Placer Claim Mined Out?

[desertgolddigger]

I belong to a local club that owns a claim. This club has had this claim for many years, and acquired it after the old timers had mined it previously, and others after they commercial outfits closed up.
I walked quite a bit of the 160 acre claim, and noted that just about every wash had been worked. Most of the surface nuggets has also been detected by those with gold detectors. In other words, this place has been picked over and over and over.
But I m a stubborn type of person, and I figured, just watching how people ram their puffer and blower drywashers, that some gold was just being blown through them. maybe not much, but some small stuff that never got a chance to settle behind the riffles.
I know many of you would never go to the effort of digging for three to four hours through the tailings in these washes. Again, I'm a bit stubborn, and anyway, I just wanted to have some fun locally, instead of driving 300 miles roundtrip to something that gives a little more for less effort.
I've spent the last three weeks, digging a few times a week along about 30 yards of wash, and have recovered just about a gram of gold. That might not seem like much, but I have only dug up 5 grams, not counting this one gram in almost 20 years out here drywashing in the desert of southern California.
As you would know, things always seem to go wrong. My gas powered blower motor decided it was time for the repair shop, and haven't heard from the shop in two weeks. So I purchased a WORX WG521 corded electric leaf blower to use with my Royal Large drywasher. I'm using a portable generator to provide the power. And it actually is working better than with my old gas powered blower. I have to run the blower on the lowest speed, or I just blow everything through the riffles. Results are very good, as I am getting gold specks so small that I will have to use the Blue bowl in order to recover them.
I'm not only getting a little gold, I'm having some fun, and I am getting a good workout. I've lost 10 pounds since I started. So things are going well.
I'm still digging test holes around the old time hard rock mines in the hope I will find where the gold has drifted downhill below these mines. So far just a couple specks here and there. I figure I just have to move laterally one way or the other before I get something better Of course, I' don't really know if the old timers stripped the hillsides. Even if they have, they apparently aren't as thorough as I am. I hope that I may be lucky and find a larger piece of gold that the old timers, previous placer miners, and detectorists have missed.
Hope everyone is having as much fun as I have been having.

 

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[mikep691]

I'll look it up on Amazon, but for now I can't afford even a cheeseburger to eat out. I've given myself six months to pay off this new debt, and will not be doing much for the first eight months of this year. Maybe an occasional trip to the club claim, and I have to save on everything, including filling up my truck gas tank.

Harbor Freight wire feed welder , around $100. Cheeseburger, about the same....

 

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[desertgolddigger]

I need help on what something is called so I can purchase it to run my shaker table.

What is the attachment that goes on the electric motor shaft that has various holes in it, that is used to move an arm attached to a shaker table? I would like something that I can make careful stroke adjustments to control the motion of that table.

The linear electric motor assembly I purchased is pathetic. It is a size 600 brushed electric 12vdc motor with two stroke adjustments 5/10mm. I doubt it is powerful enough to even move a shaker table.

I want to get a more powerful electric motor.

Or is there something available commercially that only will cost me only a few hundred dollars?

I don't want to do a manual crank type, as I don't have the physical endurance.

 

[Jim in Idaho]

There aren't many versions, of what you want, available for purchase. Most of us that build tables make our own. You can make a simple motion motor by putting an offset crank on a motor. If you build it correctly, you can even get a small amount of differential motion from it. But it's going to require some research on your part to find information on making it.
Jim

 

[Assembler]

Harbor Freight wire feed welder , around $100. Cheeseburger, about the same....

You may be able to find a used stick machine for around the same price point.
The flux-core wire machine is easier to use for most people. Just hold at the same correct distance and pull the trigger.

 

[Assembler]

There aren't many versions, of what you want, available for purchase. Most of us that build tables make our own. You can make a simple motion motor by putting an offset crank on a motor. If you build it correctly, you can even get a small amount of differential motion from it. But it's going to require some research on your part to find information on making it.
Jim

It could take a lot of material rock to off set this cost if the single shaker tends to pulls over 5 - 14 percent more then most sluice boxes. The amount of material processed per hour is going to be a lot less then most sluice boxes.

With this being said if one can shake a given small batch of material to get the heavies down to the bottom of a container then process just the bottom 1/2" or so of material this can be a fairly fast process.

 

[N-Lionberger]

The fellow on YouTube with shaking miller table has some interesting ideas about using magnets to get the motion.

 

[Clay Diggins]

Your basic options for linear motion are ball-screw drives, lead-screw drives, and belt drives. That's the terminology for searching.

All those systems have drawbacks but cost wise you are better off with a belt drive with an eccentric. A simple cam or offset (from the driveshaft) attachment will work but you will be very limited on adjustment and accuracy/repeatability.

You could consider a direct drive off an eccentric or cam with spring return but with the higher cycle frequencies needed for a shaker table fine, repeatable adjustment isn't really going to be possible. "Bounce" will be an issue with this system, possibly so much that the table would be ineffective.

I realize you are doing this for the experience. Even so it would be wise to consider that with all placer deposits gold recovery volume is directly linked to volume of material processed. For a small table you are never going to see the volume needed to reimburse your expenses even with a rich deposit. Probably not a consideration for your purpose but something to put into your overall mining planning.

In my experience your time and resources would be best spent prospecting for a worthy deposit. It's your least expensive option and will in the end run produce more gold for fewer funds expended. You get to get out in the sunshine and fresh air, you learn more about the local deposits and your expenses are just travel money and sandwiches. Leave your mining equipment behind when prospecting. All you need for prospecting is a small pan or miner's spoon (my favorite), a little water, baggies, pen and a notebook.

Find a worthy deposit and the circumstances of the deposit will dictate the mining methods and equipment needed. Every deposit is different. Buying or building equipment before finding the gold is putting the horse before the cart. That horse/cart arrangement results in a lot of backing up which can be very frustrating.

Heavy Pans

 

[Assembler]

For small batches a simple centrifuge is way easier and far less cost to set up for ultra fine / micro values. Most people can make / set one up for $75.00 and a hour or two of time.

 

[Assembler]

A HF air powered paint shaker that has a 10lbs capacity per small batch at around 2-3 minutes per batch should be plenty for your size of operation / material processing set up.
Then just run the bottom 1/2" of material at the bottom of each batch can through your sluice or pan if you like.

 

[Assembler]

A HF air powered paint shaker that has a 10lbs capacity per small batch at around 2-3 minutes per batch should be plenty for your size of operation / material processing set up.
Then just run the bottom 1/2" of material at the bottom of each batch can through your sluice or pan if you like.

By the way a given 3 minutes of shaking is going to give very repeatable consistent results for most any type of materials as far as getting the heavies down to the bottom for you to process with your next steps that you decide to use.

 

[scruggs]

I haven't used a furnace yet here in Arizona, but I have one and I have used it in the past on rich black sands. Where I was at in California in the hydraulic pits, everything came out coatted in mercury, so it was easy to charge it up and have everything come together into a ball, then retort it, then put it in the furnace and make buttons.

Here's a couple of the ones that I sold on ebay.

Very nice buttons!

 

[Assembler]

By the way a given 3 minutes of shaking is going to give very repeatable consistent results for most any type of materials as far as getting the heavies down to the bottom for you to process with your next steps that you decide to use.

By the way the next few very rich color spots you find could be quickly recovered by just this simple shaker method and perhaps even pay for the shaker and even the air compressor with the electrify /gas that was used for the recovery method process. Leaving you extra time to help find the next rich spot out there.

 

[Jim in Idaho]

I completely concur with everything Clay said. As usual, he is spot-on. And, prospecting is WAY more fun than mining...LOL
Jim

 

[Jim in Idaho]

The fellow on YouTube with shaking miller table has some interesting ideas about using magnets to get the motion.

Yes...I was a impressed when I saw that a few weeks ago. I'm going to ,look deeper into that method.
Jim

 

[southfork]

How about a windshield wiper motor? with the right controller nice speed selection . Maybe a junk yard special get the arms and all cheap at a you pull it.

 

[Assembler]

How about a windshield wiper motor? with the right controller nice speed selection . Maybe a junk yard special get the arms and all cheap at a you pull it.

Yep there is even some YouTubes showing this for a side to side motion with out the bump stop roll action. $5-$10.00 for the motor is getting down to the price of a pan.

 

[Assembler]

I completely concur with everything Clay said. As usual, he is spot-on. And, prospecting is WAY more fun than mining...LOL
Jim

The most important point is looking for a spot that is worth proceeding no matter what methods are used. There is a reason why most people will start with the simple pan / spoon methods as they are focused on finding a spot worth proceeding with other methods.

I have come to the conclusion that words like exploration, testing for minerals, or sampling is more in line with the actual activity that is being carried out.

 

[desertgolddigger]

Thanks Guys. I will give my little motor a try to see if it can even move anything. Seems that there's not much out there commercially for the DIYer shaker table person when it comes to the motor system. If I can keep the weight down, who knows

I just wanted to see if I can build one, and see if it will work,

 

[Assembler]

Thanks Guys. I will give my little motor a try to see if it can even move anything. Seems that there's not much out there commercially for the DIYer shaker table person when it comes to the motor system. If I can keep the weight down, who knows

I just wanted to see if I can build one, and see if it will work,

Have you checked out something like this:

BAXTER Professional Straight Line Air Sander

Has 1” stroke length, 2350 stroke frequency that is more in line with the ultra fine / micro values you have talked about.

Only 1.35 CFMs air.

https://www.harborfreight.com/profe...-air-sander-63994.html?_br_psugg_q=air+sander

 

[desertgolddigger]

Have you checked out something like this:

BAXTER Professional Straight Line Air Sander

Has 1” stroke length, 2350 stroke frequency that is more in line with the ultra fine / micro values you have talked about.

Only 1.35 CFMs air.

https://www.harborfreight.com/profe...-air-sander-63994.html?_br_psugg_q=air+sander

stroke length is too long for my little table. I'll let you know if the linear motor I have can cut the job.