Electric Powered Arrastra

[desertgolddigger]

I'm curious about if say an Arrastra with two 100 pound grinding stones could be powered with a low rpm high torque geared electric motor.

I saw Gold Tramp's Arrastra, and was very impressed at how it could pulverized gold ore.

Is there an alternative to an Arrastra? I think I saw two stone wheels in a pan that was run with an electric motor. I doubt I could afford such a machine, but am just curious.

I am just trying to explore a more efficient way to grind ore. The chain mill is fine, but not all that efficient.

 

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[Assembler]

I see no point in doing that. Out here in the desert there's plenty of rock that's calved off the hillsides. It's just a matter of finding some that have flat surfaces. The stones don't need to be perfectly flat anyway. I imagine the old time Arrastras didn't have perfectly flat surfaces. They just needed to be fairly close.

Go put an add out for someone who owns a tile cutter and have them cut you a small grinding stone set. The flat surfaces will work much better for the very fine material you have been talking about. You could cut the feed holes your self or have someone do it for you.

The steel pivot pin hole also needs to be drilled in order to have a set of working stones.

You could buy off the shelf gear head motor surplus to drive the moving stone that has a plate mounted to it with pins and glue.

A small grinding stone like this is very portable.

 

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[Assembler]

You can find stores that will sell odds and ends of flat granite that can be cut in half to make a set of grinding stones or call some contractors that work with granite tops. Just drill a hole for the steel pivot point pin and some feed holes. Add a handle hole to rotate the top stone and start working your very fine materials.

If you take the granite to someone with a tile or diamond rock saw you can make the stones very round in shape.