Chair mat style of dry washer or other drop rifle dry washer

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May 10, 2017
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Anyone use the bottom of plastic / rubber chair mats for very fine drop rifle dry washing material?

At times one can get close out chair mats from different stores at very good price to make the gold mats / dry washer. The mats are kinda thick and very stiff.

For example I got lucky at a Costco wholesale outlet that was downsizing to a smaller store and sold there mats for around 1/2 price. The mats I purchased are about 3' x 4' in size. The channels or grooves are about 1/32" deep on the bottoms of the mats. Sorta like a gold cube plastic on the bottoms of the mats and the color of my mats are dark black.

There is also black runners that you can buy from say Home depot made for carpet etc. with v - grooves on the top.
 

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This works,kinda
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I will go with a unit for dry washing only and another unit for wet washing very fine materials.

My values are all fine in size in this part of Oregon. I'm wondering how much tonnage can be processed per day with the dry unit and rerun the material after some more impact mill treatment.
 

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I like the idea of a dry washer as it can be set almost anywhere
 

It is too wet in Western Oregon, don't know about Eastern Oregon, but I'm sure it would work in the Bend area, I tried living in Eugene for 3 years, then moved back to Arizona.
Your drywasher needs to have a bottom that is filled with air slots, a cloth to filter and hold your gold, too thick and air will not pass through, a broadcloth works great. On top of the broadcloth you need riffles. To make it all work your drywasher need to be suspended on a stand and have an vibrating air supply. I use a leaf blower which is also my vacuum, plans are all over the web. To make it vibrate I use a large computer fan with a bolt in one blade, or buy a commercially made one (google gold buddy fan) I connect it all with an (Unused) RV sewer hose, it shakes rattles and rolls out the gold
 

It is too wet in Western Oregon, don't know about Eastern Oregon, but I'm sure it would work in the Bend area, I tried living in Eugene for 3 years, then moved back to Arizona.
Your drywasher needs to have a bottom that is filled with air slots, a cloth to filter and hold your gold, too thick and air will not pass through, a broadcloth works great. On top of the broadcloth you need riffles. To make it all work your drywasher need to be suspended on a stand and have an vibrating air supply. I use a leaf blower which is also my vacuum, plans are all over the web. To make it vibrate I use a large computer fan with a bolt in one blade, or buy a commercially made one (google gold buddy fan) I connect it all with an (Unused) RV sewer hose, it shakes rattles and rolls out the gold
The idea is to use on crushed rocks then recycle the material through a impact mill to then run again.

I agree dry washing the sand and rocks on the damp ground is not a good idea.
 

Two old weedeater leaf blowers will move enough air over a thin riffle drop mat. May the air can also move most of the material back to say a impact mill or even a stamp mill. Don't think very many people are think of processing dry as much as possible.
 

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