Rocker box attempt #1 & now #2

[Greglz86]

And keep your comments about my lawn to yourself lol. Ive been busy

Don't worry, someone once said to me the true test of a diy prospector is the state of his lawn, i reckon you officially qualify :lol:

Yeah, but letting the grass get to fence hight is taking it to a new level. :8

 

[Greglz86]

Hey Greglz86, are you planning on releasing the design plans / specs?

Hope this helps nugget. Sorry about the quality. I dont own a computer scanner and the pics drawings were going to take longer than the job itself lol.

 

[Greglz86]

So after the test run I had a few problems. The first problem was the skid plate onto the carpet(A). It was just a peice of stainless steel I found and put it there to lift the dirt onto the carpet. But I didnt fix it down properly and alot of dirt went under the mat.
The next problem was the choice of mats. I bought the cheapest I could and they were $7.50 at kmart. Im still trying to beat gravel out of them.
The third was that I didnt realise the importance of evenly spacing the riffles. The last one was only 2/3 the distance of the other ones and the last catchment area filled up alot quicker.
I think to begin with I wasnt shaking it hard enough and sand and silt settled allowing possible gold to float strait over.
But appart from the problems I think it worked ok. I got next to no gold wich was disappointing but it was catching alot of the heavier material. (Black sand and small ironstone that made it through the classifier.)
Only got 2 tiny tiny peices of flour gold out of half a bucket in the end but getting stuff that small im going to take as a good sign
Im thinking there might still be some gold in the crappy mats. Might burn them and pan the contents and see lol.
I spent some time panning the tailings and had little black sand and no gold so im confident its doing its job
Regards Greg

 

[Greglz86]

The backyard setup

 

[TenOunce Tone]

Thanks for the drawings Greg, always problems with prototypes, but you are getting there mate, good work.

How is the melamine holding up with the water? I would think you may have swelling issues if the water gets into the chipboard or did you run some silicon around the edges of the joins?

The Riffles look like they are in an " L " configuration, I would have put them as a upside down L , this will create low pressure areas behind them, I would think the way they are detailed in "B" on the first pic the water would rush over them carrying your hard earned along with it.

I have yet to start mine, but I will be using aluminium as much as possible, I am thinking of a Bucket for the Hopper, I can just use a standard bucket sieve on top then. I think the thing with these is that you must have consistent sized gravels to wash down. Almost every design I have seen on line and in old books have 1/2 inch classifier, I am thinking 1/4 will be sufficient as I dont expect to take any large nuggets.

I am going to incorporate a manual bilge pump into the set up, The box will be mounted on a metal frame (thinking of a abandoned shopping trolley I spotted) with a lever connecting the box and pump. the motion will be generated when the pump is used to push the water and to shake at the same time.

I may not get it done til the new year..

Good luck mate, great build and once again I am impressed with the ingenuity displayed by the members of this forum, seems there is nothing that cant be made from what is to hand and a bit of grey matter

Cheers, Tone

 

[Greglz86]

Thanks tone
Swelling isnt that bad. The joins have a crapload of glue and a bead of sillicon protecting them. The only spot that had a little swelling was the one join I missed :8
The rest of the end grain has about 5 coats of linseed oil to help stop rot and finished with a marine grade spay on clear coat from bunnings and is working great. I reckon the thing could nearly float lol
I will turn the angles the other way and give your sugestion a go. Thinking of it now it makes sense
But im thinking about a new design altogether now.
I will post it up when I finish some sketches.

Greg

 

[gcause]

Hey Greg,

This document describes how the old timers built their rocker boxes. The originals were all made of wood, no metal:

http://www.conservation.ca.gov/cgs/geologic_resources/gold/Documents/SP87.pdf

Hope it helps.

Regards,
Grant

 

[Greglz86]

Hey Greg,

This document describes how the old timers built their rocker boxes. The originals were all made of wood, no metal:

http://www.conservation.ca.gov/cgs/geologic_resources/gold/Documents/SP87.pdf

Hope it helps.

Regards,
Grant

Just had a quick scan through those documents and it looks as though its going to be a good read for this evening when I get home from work.
Thanks gcause

 

[TenOunce Tone]

Just printed off the PDF in the above post, great little read.. Thanks Gcause

Cheers, Tone

 

[Dad]

Hi I would like some measurements to make a rocker box .
Regards.
Dad.

 

[Nowara]

Can I get more details , picture, video on your gizmo? From Canada and have never seen something like this.
Take Care
J Bear

 

[Mackka]

Just looking back through this thread and #31 talks about burning oil off metal pans which started me thinking about plastic pans and the Batea pans as to whether form work oil or release agent on the pans from manufacturing requires some sort of pre treatment to get rid of the oil.
Mackka

 

[sand surfer]

my plastic pans mackka got a good scrub with detergent to get rid of the oil and a gentle scrub with 600 wet and dry to season them

 

[Mackka]

Excellent SS i washed mine out about thirty years ago but i have been thinking about getting a Batea in the future for a bit of fun.
Cheers
Mackka

 

[Mike678]

I have noticed that some of my plastic hoses have an oily feel on the outside after a number of years . Perhaps it would be a good idea to give all plastics a good clean , every 12 months , with detergent . Detergents come from oil and are carcinogenic ....

 

[aussiefarmer]

Use a bit of rinse aid when panning fine con's or when trying to break clay down, or just wipe some rinse aid in your pan and let it soak , panning gravels keeps pans oil free anyways.

Gold usually doesn't float until you stick you greasy finger in the water.