took mike's hand trommel and added a spray bar system

[amcjavelin]

well I've had this almost a year now and works good but the material never was totally let off through the screen as it should so decided to build a spray bar system hoping I won't have to rerun shovel's of gravel back through well check it out!

 

[Flintstone]

A friend of mine built one of those, works fine. Can,t wait till all this rain stops so I can get into the water.

 

[Hoser John]

The addition of water is mandatory to wash the gravels clean and break up clay and dirt clods. You going to be amazed if you try a old tailing pile and see what you missed. Have a ball-John

 

[amcjavelin]

hey thanks john yeah I'm learning water is necessity putting this together so I can run material before motorized dredge season starts

 

[malo]

AMC,

Mike Laine here from Mike's Trommel. I stand impressed with your design! Well done with two valves. I'm sure you'll get it all. That said, when I sat down with my expertise, needs, and tools, I decided I needed a trommel I could carry away from vehicle at least a mile, well out of the beaten path. Makes sense, since the easy stuff has been snagged and worked over and over. Well, that's the reason for the simple design and low expense. I even designed another using 3/4" PVC and a much shorter barrel, much lighter overall. I have a partner who claimed gold was escaping without the wash. I asked him to work the tailings coming out of the end of the trommel and that he could keep everything that came out. He found gold! Two micro dots ..... some that had stuck to the rocks after a day of reworking the tailings. Of course I shared my great take with him but he didn't want to do that on our next outing. Go figure. I do sink the trommel up to the hopper in the river from time to time and splash a pan of water over the hopper for an occasional washing of roots but don't spend much time doing it ..... more interested in quantity as time is short and muscle in my back in short supply. Besides, I also use it 50% of the time pre-classifying for my dry-washer. Anyway, to carry a battery, extra weight of water pipes and valves, or even a motor and new laws about runoffs made it impossible for me to justify . I found it not worth the extra money and focused more on location than washing for a few bits of micro/flour gold. I will be documenting and considering a water design if over the years it proves fruitful, so please, let me know if you find that having water added to this tool is a "reasonable" addition to the plan after field testing.

PS.
Below is another tool I've built that does use a water wash. I'm flying to Alaska next week and the 24" Fluid Bed Sluice just fits carry-on constraints.

Three tube 24" Fluid Bed Sluice

Video of 24" with only two tubes since upgraded to three.

 

[amcjavelin]

Hey Mike thanks for the compliments ..........well lets put it this way I don't have to rework material anymore and not losing gold plus my hopper spray bar is deatatchable so and using a 1100 gph bilge pump works pretty good and have been using a motorcycle battery and I can get 6 to 7 hrs a run on it

 

[malo]

You see! To find that a motorcycle battery will last that long is already a plus. To have the water system removable ....... that's icing on the cake. Thanks AMC. I'm sitting in the airport, layover in Seattle, on my way to the gold fields around Fairbanks with all the dreams the early prospectors had but with my fluid bed sluice in hand. Can't wait! Good gold on you. Mike

 

[amcjavelin]

may your pans be filled with that there yelle'r ore for sure!

 

[malo]

Due to a flood and water damage to my server I have had to change the address for "Mike's Trommel" to this link.

 

[amcjavelin]

as a matter of fact I used this weapon today with my new Alaskan flair angus mackirk and learned with the mackirks you got to classify to atleast 1/2" or you will blow out the fine gold with the bigger rocks