Bad pans & good pans .

jack outbush

Jr. Member
Oct 19, 2014
29
40
Desert in Australia
Primary Interest:
Prospecting
Having used many types of pans for many years I now support the Kress hypothesis . :icon_thumleft:
Some years back i posted the following :--

GOLD PAN and the Kress hypothesis
The importance of the angle of slope of the circular wall is implicit in all US patents for gold pans, but only in the 1950s did any inventor properly examine the effect of the slope on panning performance. It was Bruce Kress who first developed a hypothesis for wall slope in 1957 in US patent #2,797,809. The Kress hypothesis might be reworded as:
The angle of inward slope of the circular wall of a gold pan should be in the range of 18 to 26 degrees; less than this and the contents of the pan are likely to remain inert, more than this and the contents of the pan are prone to collapse regardless of the size of the particles or their density.

If the Kress hypothesis is correct, then the majority of North American pans have outer walls that are much too steep for ease of efficient use. Yet thousands of recreational miners, prospectors and geologists continue to use steep-sided pans. Possibly the Kress hypothesis is erroneous; more likely the hypothesis is correct but compromised by the overriding desire of the panner to have a central flat area of maximum size to contain the maximum ore and water during the initial wetting, disaggregating and sorting. Only in the later stages of panning does the Kress hypothesis become critical, after the volume of solids and water in the pan have become greatly reduced. Tests and detailed observations are required. In the 50 years since the Kress hypothesis was propounded; more than 10 North American gold pans have been patented but all ignore it.

Please consider when buying your next pan !

jack
 

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Bad pans & good pans .

Came across this on Amazon. Looks tempting to try out :)
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Sent from my SM-G935V using TreasureNet.com mobile app

It’s a very, very nicely finished surface for panning your cons. The trick is how well your eye can see the gold against that color. Some love the color, some hate it. Didn’t work for my eyes. I’m now “Back in Black” (RIP Malcolm Young).
 

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I like the black pans. I've tried several different colors. The green ones everybody has is difficult for me to see gold in the shade I have to be in sun light to see it with my cheaters. The blue ones are a little better I still like the black the best.
 

I like the black pans. I've tried several different colors. The green ones everybody has is difficult for me to see gold in the shade I have to be in sun light to see it with my cheaters. The blue ones are a little better I still like the black the best.

Exactly my experience!
 

Green and black work best for me too... There is one exception in blue and that is the EZ Gold Pan.. It is a darker shade of blue and is easy on my eyes.
 

Came across this on Amazon. Looks tempting to try out :)
View attachment 1517713

the Falcon 11" cleanup pan is $8 it's spun/pressed hard plastic 40 deg. wall, wide flat bottom
just for cleaning gold from black sands, don't scratch or season this pan just a drop of dish soap

my favorite the GPAA 14" 45 deg. wide flat bottom I get them at Cabela's for $9.99 I own 7 of them
the other one you can get at Cabela's that might be a good pan is the black Estwing, same price.

I also have a few of the cheep black pans ($3.99) that I hate 13.5" 32 deg. has a small 6" wide "drop bottom"
I see a lot of people use them, my brother only likes using them, he would rather use them than my GPAA pan
of course he is blind as a bat and has to use reading glasses to pan, he likes the color but also the less steep sides
.
******* sorry for over posting, I was bored... *******
 

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anyone ever try the flat pan or sometimes called the Ferrari pan it was developed in Finland
I saw them on the news when they had the world gold panning championships in Placerville
I'd like to find where I could get one to try out, looks pretty cool
.
 

They sell the flat pans at the true value hardware store in Placerville.
 

anyone ever try the flat pan or sometimes called the Ferrari pan it was developed in Finland
I saw them on the news when they had the world gold panning championships in Placerville
I'd like to find where I could get one to try out, looks pretty cool
.


I do. While it works, for general prospecting it's not my favorite. Big and cumbersome. Doesn't fit in the backpack.
However I do know some prospectors which use them regularly in Finland.

If you're just doing quick sampling to find a place to set up a sluice in a known gold-bearing river, then they are excellent.
 

Good Pan Bad Pan
Howdy All,
I had to read this Thread a few times to get the feel of it since it goes on for 5 pages. I'm glad to see a discussion on one of the most basic tools for the Mineral Prospector and Miner. Since I invented the Pyramid Pro Production and Maverick Finishing Pans, it only makes sense of my interest in this subject. Good and bad Gold Pans as a comparable, can be quite complicated and certainly subjective , this is why I will only hit on a few notations for thought and reflection. First off - I can make gold recovery in just about any container there is, including my hand. So why bother to design anything at all? When I demonstrate my Maverick Finishing Pan and show the results of using it, I point to the larger pieces and tell everyone that I can use a Hub Cap and collect that kind of gold. So why buy the Maverick I ask? As I say that, I point out the micro and odd shaped gold that you can hardly see which the Maverick can collect. Then I say that if you can retain that kind of gold in your Pan, then you have a good Pan and also a good technique. With practice, you can make even a moderate designed Pan work fairly well. As an example of this - when I was in Africa I had the privilege of Panning with the women there, as only women do the Panning. They start Panning around 4 years old with a Giant Gourd so by the time they are of age they don't miss a stroke! I would check their Tailing and find nothing of value. The point I'm making is you probably wouldn't want to use a Giant Gourd to go Panning, but with practice you could make it work very well. So why did I take the time to invent the Maverick if just about anything seems to work with practice? Because the Maverick Design lends to making Panning easier to learn yet will give you the professional results you desire along with advanced features. Those advanced features include a Rectangular design for singular direction which keeps a Laminar Flow and easy separation control of the gravels. This plus a built-in Grit Area for retaining your gold while pulling back Black Sand for cleaning. A Grit Strip can also be over layed on the built-in Grit to help retain larger gold. One of the best features I like is that it is impossible to lose your gold in the final clean-up - unlike what can happen with a Round Pan Design. Is all of that easy to figure out? It took me 5 1/2 years to perfect the Pyramid Pro Production Pan and alittle over 2 years to perfect the Maverick Finishing Pan. If you think that you can build a better Mouse Trap, well give it a try, but if you do, make sure that it is at least equal to what's out there and it advances the technology. There are just too many "Gizmos" out there that really fall short of their goal, but are being sold to an unaware public anyway.
The next subject I wish to make a comment about is Color Differention. I used to work with Lasers at one point of my life and one project I played with was creating all colors from only one. I'm not going into that right now, but to understand how that relates to a Gold Pan, read my Blog on this subject.

Lastly, I want to say that any Pan or Heavy Object that requires your body to be parallel to the water source such as the Batea, Large Speed Pans and other types that are heavy and are being sold and used - are dangerous. These types of Pans, even if they work well, are a one way trip to Back Pain with possible permanent physical damage. This is a fact and for those that want to know more on the subject I list a few organizations to research about Back Pain. I hope this small amount of information is helpful to our subject here and if you have any questions I can answer, please bring it on. Cheers.

The Fossicker

OSHA.GOV Back Disorders and Injuries
JAMANETWORK.COM low Back Pain Apr. 24, 2013
MAYOCLINIC.ORG Back Pain


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Hello. For several years I tried many different pans. I liked to work only three gold pans, and I had to work for several years and work on three favorite gold pans. The work on prospecting and extraction of minerals helped to identify those models that are successful for our conditions. My friends also participated in this and talked about their opinions, but they also used at least two gold coasters in the dialogue, which we said we like and what we need for ourselves. It's been a long time, a few years. Once I drew and showed a drawing, that's why I and my friends started to create what we all wanted. Several times I tore the drawing and drew again, each time the details became valid and accurate. For several years I learned how others work in order to understand why my friends and I chose only three models. After this great and interesting work I drew a drawing for us.
This is the beginning of a story that I will try to tell.IMG_4516.JPG
 

Karnack the all knowing sees a new IMPROVED pan offering coming soon.......lol
 

I have to explain that in rare cases, we use the gold pan to explore a new place. The main use is washing the concentrate out of the gateway carpets.
Therefore, the percentage of heavy black sand was very high.
*We made a gradually increasing number of pits in large riffles. This allowed the lower and middle black concentrate to fall into gradually increasing pit holes.
*We have scraped the optimal size of the total area of ​​these pits so that only light sand could slide from above. It was an excellent result. But this seemed to us a little. To feel confident and not to strain, we made 3 small safety ribs at the exit. This made it possible to make a quick washout of the light sand and prevent the signs from washing off, if you are tired and your reaction is weakened, now everything is visible and there are three safety barriers that can be rolled back in time.
To be continued.
IMG_0017.jpg
 

Angles, blueprints, schematics... I'm lost! Got a black, plastic pan as an impulse buy at Cabela's with an "Estwing" sticker on the bottom. I know I gotta "season" it though with liquid soap and a brillo or something. Has some ridges like the one above. Gonna have fun too!
 

I agree that a lot of gold pallet has been made, and many people can adapt and get a good result. But we had several reasons. We used to wash 2 pans, and we wanted to create something new. First we discussed which tray is right for us. there was an idea to try and do it for yourself and your friends, and we were not sure of a good result. We decided to try and take a chance. This work lasted almost 3 years. I will show the old sketches, which in the process of creation should have been abandoned. We made layouts and tried them, and this led us to the right product for us.????? 003.jpg ????? 005.jpg ?????? 001.jpg
 

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