Made Some Cheap 2 Gallon Bucket Gold Classifiers that Work Great!

[CDCGoldProspecting]

Hey guys, thought I would share this with you all. I was looking at buying those all metal wire mesh classifiers but I had a hard time wanting to spend over $60 for one classifier. So I made a couple out of two gallon buckets. It did take a lot of hole drilling but they worked pretty good during the first time testing them at the creek. What is cool is both of them 1/2" and 1/4" nest inside each other and also fit right in a 5 gallon bucket too. Makes it easy for classifying and transporting. They were way faster than the sit on top classifiers that I have been using in the past. Only costed me like $7 dollars to make both of them and some time to drill all those tons of holes lol. Just thought you all might find this idea useful.




Here is a Video of me testing it if you want to see how they work.
https://youtu.be/bnWtJb_5CFY

Don't really have one on how I made it though, but I thought it was pretty self explanatory.

 

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[Tahoegold]

Hey guys, thought I would share this with you all. I was looking at buying those all metal wire mesh classifiers but I had a hard time wanting to spend over $60 for one classifier. So I made a couple out of two gallon buckets. It did take a lot of hole drilling but they worked pretty good during the first time testing them at the creek. What is cool is both of them 1/2" and 1/4" nest inside each other and also fit right in a 5 gallon bucket too. Makes it easy for classifying and transporting. They were way faster than the sit on top classifiers that I have been using in the past. Only costed me like $7 dollars to make both of them and some time to drill all those tons of holes lol. Just thought you all might find this idea useful.

View attachment 1708719
View attachment 1708720

Here is a Video of me testing it if you want to see how they work.
https://youtu.be/bnWtJb_5CFY

Don't really have one on how I made it though, but I thought it was pretty self explanatory.

I've made something like this with 1/2 hardware cloth and a bucket. I would go higher with the holes and use a receiving bucket a size bigger. I've found the sides need a little room to let material out and then with more holes up the side it goes quicker with bigger loads.

 

[firebird]

I use something similar as well, except with wire mesh at the bottom of the bucket instead of drilling holes. Buy some heavy duty garbage bags and put it in the bucket you're funneling paydirt into. Once the bucket is full, you can just grab the full garbage bag out and then put another new garbage bag in. Husky garbage bags are the best I've found, it takes a lot of effort to ever put a hole or rip into it. Don't cheap out and use cheaper garbage bags, it's gonna rip easily.



That's how I process as much gravel as possible by hand, I just haul it out and take it home at the end of the day to sluice the gold out in the comfort of my garage.

 

[CDCGoldProspecting]

I've made something like this with 1/2 hardware cloth and a bucket. I would go higher with the holes and use a receiving bucket a size bigger. I've found the sides need a little room to let material out and then with more holes up the side it goes quicker with bigger loads.

Yea I thought about using the wire mesh hardware cloth but I had a hard time finding a small amount of it for a decent price and didn't really want to buy a roll of it. I figured I would give the holes a go. Good idea. I might have to drill some more holes higher up on the sides to help it classify quicker. I have both of the buckets going in a 5 gallon bucket. Only buckets I could find locally was 2 gallon or 5 gallon.

 

[CDCGoldProspecting]

I use something similar as well, except with wire mesh at the bottom of the bucket instead of drilling holes. Buy some heavy duty garbage bags and put it in the bucket you're funneling paydirt into. Once the bucket is full, you can just grab the full garbage bag out and then put another new garbage bag in. Husky garbage bags are the best I've found, it takes a lot of effort to ever put a hole or rip into it. Don't cheap out and use cheaper garbage bags, it's gonna rip easily.

View attachment 1708848

That's how I process as much gravel as possible by hand, I just haul it out and take it home at the end of the day to sluice the gold out in the comfort of my garage.

That is a really good idea on how to make your time at the creek more productive for getting more gold. On average how many bags do you usually bring back home with you?

 

[Tahoegold]

The holes are great. Your build looks good!

 

[CDCGoldProspecting]

The holes are great. Your build looks good!

Thanks TahoeGold, appreciate it! Only tested it once so far, but I liked it way better than the classifiers I bought that sit on top of the 5 gallon bucket.

 

[Tahoegold]

Yep, although I noticed it depends on the soil. I made a classifier out of the bottom of a bucket about 2" high. Takes about 3 army shovel full and fits in a pack nicely and works well with dry soil. Sometimes the material gets too heavy when wet. Sure, you can get all the gold washed. But, how many buckets before youre spent? I would use the one like yours in a stream situation. Or if I had to choose only one I'd choose the bucket kind like yours. You don't have to put it in a bucket. You can just make a pile on the ground and then sluice it. Transport it etc.

 

[DizzyDigger]

CDC..some years back I was working my Gold Cube right on the
bank of the river, and was frustrated over the efforts required to
classify a days worth of material.

Ultimately came up with this contraption:

http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/gold-prospecting/404814-building-oversized-classifer.html

 

[Tahoegold]

That's a nice set up DizzyDigger. The more dirt the more gold!

 

[CDCGoldProspecting]

Yep, although I noticed it depends on the soil. I made a classifier out of the bottom of a bucket about 2" high. Takes about 3 army shovel full and fits in a pack nicely and works well with dry soil. Sometimes the material gets too heavy when wet. Sure, you can get all the gold washed. But, how many buckets before youre spent? I would use the one like yours in a stream situation. Or if I had to choose only one I'd choose the bucket kind like yours. You don't have to put it in a bucket. You can just make a pile on the ground and then sluice it. Transport it etc.

Yea that is true I guess you could just not put it in a bucket. The only issue I found with these ones I made is if you want to do some test pans and classify them first. It was a little more challenging trying to use these style classifiers for a test pan than the green ones that sit right on top of a 14 inch pan. But I did like not having to bend over so far classifying in a 5 gallon bucket with these. you can either just hold the 2 gallon bucket handle and twist it back and forth while you are almost standing completely straight up or hold the rim and shake it up and down.

 

[CDCGoldProspecting]

CDC..some years back I was working my Gold Cube right on the
bank of the river, and was frustrated over the efforts required to
classify a days worth of material.

Ultimately came up with this contraption:

http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/gold-prospecting/404814-building-oversized-classifer.html

That is a cool set up DizzyDigger. I bet you can put some mad shovels in that set up. That is a great idea there. I bet it classifies very quickly having all that surface area on the bottom with screens.

 

[arizau]

Make a frame and tack a screen to it of the size you want to classify to. Attach foldable props to it for portability. Shovel material against it and collect what falls through. If you are close to your vehicle you can make a fairly large one but I made mine about 2x4 so I can easily carry it when I drywash in remote locations with my Whippet. I too could not find the size mesh I wanted so I layered, and secured with wire ties, another screen on to it so that the openings do not align making the openings smaller.

PS I really like dizzy diggers idea for fine screening.

 

[CDCGoldProspecting]

Make a frame and tack a screen to it of the size you want to classify to. Attach foldable props to it for portability. Shovel material against it and collect what falls through. If you are close to your vehicle you can make a fairly large one but I made mine about 2x4 so I can easily carry it when I drywash in remote locations with my Whippet. I too could not find the size mesh I wanted so I layered, and secured with wire ties, another screen on to it so that the openings do not align making the openings smaller.

PS I really like dizzy diggers idea for fine screening.

Cool yea I thought about doing a frame similar to what you are describing. But really I was just trying to avoid buying any wire mesh stuff at the present time. I would have to make it small, because sometimes it is a little hike to where I go. Both these 1/2" and 1/4" ones fit inside a 5 gallon bucket so it is not really adding much to the stuff I was already going to bring. I will have to try making some other stuff like that in the future when I get some more funds haha... Good ideas though!

Yea I like dizzy diggers idea a lot too. Seems like you need to be pretty close to your vehicle to use that set up though. Bet it works great though.

 

[605dano]

As I also dislike bucket classifiers I used some 1/2 inch galvanized mesh that I had left over from building a rabbit hutch and cut 2x2s to make a frame that will set on top of my wheelbarrow. I then ripped the 2x2s down the length before assembly, made the two frames and sandwiched the mesh and stapled to wood in between the frames and screwed the frames together. It sets on top of wheelbarrow and I shovel onto the frame and am able to use my hands to move the material around until it is all fallen through. Then I am able to wheel the classified material to where I wash it and shovel right out of the wheelbarrow. No bending over and no lifting.

 

[CDCGoldProspecting]

As I also dislike bucket classifiers I used some 1/2 inch galvanized mesh that I had left over from building a rabbit hutch and cut 2x2s to make a frame that will set on top of my wheelbarrow. I then ripped the 2x2s down the length before assembly, made the two frames and sandwiched the mesh and stapled to wood in between the frames and screwed the frames together. It sets on top of wheelbarrow and I shovel onto the frame and am able to use my hands to move the material around until it is all fallen through. Then I am able to wheel the classified material to where I wash it and shovel right out of the wheelbarrow. No bending over and no lifting.

Interesting... A wheelbarrow seems like it would be a lot easier. I'm not sure how I would get one of those to the creek though with my Jeep. But I bet that is a whole lot easier on the back doing it that way.