red back and new dolly

[Stingray]

I've got a lot of specimen sands in a poverty pot that I have collected over the last 40 odd years. Given the gold price I thought it might be worth the effort, so I decided to make a blue bowl to see how they worked and if so whether it would be good for processing the sands. I made this out of a black smooth bottom bowl and red inverted funnel, so that's why I call it the red back. I am pretty impressed at how they catch really fine flour gold. I set it up to recycle using my bush shower pump. It does lose some gold but only very, very fine 'paint'.
View attachment IMG_4422 3.MOV
I started dollying the sands to fit through a 250 micron mesh and it is tiring work. I thought about trying to make a ball or rod mill but that would be quite an effort. So I decided to make a dolly attachment for a little jack hammer to see how it would go. I've been meaning to try making one of these for a while but now I had a good reason to.. I used the guts of an old jockywheel which is all I had to work with

It's just a proof of concept and rough as guts ( I can't weld) but it works pretty well and heaps easier than hand dollying. Gets the sands down to dust pretty quickly and smacks up rocks/species as well. That's a .25 mm mesh.
View attachment IMG_4430 2.MOV
It worked great until it broke. So I beefed it up, looks like a Terminator's arm now, but seems to be hanging in there.

This is what I've retrieved from about a litre or so of sands, includes bits that wouldn't go through the mesh, but overall much, much better than I expected and I still have a lot of better sands to process...
So If you've got a dolly pot and a little jack hammer, its worth knocking one up, or getting a mate to if like me you can't weld....

 

[Hilux]

I don't know anything about this sort of gold work but an alternative to the jack hammer would be a cheap pneumatic hammer / chisel from Supercheap or similar stores.

They pack a heap of power for the $40 or whatever price. I made up a custom tool for one and used it to peen steel rivets. Very effective.

https://www.supercheapauto.com.au/p...-hammer-and-4-piece-chisels-175mm/572838.html

 

[davsgold]

I got tired of the dolly pot and hammer thing and made this

Chain Impact Mill






grinds the quartz to powder


cheers dave

 

[Stingray]

Yeah Dave, I saw what you made and I'm envious! It's what I really need but this will have to do for the minute. Cheers

 

[Moneybox]

I'm working on a bigger version of the verticle shaft crusher I made earlier. I doubt it'll grind the rock to a paste, at least not on the first pass but I want more volume so the stones will drop into the top of the drum and fall through the hammers before leaving the bottom unclassified for size. I've used a large truck brake drum 420mm internal diameter so I'll have to gear it down a bit to limit the tip speed of the hammers.

 

[davsgold]

Yeah Dave, I saw what you made and I'm envious! It's what I really need but this will have to do for the minute. Cheers

yes Stingray, what your doing works, I know as I did it that way for a lot of years, and you have a very nice lot of fine gold on the scales there, next step is to melt it into a bar

I made a melting furnace and have it on a Youtube video

 

[Moneybox]

yes Stingray, what your doing works, I know as I did it that way for a lot of years, and you have a very nice lot of fine gold on the scales there, next step is to melt it into a bar

I made a melting furnace and have it on a Youtube video

Very nice Dave. Mine rarely come out shiny so i need to up my game. I notice you put the borax in before the gold, That makes sense because I have to damp my borax to prevent it blowing away

 

[Stingray]

Very nice furnace Dave, I made out a couple of old firebricks from a pottery kiln but not as good as yours, and my burners have stopped working for some reason... they light up then slowly die out and won't start again. I've been using a mate's oxy to make bars to sell to the mint but I hear the gold smelted using an oxy isn't any good for jewellery? I've got a new and better MAPP burner on order for Xmas. I'm hoping one will do the job, just take longer. Can I ask what material you used to cast the furnace?

By the way the dolly snapped again today, this time it was the original hexagonal bit above the join, not my welds. Still managed to get another 2.2g tho..
Cheers

 

[davsgold]

I used Hebel Block 600x200x200 from Bunnings at the time and just cut with wood saw and drill and hole saw etc, the Hebel Block cost a whole $13 at the time and yo get 3 or 4 furnaces out of the one block as they do crack up eventually

For the dolly pot setup I used a jack hammer chisel in the hammer drill with a piece of pipe about 25mm long welded to a flat steel block 40x40x16 and then drive the chisel inside the pipe, it stopped anything snapping of along the shaft of hammer tool like what is happening to you


this whole set is like $16.98 from Bunnings just to give you an idea


and just used this one with the chisel end jammed into the pipe welded to the flat steel block


cheers dave

 

[Stingray]

Thanks Dave, I'll give that a go for sure. And the Hebel block as well.

Cheers

 

[davsgold]

Thanks Dave, I'll give that a go for sure. And the Hebel block as well.

Cheers

it seems like Bunnings have this size Hebel Blocks 600x200x100, now days which will work just as well as the size ones I used when I made my furnaces

 

[davsgold]

I used Hebel Block 600x200x200 from Bunnings at the time and just cut with wood saw and drill and hole saw etc, the Hebel Block cost a whole $13 at the time and yo get 3 or 4 furnaces out of the one block as they do crack up eventually

For the dolly pot setup I used a jack hammer chisel in the hammer drill with a piece of pipe about 25mm long welded to a flat steel block 40x40x16 and then drive the chisel inside the pipe, it stopped anything snapping of along the shaft of hammer tool like what is happening to you


this whole set is like $16.98 from Bunnings just to give you an idea
View attachment 11843

and just used this one with the chisel end jammed into the pipe welded to the flat steel block
View attachment 11844

cheers dave

I found a couple of pictures of the end on the chisel





it fits nicely in the small dolly pot in the above picture

 

[Moneybox]

I guess you don't have to tell the neighbours what you've been doing on that day

 

[davsgold]

I guess you don't have to tell the neighbours what you've been doing on that day

HaHa, yes they kinda get the idea

 

[Stingray]

Thanks for digging out the photos Dave, I can see what you have done now.

I've been thinking of using an old tow ball cut in half as the bashing end, with a water pipe joiner between the threaded end and the chisel. Just a thought I had while waiting to get new tyres fitted. Might have to make a smaller dolly pot or shorten the one I have depending on how it goes.

BTW seems like Bunnings don't stock the HEBEL bricks any more. And I can't find anyone in WA that does, unless I bought a pallet.

Thanks again

 

[davsgold]

I'm going to this store tomorrow it says they have them in stock Mudgee NSW

 

[Moneybox]

I'm going to this store tomorrow it says they have them in stock Mudgee NSW
View attachment 11857

I bought a similar product from Mathews in Osborne Park although I'm sure I'd have paid a marked up price. Everything they sold me was good quality.

https://mathews.com.au/company-profile/products/crucibles/