Thyme oil

[seafox]

I've heard that oil will mess up panning even oil from your hands. What about hand sanitizer? Got some jugs that held sanitizer have I ruined my panning tub?

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

A Handbook of Civil War Bullets and Cartridges - Grab it through Amazon!

[Underburden]

You are the only source for the answer unless you want someone else to volunteer.

 

[DizzyDigger]

I've heard that oil will mess up panning even oil from your hands. What about hand sanitizer? Got some jugs that held sanitizer have I ruined my panning tub?

What's the connection between the sanitizer and your panning tub?

 

[Bonaro]

I am presuming you are asking if using hand sanitizer will impart a oil into your panning process.
Hand sanitizer is a mix of alcohol and either glycerin or Aloe. The alcohol is probably helpful but the others may be a problem. I would avoid using sanitizer when panning but its probably not a real issue. Just use dish soap to clean up your equipment and any oils should be removed

 

[russau]

Add a suffactant to your panning tub water to make everything drop out of suspension .

 

[seafox]

Thank you I got some Cube containers that it held hand sanitizer made from a thymol oil from a friend and use the water in my tanning tub without thinking and then thought oh wait I've heard oil messes up panting thank you I will add dish soap and a surfactant and hope hope it's okay thank you again

 

[Bonaro]

Oil will readily coat gold. This is the mechanics of a flotation process because the oil will make the extremely fine gold (<200 mesh) float. If you have oil in your process you may lose some very fine gold because it will simply float out in the wash.
Keep in mind that one small flake is equal to thousands of specks and also it is impossible to catch it all, there will always be losses.
In my experience I have found that increased production volume at the expense of losing a little fines will give you far more gold in your vial at the end of the day.
Dont worry about it...shovel on