finished rock crusher

[desert-rat]

this is a link to my facebook video post https://www.facebook.com/spur.stewart/videos/10153130342566618/?l=5498271342485649170

This whole thing cost me about $400.00 and took about 8 hrs to build. I ran about 100 lbs in less than 10 mins. let me know what you think.

 

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[Aufisher]

Nice! Good looking ore too!

 

[bobw53]

I want to see the guts.. Chains? Hammers? Shaft size.. And all that... What is the big round part? Big pipe? Rolled sheet?

Kind of crazy the cost of some of the purchasable impact mills. There really isn't a whole heck of a lot to them.. I've made a little one and
have all the materials (except an engine) sitting here to make a 16 inch diameter mill. I just need to find the time.

I like it, nice work (the welds look exactly like mine), I like the really low side entry. Now we just need the money shot.

 

[desert-rat]

ill try and post a picture of the internals. its just a 1" shaft with plate steel welded on one side and bolted on the other with some log chain hanging off the bolts. 14 chains in total that are just 3 links long. the pipe is 16" OD with 3/8" walls and 17" long. the bearings all came from amazon for pretty cheap. the motor was $120 at harbor freight, its a 6.5 hp.

 

[desert-rat]

ran five 5 gallon buckets of sample rocks and wore out the first 3 chains on each side of my beater. it took the end link completely off. the last 3 chains on each side were about 60% worn in two on the outer most link. I replaced the ones that were missing a link and turned the others around. I also put a small weld on the ends to help with the wear. the chain is 3/8" 6500 lb test chain. may have to get some hard surface rods and weld on the ends of em. my sluice is working pretty good because it caught just about all of the chain links that were missing. I found one fly poop piece of color out of two hole buckets and haven't panned the cons on the last bucket I ran today. next time I have it opened up to replace chains ill post pics of the internals so yall can see what ive got.

 

[jair]

I welded cut pieces of cutting edges to my chains , they last a lot longer, I'm facing some new chains using some pick ends from a asphalt mill . Hard steel , when their done I'll try to post .

 

[jair]

this is the one I built , 16" x 4" 6 hp eng , takes 3" rock to 200 mesh in seconds,
2200 lbs approx in a bought 45 min.
Then run through the gold cube ,

 

[desert-rat]

I cut 1/16" slits in the side of the drum of my crusher and everything comes out like flour. ive been running it in the sluice and capturing a lot of metal frags from the crusher chains. not sure what mesh size it is but is just dust. if there is any sizable gold in it will it be ground to flour size like the rock? I thought about using cutting edge pieces just not so sure I can weld them good enough to stay. im limited on tools here in Arizona. got an entire machine shop at home in texas which would have made this whole process a lot smoother and would have resulted in a better finished product. When your cutting key ways with a cut off wheel you know your a red neck.

 

[bobw53]

just dust. if there is any sizable gold in it will it be ground to flour size like the rock?

That's one of the cool things about gold... Its soft, not as soft as Cheez Whiz, but I believe its one of if not the most maleable metals.

You'll beat it flat, or smear it all over the inside of your crusher.. It should never crush or shatter, unless its alloyed with some other metals
and becomes more brittle.

Seems everybody has problems with chains lasting on the bigger mills. I was going to go with chains when I get around to building one, its just so simple.
I was going to go with "security" chain.. McMaster Carr has it, its not load rated, but its case hardened, and its about the same price as any other chain.

I might have to rethink the chain thing and start seriously considering some type of a hammer with an easily replaceable face/head.

With the chains, I guess it would be useful to know what is actually happening and why they are degrading. Is the material being work hardened from
the impacts... The surface becoming VERY hard and brittle and then shattering? Or is it abrasion from essentially being inside a sand blaster? Or a
combination of both or something I haven't thought of yet...

I'm just thinking out loud... Use in a rock crusher is probably not a design consideration when choosing a material to make chain..

 

[desert-rat]

it looks like its abrasion wear I know things get hot inside there by the fact you can hardly touch the drum after a 20 min run. not sure if the amount of heat is enough to soften the material of the chain or not but that's a possible answer.

 

[jair]

View attachment 1264004 this is the one I built , 16" x 4" 6 hp eng , takes 3" rock to 200 mesh in seconds,
2200 lbs approx in a bought 45 min.
Then run through the gold cube , I will be cleaning them up and matching the weight on them all 4 in all , I think they will fit the bill really well ,

 

[desert-rat]

I know where I can get a cutting edge off a blade I may get it and try that

 

[desert-rat]

that's some of the rock ive been hauling home to crush. I got me a better loupe today to check the cons out with and to my surprise there are a couple hundred little specks of gold I needed a 10X loupe to see. so now how the heck do I get them out of my cons?

 

[desert-rat]

that's a pic of the hole im digging on the quartz vein. its next to a bunch of the gray mud looking rock that ive heard is an exposed fault.

 

[arizau]

View attachment 1264674
that's some of the rock ive been hauling home to crush. I got me a better loupe today to check the cons out with and to my surprise there are a couple hundred little specks of gold I needed a 10X loupe to see. so now how the heck do I get them out of my cons?

If you screen classify and pan it you should be able to separate the gold and snuffer it up. Since you are powdering the ore I would suggest using 30, 50, 100 mesh screens and pan each of the four fractions separately. When you screen as suggested each step is about half the size as the step above and when gold is about equal to the size of other material in the pan it rules. It will be best to pan in small quantities since it is easy to unknowingly wash out gold of that size when panning large quantities.

Good luck.

 

[bobw53]

I got me a better loupe today to check the cons out with and to my surprise there are a couple hundred little specks of gold I needed a 10X loupe to see. so now how the heck do I get them out of my cons?

Go buy a few currency microscopes.. They are all over e-bay and amazon, and they are dirt cheap. Hours of fun staring at rocks, and TINY gold in your pan...
The built in light is really handy for identifying tiny gold, just change the angle that you are looking at it, and if it still looks like gold, it is.. If the color changes,
its not..

Get a bunch of them, all your friends will want one. And I found this out the hard way.. Pay $3 each, and they come with batteries... When the batteries die, its $7.50 at
the hardware store for 3 replacement batteries.. While you are buying microscopes, buy some batteries on e-bay, I got 100 of them, $7.50 free shipping... Not as good
as the Duracells at the hardware store, but at 1/30th the cost, I'll take the bit shorter life.

As Arizau said... Classify, classify, classify... Its pretty easy to cleanly separate even the tiniest little gold in a pan if you tightly classify.. I've done it all the way down
to a 1/4 the width of a human hair, smaller than your naked eye can see, screen so fine it feels like silk.. and it still looks small under the 60X currency scope.

 

[desert-rat]

thanks for the tip. Thanks god its Friday now I can get back at it

 

[jair]

It's done , did you find what you were looking for?
How's the chains holding up?

 

[desert-rat]

there is the paddle inside my crusher. the chains are running 500-750 lbs of rock before their shot. I put those teeth on there today to help shatter the rock as it enter and let the chains do the rest.

 

[Rockwerx]

View attachment 1267063View attachment 1267064

there is the paddle inside my crusher. the chains are running 500-750 lbs of rock before their shot. I put those teeth on there today to help shatter the rock as it enter and let the chains do the rest.

Looks like a good modification. Have you tried using hardened chain in your crusher? It may last a bit longer. Not sure if it would be more cost effective to use or not. One would have to run some tests to find out. Good luck with your new mod!