My DIY collection

Howdy all. Thought I'd better post a few pic of my bush mechanic'n stuff. I'm rough as guts, but the dryblower and dry vac work well. Crevisser might give others a few ideas.

Dry blower with interchangeable shaker tray, Li'l Joey motor with cable clamp shaker weight. Motor speed controller not shown. Solar panel on my Electric Trike in the background. Large sucker hose for vac is also blower hose.

Dry blower. Double-layer wheat bag mat - riffle slats sit above and slightly behind mat support braces.




Creviss pump. Dry vacuum. Large outlet elbow is shown in wrong position-it needs to be facing away from vacuum inlet. Home-made wet separator used on bucket also. Red inner bucket to allow clean(er) water only into black outer bucket for recycling(pump and plumbing not present)

One-way valves made from poly fittings and marbles. Outlet disassembled. Inlet(no spring, just gravity) showing large discharge and small holes to fluidise collected material. The theory is when operated at 45 degrees the silt and light stuff will discharge with water, leaving behind heavies. To empty just remove discharge hose(not shown), invert pump and squirt heavies into your gold pan. As with a Bazooka, it should continually clean the lights from the fluidised gravel, just keep pumping the handle at the correct speed. Faster on the pull and steady on the push.


Plunger made from dowel, foam rubber, tek screw and mudguard washer. Small air outlet hole at top under handle, pointing downwards so you don't get squirted by any water that gets above plunger.

Love this kind of gear .. doesnt matter what it looks like as long as it catches gold

I get my car licence back on the 25th. So sorting out my gear and the van ready for a quick getaway to the triangle. I also have the SurfProDD and Sniffer XR71 to assemble, but the GMT will be my main stick- gotta love that black sand meter. I can take the Infinium for a swim. I'm also hoping my BFO will be useful in the stinking hot ironstone where others fear to tread..

Congratulations on such a fine build. Its good to see a guy using his head and hands well done digger. But let me ask a question or give a bit of advice. And that question/advice is would you get 100% of your gold back from the device displayed at clean up time. { I am not talking about the dry blower} From what I have seen by looking at the photos of other equipment which has been posted on site { The hand crevice pump }you will miss out on gold at clean up time. Having said that I am not the sharpest tool in the shed and I may be wrong. But something keeps running through my mind when I view that type of equipment. And that is what dose Gold Hog matting, Miners Moss, Expanded Mesh and Riffles have in common with the black ribbed pipe shown in each and every photo. The answer is simple .. they all catch gold. Smooth boar hose would be the way to go then the hose would not act like a sluice. Cheers mate I love you builds.

Yep, absolutely right mate. The vacuum hose should definitely be smooth. I will probably just empty the hose into the pan as well. The garbage lid setup will probably only remove the silt and fines too. It should be a smooth bowl, as with the riser(sink outlet) in the centre-it has ridges around it and should actually be a smooth taper. But it should be okay for wet removal of the fines from dry sampling.
All this stuff was made when I was up at Tibooburra for dry/minimum water work. My next project will probably be a Bazooka, and a highbanking setup for it that can also accomodate a sluice. Maybe on that A-frame stand if I don't go too big.

Jeez I love tek-screws!

I know my dryblower bed is overkill after looking at a Keene, but as long as it works. I also have some shiny brown curtain material I will make a spare/alternative blower mat out of.
My pans are Turbopan and 10 inch black.

Mate, fantastic recycling I would of loved the road sign hanging in my shed. Looks like you could be handy around the place.

Cheers, DD

They came from the Tibooburra dump, after a road train full of cattle didn't make the corner and rolled. Old road signs are good, solid, light material. Oh, and the base of the dryblower is the front cover off a gas instant HWS.
My HWS for the van is an old Junkers brand(Broken Hill dump), I replaced the split diaphragm and mount it outside the door of the van on a couple of tek screws. It takes 5 minutes to plumb up. 2x 200 watt solar panels, 2 n70zz batteries and a 3000/6000 inverter, and a 60 l/min 12v pump under the sink. I can stick a hose in the creek and pump water through the 2 element water filter, or use the caravan tank.
I lived in the van for 2 years up there. My aircon is a Bonair profile converted to 12 volt with a car thermo-fan and a pond pump.
I brew and keg my own beer, make rice wine and distill various spir...- I mean biofuel.
Rice wine yeast balls can covert any grain into 22% alcohol. This means you don't need to make a mash. I've done rice and pearl barley, for some reason this goes purple. I will try un-husked barley and corn as well.
This stuff can kill you if you don't take the first 2-400 mls off it. Especially if distilled from fruit.
Next project a hessian fridge, solar powered evaporative with a pond pump and fan.

When the fit hits the shan I will carry on regardless.

And LPG, Propane or a mix can replace refrigerant(use a reduced rate) as long as your compressor oil is mineral-based. It is also 20% more efficient and proven safe. There's plenty of info online, just read through the corporate and guvment BS.

Mate in the past I have hung that type of hose in a tree for a number of months with a plastic bag tied to its end. But the only way to really clean it out is to split it, and that is a bugger of a job. For those who do not know what the difference is between a smooth boar hose and a ribbed hose. In the smooth boar there are no gaps between the ribs, in a ribbed hose there is a gap, and it is that gap which will let in a bit of gold. As a footnote you should only use smooth boar hose as a pick up hose for your pump. It will not let in any air where after some time a ribbed hose will. But that is just my thoughts I may be wrong.

.J

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Yeah ribbed stuff is prone to kinking and cracking in the sun too.I have an old Electrolux vacuum that just gave up the ghost that has smoothbore so I can use that.

Good one Tim, love this stuff too, I love rough as guts, I've seen some good stuff come outta rough as guts blokes.

Could be a new thread "Tims bush mechanics & recycling"

Cheers, DD

Could try a kero fridge, convert to gas ; use a yellow flame- pilot light. They use about 20 lts of kero a week, but a good fridge will make ice in an hour or so.
I use the bilge pump hose from BCF, ribs on the out side but smooth in side.
Take it easy on the Essential Oils, can burn the tonsils as it massages them.

Yeah mate. I worked in the shearing sheds most of my life, and Kero/gas fridges are still the only option a lot of places north of Pt. Augusta. Especially if the quarters are away from the homestead. Some of our old shearers cooks could make home-made ice-cream for every night in 40 degree heat. The hessian fridge would be a fold-flat option though.
I kept my keg cold at Tibooburra in a cut-off 44 with a towel wrapped around it, pond pump in the bottom, solar panel in the sun, keg in the shade and breeze.
Kero's not cheap these days either, but 1/3 petrol 2/3 diesel works (don't get that ratio around the wrong way!).

Most people don't realise how easy they get it these days.

Not wrong there; put it on the plastic; heaven forebid ,can;t go without; like some of us did just to get through the rough times.

Double insulated fridges with a layer of sand sandwiched between them works very well for cold keeping. Sorry I can't remember the exact name.. used in afghanistan and other desert countries. Supposibly can keep a can of soda nice fresh n cold for when needed.

Sounds like you have a bit of fun there Tim, did you make your 'fuel machine'? I've made a few brews of all sorts myself with a few 'fume vaporisers'.. I could use those first mls for cleaning and chemistry if you don't use it, but my guess is you do use it

Can you pm me info on how to make very simple brew using grass, potatoe or other natural resources including yeasts or alternatives? Furthest I got was making natural yeast from fermenting fruit in jars of water and used high sugar fruits like apple for the batch. I don't want any products needing to be bought from a shop.

Cheers for the 'kero' mix

Howdy Atom. My fuel machine is a stainless steel double column reflux still off ebay- about $200 I think. It has 9 stainless steel scourers +1 copper one in the top. That got gunky and corroded real quick, so the first time I hooked them out I replaced it with another stainless one- no probs since. It came with a 2400w immersion element, which needed to be carefully fitted into a 50L keg-prick of a job- then after a coupla brews the cord fizzed, and that was that. Now I just use the companion stove(outside for fumes) with a skinny besser brick either side-just the right height.

Limpalot, Amen brother. I'm just in the process of designing a Li-ion standalone power system, on paper at least. 9x 6000mAH 18650s should be nearly 20AH @ 12.5 volts. Even if it's only half that power, for less than $20 for 10, from China it will be worth a try. I'll get 50 straight off, so $100 for 100AH (??dunno yet) Certain (China)solar controllers with the Key function can be set for 3x18650 or 4x18560s (series' thereof). I currently use a Colemanair diversion controller(Ebay $100 delivered), but I'm gonna set up another relay 12/240 so the dummy load puts 240v to the house HWS instead. My inverter is 3000/6000w, so I'll change the HWS element from 3600w down to 1800w so the inverter handles it easy.

Use kettle elements on a variac / scareyiac 8). Thought you wouldve made one from a ked n copper but I know the ones you mean. .. if all else fails go prison style and hook 240v straight onto a Winston razorblade ( no don't.. ) Thanks for letting me know about the copper scrub issue, will save me money when I build a proper one ( rather than the pressure cooker )...

Have you played with pyrolysis for anything?

Na mate, but I've had a fiddle with woodgas. Stratified downdraft gasifier for the Falcon ute, but never finished it. I got real keen on catalysis as well Converting gas to liquid via the Fischer-Tropsch process in a slurry-bubble column reactor. That's one for retirement. A mineral oil catalyst with iron suspension. Carbon attatches to the iron, it starts making hydrocarbons, then you fractionally distill them off. It's what the Germans used in WW2 to make all their fuel from brown coal after the embargo. I reckon we should/could be doing that with all the plastic and organics going to landfill now- worth a look. I reckon.

My fuel apparatus fits on a keg. I' ve got pulling them apart down to a fine art now. Carefully cut the lock-tab off then you can unscrew the top any time. There's tutorials on utube, but you need the right kegs- the screwtops, M-type, I think they are. Cheers. just off on the trike to take the mongrels for a run now.

I have a few plans n tricks up my sleeve when it comes to global recycling. If your interested throw me a pm, I could use some extra help on this sort of project.

From extrusion to self propelled gasifiers.

I've made most of what Mr.Teslonian on youtube had done. Was making mine around the same time. Tge catalyst in his burner wasn't mentioned and I got stopped there and didn't research further to continue cracking propane and butane like he has. Had fun at the hospital with CO2 poisoning though a couple of times :/

But in the sence of recycling, I'm happy to share my ideas for someone to help me progress with ideas for the well being of future global environment

You can recycle toilet paper by hanging it on the clothesline and beating the sh*t out of it.
Oh and politicians make good compost, once all the wind is removed. :lol: