup with gold hog matting did you go with your sluice and how did it do on your tests.

jair · Jun 21, 2014

AzViper said:
I started this project last July and amazingly its nearly at the end. Was not my intentions to take so long but many personal and family issues arrived during this project. Final assembly is taking place today. Here are a few sneak peeks of the trommel. The desert sand powder coating is assume and Jay over at Just Bent had seen this color and I told him to go with it. I also want to publicly thank Jay for all he has done to help complete this project as he is going through some personal issues with his back and I know what its like to have disc's touching a nerve, painful and not pleasant. More photos to follow and the first running video will be posted in the next few weeks once I have a trailer. I may buy a 10' or 12' enclosed trailer from my sister once she is back in town. <img src="http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=1012262"/> <img src="http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=1012263"/> <img src="http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=1012265"/>

looks nice