Gold Well Vortex Sluice

[Clay Diggins]

any time sgtfda .. I have equipment that will surprise you. will try to get some pics of it and post. I hate cameras and computers. maybe will just bring stuff to another GPAP outing .. guess you did not see it on the outing to congress when went there.. am actually building a better one than that hope to have it in operation soon. my club is having an outing down at crooks canyon if you want to go there on the Nov 2.

I'm eager to see your doodlebug in action Gary, it's a great concept for working the desert areas.

Could you post here the next time you will be using it at a public outing? I'm thinking others might like to see some real mining equipment that's designed and built for portability and production by a real miner.

 

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[sgtfda]

Thanks Gary

Any of you guys want to try the Gold Well out and your near the Phoenix valley bring a bucket of dirt over and ill let you try my unit. I'm near the 101 and 60. Though be warned you try it you won't rest till you get one. I should know!

 

[sgtfda]

Just for the hell of it I'm going to run 3 buckets of tailings off my other machines to see if I missed anything. You never know. Besides I'm out of dirt and need to go get more.

 

[LP13]

3 buckets? That will take about 30 minutes or less with a Gold Well. What are you going to do with the rest of the day
What kind of equipment did you use to produce that pile?

 

[sgtfda]

Equipment. A carpet sluice. Drywasher. Big and small gold wheel. Green bowl and blue bowl. Trivia. The green bowl came before the blue bowl. Was made by Keene until the mold wore out. Some say it was a better design

LP13. That is one of the Joys of the GW. I can't imagine keeping the big unit fed.

 

[LP13]

You have to buy a small bus and get up very early and hit all the street corners for day labor (Will Work For Food) to feed the 12" by hand

 

[sgtfda]

I know! Perhaps it's the one thing I don't like about the GW. I keep running out of dirt. However I love watching the vortex holes work dirt. Gold tornado's

 

[sgtfda]

I ran 1 5gal bucket of dirt that was run previously through several machines. Carpet sluice, gold wheel and blue bowl. Did not expect to find anything big. One thing I was looking for was very small pieces the other units may have missed. First thing I noticed the concentrates were all heavy's. a ***** to pan out. I'm not the best panner but getting better. I attached a photo of what was left from a 5 gal bucket run through the Gold Well. LP13 less than 10 min to run the bucket. Results. 1 piece of lead and 3 pieces of gold. One very fine. I'm happy. I did not take my time running the dirt but dumped scoop after scoop in. The unit works wonderful! Oh! Always use a blue pan as Woody always preaches. You can see the black sand as you pan and any gold.
What was funny the big piece of lead. You would think the other units would have caught that.

 

[timesearcher]

hey sarge .. plans are set will be at crooks canyon claim on sat with both the 6 inch and the 12 inch gold well units did not have the time to get the 12 set up as a dredge so am going to run it as a highbanker .. my son is a bit agitated but he needs the exercise

 

[sgtfda]

Ran the other two buckets. More of the same but a little more smaller flour gold. As I suspected my other units were losing flour gold. The Gold Well does not. Even though I use a little additive in my water on the other units the flour gold was still floating off. I know your not going to get rich on what I was losing but I want all the gold. I just sold my carpet unit. Won't be using it! Going to go out and get some fresh dirt. The Gold Well is hungry!

 

[sgtfda]

hey sarge .. plans are set will be at crooks canyon claim on sat with both the 6 inch and the 12 inch gold well units did not have the time to get the 12 set up as a dredge so am going to run it as a highbanker .. my son is a bit agitated but he needs the exercise

Thanks Gary. I bet your freezing your butt off up there. I already made plans with my partner to go do some drywashing at a spot I found or I would come up. I've been saving this spot for cool weather and want to hit it before someone else discovers it.

 

[LP13]

It has been my observation that most people's panning technique is poor for getting flour or smoke gold. I watch most people pan most of it out. A lot of the ultra fine gold captured by the gold well is lost in panning it down. Before you pan it down, put it through a 60 mesh or smaller screen so that you are not trying to pan down the ultra fine gold with the larger stuff. Also helps to get rid of the magnetite early in the process rather than later, as it results in less fine gold losses with the magnetite dragged out.

As to your lack of fines, most sluices don't collect a whole lot of it in the first place, so it's hard to get it out when it wasn't there to begin with.

 

[sgtfda]

Good hint LP13. I've been getting much better at it and am now catching the real fine small stuff. At least now with the gold well I have the fine gold to work with.

 

[sgtfda]

Well off to do some drywashing Tue to get some dirt. Was going to go today but had to replace the plenum on my car. That was fun.

 

[sgtfda]

Oh my back! Shoveling all day drywashing. Whats odd the gold flakes in this spot are square. Took along some friends so they could get some square gold. They did. Will be running the dirt from the drywasher in the Gold Well. Just thought of something funny. The gold is square and the vortex hole round. Who says you can't fit a square peg in a round hole

 

[sgtfda]

Ran my dirt through the Gold Well from my drywasher. If you zoom in on the black sand you can see some of the fine flour gold the unit caught. Along with the bigger pieces. Checked the tailing. Nothing missed. About 5 min tops running and washing out the unit. Happy with the new drywasher and the Gold Well!

 

[sgtfda]

Last night at the Gpap meeting Woody received his gift from Bernie at Hmresearch. We watched a grown man cry with tears of joy. We all can't thank you enough Brenie! You a good person.

 

[sgtfda]

Here is a shot of my unit with the highbanker attachment. Unit runs with a 1" hose

 

[LP13]

Thanks Frank. Looks like you got your unit set up pretty good there. See you got your name on it. Hey, maybe you should get the ONSTAR from your car there put in the sluice! That way you could disable and track it in case anyone steals it. I mean if they steal the car you can just get it replaced by insurance right??

 

[sgtfda]

Bernie the Gold Well comes first. Things have a habit of walking off at outings. No one dares walk off with my stuff and everything is marked. Everything!