Bellows Dry Washer Build

[Guest]

True Dave,but with drills being cheap as chips and having multiple power packs
I would gladly hold a drill rather than trying to crank a handle,guess i,m a little lazy.
Maybe invent/design a drill holder for it

 

[Nightjar]

Your riffle spacing looks perfect, just cut back on amount of feed. When perfecting operation lay a sheet of plastic on the ground and carefully spill the finished dirt off riffles so each bay is separate. Then pan each segment, when 90% of your finds are in the top 2 riffles you're winning.

 

[Dave63]

Made some Changes.

[video=480,360]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9-ithfISsI[/video]

 

[Dave63]

Attached Motor

Got rid of perspex and made a new base plate where the only air that can move is directly in front of the riffles. If this is not enough I can drill holes further back until I reach optimum air pressure

Have to by a speed controller from Jaycar to control motor speed

Need to make a new rear plate for the riffle tray and put some angle plate to hold rear of riffle tray down and to stop dirt from falling down the back into Bellows box.

Just waiting on new cloth (Silk Screen 300 Mesh)

All this will have to wait a couple of weeks. I am heading down to Victoria for Niece's birthday then a week in Golden triangle. Never been there so I will wander around waving my detector everywhere.

Cheers

 

[Dave63]

G'Day All

I have been away at a niece birthday in Victoria. Met up with Goldman for a days training on the QED and Howard update firmware for me. Met up with Jackpot for a couple days. I found a .4 gram piece at WHROO using QED and Sadie. Heading to Tibooburra in April with Jackpot for a week or so.

Dry washer hand crank ready and decided to make a mini me dry washer to sample with before setting up big one. I figure I can save more water and it will be easy to carry around

So far made bellows box and Bellows flap. Riffle tray will be wood frame aluminum Riffles

Cheers

 

[Dave63]

G'Day All

Mini Me is taking shape

Cheers

 

[Dave63]

G'Day ALL

Main and Mini me Dry washers

Just have to add a pull rope to Bellows and a foot hold on rear legs to mini me, to stop it falling over when I am working the bellows
The riffle tray weighs as much as the rest of the dry washer. I will make one out of aluminum eventually once I prove it works

Cheers

 

[Nightjar]

Dave, You're on a roll, cut down the depth of the top chute on both by about 90%, especially your larger unit too about the grey outline in pic..

 

[Stingray]

They look great. I would think about adding a mesh flap on the top of each of the open tops of the hoppers. When you shovel dirt onto the grizzly the mesh flap stops rocks overshooting and falling in over the top of the screen and blocking up the works.

I've worked out how to post photos so here goes. This is my little sampling kit, held together with bolts and wing nuts, breaks down easily and fits in a 20 litre bucket + legs. You can see the mesh I'm talking about. These photos were taken when I first put it together. I have tweaked it a lot since through trial and error, but it still looks basically like this and works a treat. Catches very fine gold too. My bigger dry blower and shovel is in the bottom photos. Nightjar would be familiar with the old Gold Wizard I would think. You can certainly eat a lot of dirt when you feed them with an excavator.

 

[Dave63]

Nightjar I am not exactly sure on what you are talking about.

Thanks for advice Stingray. Nice country you are in there.

 

[Nightjar]

 

[Nightjar]

Built this motor driven one years ago, most of the steel work, pulleys and shafts from scrap metal dealer. all up about $500, biggest expense was the brand new motor.
Paid for itself over and over, however when the GPX-4500 came along and my old bones were beginning to creak, sold it for $2,800.00. The fella who bought it was over the moon, think he would have paid twice that much. It was a win, win he was happy and so was I. :Y:

 

[brimotimp]

Fascinating. Very helpful.

 

[brimotimp]

Hey everybody, but especially Dave and Nightjar, I am building a wooden bellows type dry blower, and I am hoping to have it finished shortly so I can take it to WA when the borders eventually reopen. My riffle tray is 830 x 300 and the bellows is the same size. What stroke should I aim for on the bellows. Dave seems to be maybe 200mm, but Nightjar's small aluminium one is perhaps half that. And what speed should I be aiming for on the 12v windscreen wiper motor. Most seem to have a maximum speed of about 75 rpm. I was going to use a lever system similar to Dave's.

Simon

 

[Nightjar]

No hard and fast rule for the stroke Simon. With the riffle tray set at 21 it is just a matter of getting the dry material flowing smoothly down and over the riffles. Test the recovery multiple times using match head size pieces of lead. Once you get 10/10 behind top two riffles you wil know you have the ultimate set up. Don't forget to fix the two way spirit level to make it easy to set up out in the field.

 

[brimotimp]

Hey Nightjar, and any one else. What sort of mesh or cloth is on the green plywood board you have under your riffle tray and is this to catch the fine dirt dropping down through the riffle tray into the bellows? On my riffle tray I am using 100 micron stainless steel mesh. Should I expect dirt to get through even that?
What size mesh should I be aiming to use on my hopper? I think the 1/2" steel mesh I had in mind is going to be too big considering that most gold is going to be well below a gram. I am thinking that even 1/4" mesh would still be letting a lot of coarse material through, but would crimsafe mesh be too small.
Sorry for all the questions.
Simon

 

[Nightjar]

Simon, The S/S flywire mesh under the cloth is only there to support the top cloth. There should only be a minimum amount of dust entering the bellows chamber. If you're getting a lot of fine dirt the weave of the cloth is too open.
The 1/2" mesh should be ideal for the hopper.

 

[Highway1]

Hi Dave,
During this coronavirus lock down I thought I might build a Bellows Dry Washer. I am impressed with your build and the comments from others such as Nightjar. I will include hand operation and a windscreen wiper motor drive of some description, that will keep me legal anywhere I would like go.
Have you taken your Dry Washer for run to see how it operates and if so do you have any comments on your build or modifications, battery life on the windcreen motor?
It would be great to hear from you. Cheers

 

[Dave63]

Havent used it yet Ground here to damp and corona keeps me from traveling west to places like Tibooburra. I will post once I give it a Puff

 

[Highway1]

Great Dave, thumbs up.
Cheers Max