Bad pans & good pans .

[jack outbush]

Having used many types of pans for many years I now support the Kress hypothesis .
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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[deepsees]

Yes, you hit the apple. I studied at the Aviation Institute for a long time and got my first education. This happened a long time ago. I was taught to take science seriously, because in aviation the error is inadmissible. Many years have passed, but I still remember how the aircraft and its concepts are arranged. This taught me how to professionally perform this work.
The golden saucepan, of course, is not an airplane, but it's an excellent job that lasted almost 3 years. I can wash gold with a dining plate, like many here, but you will agree on an example, it's more convenient to move around a good car or something that makes you feel better.

 

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[nh.nugget]

Yea but you're comparing some thing with 1000's of precision parts to a piece of plastic. No matter what pan it all comes down to the person running it doesn't matter if its got swirl power or built in riffles its only as good as the operator. I take science seriously as well I used to build cars from scratch.

 

[deepsees]

I agree with you, there is no bad or good gold pan, there is a determining factor that people like best. Three years ago I drew a sketch in the forest by the stream and washed the sample 30 times a day in a pan of 17 ", then I just drew what my friends and I wanted to try for work and I did not know that these drawings would be made into a product .

 

[Hamfist]

I bought a 15" Minelab pan at the gold show today. I was looking to buy two Prolines but just bought one since the Minelab was much better in real life than I expected. It's a deep navy blue, so gold should really stand out against it. It's got coarse and fine riffles, like those cheap, brittle cobalt blue Keene pans, but the moulding is MUCH better and the material is the same as a Proline, only slightly thicker and it has a large, flat bottom like a Super Sluice . I think people who like Prolines and Super Sluices will like this one a lot.

 

[N-Lionberger]

I don't like how flexible the proline pans are, I have the big 17" and it likes to fold up like a taco.

 

[Hamfist]

I don't like how flexible the proline pans are, I have the big 17" and it likes to fold up like a taco.

Even the 14"s are a bit flexible when loaded up. Mine never see more than one tray's worth of material from a Gold Cube at home though, and I use Super Sluices out in the field. The Minelab feels like the same material as the Proline but heavier gauge, although still not as rigid as a Super Sluice.