Introfiant
Jr. Member
Growing up in Montana I always wanted to mine. Living on the atlantic doesn't pose for much to mine now lol. Have fun and be safe!
From watching the video again, I'm guessing the mine wasn't abandoned voluntarily. Either these miners ended up dead or were run off. With the adit be purposely backfilled like it was, my guess is they were trying to hide it and planned on returning but never did for some reason or another. The gobbing (hand stacked rocks) indicates a small vein, probably a rich one considering the effort to hand sort the ore and stack rocks. The lack of tailings outside and the small amount of gobbing also indicated that the vein material was sizable and may have been the entire tunnel itself, especially given that the back is as rough as it is.
Given the geology of Arizona, the deposit may be multi-layered and may also open up again in a few feet. Hard to tell without some serious and expensive core drilling and 3d mapping software.
The lack of any ore cart tracks or ore carts indicates that this was probably a one or two man operation, more than likely a solo deal as the miners in those days were not a trusting lot.
Arizona was still a pretty wild place back around the turn of the century and is full of mines like these. If he came into town back then flashing gold, there is a very real possibility he was killed over the location of the mine.
I was planning on picking up a Sierra Blaster this spring anyhow. Maybe it will get used more that i thought. Hell, I would sit down and laugh my butt off if we popped a shot and hit the mother lode. Geology and mining is funny like that.
https://jet.com/product/detail/83ff...204480:pla-161682965340:na:na:na:2&code=PLA15
Get the aluminum scaling bars. The steel ones won't "make a man out of ya", they'll just tear your rotor cuffs apart.
Core drill: Milwaukee Diamond Coring Rig | Acme Tools
Trying to remember where I seen the coring bits with a built in core breaker. They make extensions for these too.
Hmm...I wonder how many ATV's have hydraulic remotes on them?
Nice looking drill! Things have definitely come a long way in the past 100 years.
Maybe. I'm betting that the drive is pretty much self contained and has the motor side drilled to adapt to the mount pattern on the motor. The primary drive gear is probably press fit onto the output of the crankshaft or if your really lucky it has a centrifugal clutch setup inside which would make it real easy.
Drill the motor plate to match a c face electric motor and your golden. I would throw a speed controller on it too.
Snap a few pics of it from the side and bottom and I should be able to tell. When converting from gas to electric horsepower, the electric motor only needs to be about 1/2 the size of the gas engine.
I don't know much about them either. Depending on what the hydraulic requirements, I suppose it could be powered by a 12v or 120v hydraulic power pack (220v for much of Europe). I'm still a bit amazed at times with how much power my snow plow has using its 12v hyd. power pack - although only for short intervals (meaning not running continuously).
Air would be good, but would have to have one heck of a compressor, and either very large air lines or pumped at extremely high pressure for air.
And then electric. If at all possible, this would be my choice, I think. Much easier to transmit energy from source to tool, though could potentially cause some problems in extreme wet conditions or areas with volatile gases.
...Maybe some out there would still prefer the old-fashioned approach, using a big hammer and LOTS of elbow grease?![]()
Looks like a fun place to be! I'd totally be doing some core drilling in the mine, to.
Atlast copco Diamec 232 is quite small and handy.
Atlas machines can be rented here in Sweden, quite handy for exploring new finds, not sure if you can rent them over there?
However, it suggests the mine not to be to remote because at 250-ish Kgs... I'd think an ATV would be nice to haul that thing out there.
Nope, was responding to what EU had posted:
Was just rambling on aimlessly - sorry. Haven't felt very good today, plus had an antique tractor delivered this afternoon that needs some work. Got lots of distractions in my pea-brain thoughts right now!![]()
Nope, was responding to what EU had posted:
Was just rambling on aimlessly - sorry. Haven't felt very good today, plus had an antique tractor delivered this afternoon that needs some work. Got lots of distractions in my pea-brain thoughts right now!![]()
https://jet.com/product/detail/83ff...204480:pla-161682965340:na:na:na:2&code=PLA15
Get the aluminum scaling bars. The steel ones won't "make a man out of ya", they'll just tear your rotor cuffs apart.
Could someone get a 8’ piece of rebar and pound the tip into a chisel point?