Popping the cork on a dredge

[G1sammons]

Also please do some safety rea search on diving ! I know you said you don't want to do school but there are some real safety concerns that you can learn by watching some safety vidieos online ! A lot of dredgers think you can't hurt yourself as shallow as your diving but that's not the case ... There are numerous deaths that occur every year at less than 15 ft from scuba and hookah diving ... Last year a 15 year old died from 13 ft depth while doing a checkout dive ... It's not a joke . Just hate to see fellow prospectors injured or killed doing what we love... Or anybody for that matter... One more quick note that most certified diver don't do if practice your escape ! It's easy to do and when something goes wrong you'll know how to react ... It's the stupid things you can't think of that will get ya !

 

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[G1sammons]

Some other gear to think about !
Where your diving your Probally gona use some thicker suites which are more buoyant therefor your gona need more weight to get down !
I use a vest that keene sells and it has weight pockets all the way around .. It balance s you out so your weight does not make you roll also ankle weights
Will help ya a lot as with those thicker suites make your legs and feet float up ...
Buy you a good one piece suite ! Farmer johns suck ! If you have a 7 mill suite in a farmer john you end up with 14 mills across your body which requires a lot more weight ... Which makes it harder to get in and out of the water ...
Also the first time you suite up its uncomfortable ! Most folks hate it .. Tough it out you get use to the squizzzze ..
If you suite is not snug around ya it's not gona work proper .. Loose suite move water and won't keep ya warm ...
Good luck b safe

 

[GrizzlyGremlin]

Thanks G1! Such great info. Im definitely looking to get a good regulator. We should have about 175 to 200 hours of dive time this spring and summer.
Last spring while prying on some bedrock in a remote area my prospecting partner and i almost lost our lives when the whole 10' bedrock wall fell apart sending 500lb slabs down on top of us. We JUST got out of the way. Very scary. Now we are very very cautious approaching anything that poses any threat or risk of being hurt.
This is going to be a great and safe summer.
Jeesh theres so much fun stuff to buy! My girlfriend is pissed i didnt spend the 5k on an engagement ring but i compromise by telling her that ill make her a ring with the ill find.

 

[specksandflecks]

Check your local dive shop, you might find some deals on old stock new suits. Personally I prefer the Farmer john style and have both 3 mil bottoms and 7 mil bottom/top. They give more options and are easier to get in/out of, anyway just my personal preference. Try both types on see what works best.

Get a hood, I like the hood seperate, still keeps you warm and you can bet its the first thing that comes off when I get above water.

Most importantly get some decent knee pads, that suit will get plenty of wear & tear as it is. Some dredgers even go as far as wearing coveralls over their wetsuits.

Good luck sounds like you have your work cut out.

 

[G1sammons]

Thanks G1! Such great info. Im definitely looking to get a good regulator. We should have about 175 to 200 hours of dive time this spring and summer. Last spring while prying on some bedrock in a remote area my prospecting partner and i almost lost our lives when the whole 10' bedrock wall fell apart sending 500lb slabs down on top of us. We JUST got out of the way. Very scary. Now we are very very cautious approaching anything that poses any threat or risk of being hurt. This is going to be a great and safe summer. Jeesh theres so much fun stuff to buy! My girlfriend is pissed i didnt spend the 5k on an engagement ring but i compromise by telling her that ill make her a ring with the ill find.

grizz send me a pm and I'll send ya some regulator iv found a few extra in my shop yesterday cleaning it out . They appear to be working but I'd have them redone Probally cost around 50 to do them both !

 

[GrizzlyGremlin]

My 4" came today! YES! Reality just smacks you in the face! Here it is. Ok. Assemble it as fast as possible right? Check. Disassemble 2x because you got the order wrong. Check. Everythings looking right but the instructions suck! Got a few questions. Hows that section of miracle mat supposed to sit? Flush with the flair or flat on the sluice. The only other issue is that the engine rocks corner to corner sitting on the frame. The holes all line up. Should i washer it up or just crank it down? Super cheap paint job on the t80 air compressor lol. This whole dredge is getting spray painted anyway.
I dont know about the sluice... Im going to run it as is but i think that the 1/2" copper classifier mesh is going to load up purdy good when i get into the fractured bedrock im going to be working. We will see...
If i do happen to take the sluice down to nothing and rebuild does anyone have any primo setups for fine colorado dust.
I have no doubts that it will work for me as is just fine. There is not a whole lot of super fine stuff where we are working. Mostly flat fakes deep.
I cant wait to get the bad boy on the water. We have 12" of snow on the ground. Next day in the 40s or 50s i have off though, this things getting wet!! I was trying to wait until late march early april to start dredging but it came 3 weeks early. Only waited 4 weeks. Im going out first week of march as long as its not a snowstorm.
Its
ON
Gentlemen!
First dredging season about to start!

 

[Jason in Enid]

First thought - your 1/2" screen isn't in right. It goes all the way forward and sits over the 2 hooks at the front of the box. It should be above the black mat.

After that, leave it like it is. Learn what you need by adjusting box angle and pump speed. As for the motor mount, I would just do whats needed. IF you think it needs shims, then shim it. I will suggest that you use lock-washers on ALL bolts! They WILL vibrate loose if you don't.
Oh, make sure you put oil in it. New motors ship with nothing or a shipping fluid in them.

Last thought: when you go to use it, pull that lower sluice damper all the way out. Open it up to let the most water flow through.

OK, I lied.... Looking at the pics again, why is there a piece of bare miners moss under that screen?

One more time.... I think your small expanded mesh belongs in the bottom of the sluice, That doesn't look right.

 

[GrizzlyGremlin]

I took off the 1/4" wire to show the two possible positions of the black miracle mat. Think i figured it out. The wore classifier sits nice on the hooks. Not sure if the expanded goes on the miners moss under the wire mesh or on the carpet in the lower section. Saw both ways in pics. What brand of oil should i use? How long should i break in the engine. Is there any filters or mods i should definitely do right off? How should i care for my air compressor. I want this unit to last 5 seasons. Will everything make it that long? Too many questions!!

 

[russau]

well as far as your aircompressor/lines/mouthpeice or mask, id clean/sanatize them with Listerine mouthwash when you store them for any length of time.esspecially in the summers heat!

 

[Jason in Enid]

I took off the 1/4" wire to show the two possible positions of the black miracle mat. Think i figured it out. The wore classifier sits nice on the hooks. Not sure if the expanded goes on the miners moss under the wire mesh or on the carpet in the lower section. Saw both ways in pics. What brand of oil should i use? How long should i break in the engine. Is there any filters or mods i should definitely do right off? How should i care for my air compressor. I want this unit to last 5 seasons. Will everything make it that long? Too many questions!!

Here is a video from my dredging last year. There are some interesting homemade jobs at the beginning or you can skip ahead to about 11:30 and look at my dredge as I do a cleanup.

 

[littlenugget1]

Great job Jason!

 

[okbasspro]

Jason that looks familiar.

 

[Jason in Enid]

Jason that looks familiar.

Haha, yeah. It also reminded me I still have those chunks to melt and test for silver!

 

[GrizzlyGremlin]

Great vid man! Thats the keene 3 stage right? Mines just a single stage and will be used this way the majority of this season. Im definitely looking to rebuild this box completely by the end of this season. I want to put together a simple 2 stage. Looking at the sluice it has the room. I wont have to mod anything too much maybe drill 4 holes, just add punch plate and whatever mat i decide on. I like simple. I really like this unit! Everything is simple about it. And its light! I need to get it in the water sooo badly.

 

[okbasspro]

That's my Proline it's over/under works great easy to do.

 

[Jason in Enid]

Great vid man! Thats the keene 3 stage right? Mines just a single stage and will be used this way the majority of this season. Im definitely looking to rebuild this box completely by the end of this season. I want to put together a simple 2 stage. Looking at the sluice it has the room. I wont have to mod anything too much maybe drill 4 holes, just add punch plate and whatever mat i decide on. I like simple. I really like this unit! Everything is simple about it. And its light! I need to get it in the water sooo badly.

It's a factory Keene and it's a single stage box?

 

[Goodyguy]

Gremlin,

The miracle mat needs to sit flat on the bottom underneath the end of the riffle tray. See the notches they go under the end of the tray.
You see the hooks coming out of the flair? That's where the mesh gets hooked onto.

GG~

 

[GrizzlyGremlin]

Thanks GG, i see how its notched out and it fits nice. The mesh sits good too. I def needed time to just sit and look at it. The instructions are useless.
Jas. its a factory keene 4" ultra mini. Its the same motor, compressor and hoses as the standard keene. The frame is narrower and pontoons slightly smaller than the standard 4". The other big difference is the sluice. The ultra mini has a single stage 40" sluice. Its very light. And easily modifiable.
I was VERY tempted to just go with the standard 4". I decided on the ultra mini because its about 1/3 lighter than most other 4" dredges, and smaller but still moves about the same amount of dirt. The 3 stage is slightly more efficient as far as handling the material and therefore can process a little bit more gravel. Im not concerned for this season as im really just nugget hunting. As long as this puppy keeps the larger flakes im cool with letting the -50s go...next season ill be in colorado and can get good at catching the vast amount of fly poops that they have there. For now im going to continue what my prospecting has taught me...Get on bedrock to find bigger gold. We dont have hardly any values in our gravel bars out here. Ok we do but its like 50cents or less per yard. Bedrock is so key in the Appalachian mountain chain. They are old old mountains, glaciated and ablated many many times. The gold has been pushed deep. This is mostly glacial gold from quebec. We DO have big gold though, northeast nuggets are usually just big flat flakes. My goal is to recover at least 1 ounce and my dream is to find the largest NH nugget ever found. Its almost 14 grams. I Know that there is one bigger sitting 12" down in a bedrock crack at the bottom of a 10' pool.
Now i have a way of getting to it!
Like i said its ON! No doubt in my mind my crew is going to kill it!! I have 3 guys 23-26 years old, healthy and ALL with severe cases of the fever!
Now with a 4" with air.
Thats right AU you better be scared!

 

[Goodyguy]

Rock on brother

You just gave me goosebumps
GG~

 

[omnicron]

Thanks GG, i see how its notched out and it fits nice. The mesh sits good too. I def needed time to just sit and look at it. The instructions are useless.
Jas. its a factory keene 4" ultra mini. Its the same motor, compressor and hoses as the standard keene. The frame is narrower and pontoons slightly smaller than the standard 4". The other big difference is the sluice. The ultra mini has a single stage 40" sluice. Its very light. And easily modifiable.
I was VERY tempted to just go with the standard 4". I decided on the ultra mini because its about 1/3 lighter than most other 4" dredges, and smaller but still moves about the same amount of dirt. The 3 stage is slightly more efficient as far as handling the material and therefore can process a little bit more gravel. Im not concerned for this season as im really just nugget hunting. As long as this puppy keeps the larger flakes im cool with letting the -50s go...next season ill be in colorado and can get good at catching the vast amount of fly poops that they have there. For now im going to continue what my prospecting has taught me...Get on bedrock to find bigger gold. We dont have hardly any values in our gravel bars out here. Ok we do but its like 50cents or less per yard. Bedrock is so key in the Appalachian mountain chain. They are old old mountains, glaciated and ablated many many times. The gold has been pushed deep. This is mostly glacial gold from quebec. We DO have big gold though, northeast nuggets are usually just big flat flakes. My goal is to recover at least 1 ounce and my dream is to find the largest NH nugget ever found. Its almost 14 grams. I Know that there is one bigger sitting 12" down in a bedrock crack at the bottom of a 10' pool.
Now i have a way of getting to it!
Like i said its ON! No doubt in my mind my crew is going to kill it!! I have 3 guys 23-26 years old, healthy and ALL with severe cases of the fever!
Now with a 4" with air.
Thats right AU you better be scared!

If I may inject something here, there is no way I would disregard the smaller gold. I have found after dredging in several different location that the smaller gold makes up the vast majority of gold found.
BTW congrats on your purchase, I'll prolly be seeing you in CO as I'm moving in Sept/Oct this year.