Rocker Box information and questions

[reefer]

This is interesting from several perspectives Chris.Firstly, you've got to respect this guy's enthusiasm for the old school way of doing things :Y: Secondly it shows quite clearly just how effective this rudimentary tool was at catching even fine gold and I think his revised model with a few more'proper' riffles and gold mat etc will improve its capability out of site! ] Thirdly..IMO, The modern day river sluice would be my preferred option, It's lighter, much more portable, does not need to be 'rocked' and is eminently effective at catching fine gold by way of design, straight out of the 'box'...You don't have to make one which is handy if your not good at carpentry ] That said, I admire the fellow for his enthusiasm in bringing the old rocker box to life and I'm sure there maybe many who will follow his lead. I made one years ago and only ever used once or twice. I had it on two segmental arches, one in front and one at the rear cut out of 9ply..feeding it, rocking it, carrying water to it was just too much for me then and way beyond me these days But good on the young man for reviving a huge part of our heritage and Iwish him all the best with it....Cheers Chris..how are you, my friend. It's been a long time since I first saw you at Tuena.. and then only briefly. I hope you are well and that we cross paths for a more lengthy meeting next time. ] Rossco.

 

[MikeB05]

Yobskin in Qld has a great rocker that has a hand-operated bilge pump attached to it...rock the box and it pumps water..it can process a heap of dirt and it catches well. Even has some Gold Rat dream mat within its system.

Fossicking Act in Qld says no power operated tools can be used to fossick (the end to end process of finding fossicking material such as gold. Plenty of Qld'ers will argue this..it's a popcorn and feet up issue.

Anyway maybe Yobs will post a video of the "Rockin Yobskin"- its 100% legal in Qld and would meet all the requirements of NSW.

 

[aussiefarmer]

I have a genuine old time rocker mate and i am close enough to you if you want to have a look someday thats fine with me it was my great grandfather's :Y:

 

[DrDuck]

This is interesting from several perspectives Chris.Firstly, you've got to respect this guy's enthusiasm for the old school way of doing things :Y: Secondly it shows quite clearly just how effective this rudimentary tool was at catching even fine gold and I think his revised model with a few more'proper' riffles and gold mat etc will improve its capability out of site! ] Thirdly..IMO, The modern day river sluice would be my preferred option, It's lighter, much more portable, does not need to be 'rocked' and is eminently effective at catching fine gold by way of design, straight out of the 'box'...You don't have to make one which is handy if your not good at carpentry ] That said, I admire the fellow for his enthusiasm in bringing the old rocker box to life and I'm sure there maybe many who will follow his lead. I made one years ago and only ever used once or twice. I had it on two segmental arches, one in front and one at the rear cut out of 9ply..feeding it, rocking it, carrying water to it was just too much for me then and way beyond me these days But good on the young man for reviving a huge part of our heritage and Iwish him all the best with it....Cheers Chris..how are you, my friend. It's been a long time since I first saw you at Tuena.. and then only briefly. I hope you are well and that we cross paths for a more lengthy meeting next time. ] Rossco.

Hey Rossco, Good to hear from you. I agree re the river sluice, but expect that the cradle would be effective when there is not enough flow to run a river sluice. That's been the case the last few times I've been at Tuena.

I'm chugging along OK, for an old bloke (turn 60 next year!). I still have a few years left to go at work, mainly to get my three expensive daughters off the payroll, before retiring.

I'd look forward to catching up in field, that's for sure!
Regards

Chris

 

[reefer]

This is interesting from several perspectives Chris.Firstly, you've got to respect this guy's enthusiasm for the old school way of doing things :Y: Secondly it shows quite clearly just how effective this rudimentary tool was at catching even fine gold and I think his revised model with a few more'proper' riffles and gold mat etc will improve its capability out of site! ] Thirdly..IMO, The modern day river sluice would be my preferred option, It's lighter, much more portable, does not need to be 'rocked' and is eminently effective at catching fine gold by way of design, straight out of the 'box'...You don't have to make one which is handy if your not good at carpentry ] That said, I admire the fellow for his enthusiasm in bringing the old rocker box to life and I'm sure there maybe many who will follow his lead. I made one years ago and only ever used once or twice. I had it on two segmental arches, one in front and one at the rear cut out of 9ply..feeding it, rocking it, carrying water to it was just too much for me then and way beyond me these days But good on the young man for reviving a huge part of our heritage and Iwish him all the best with it....Cheers Chris..how are you, my friend. It's been a long time since I first saw you at Tuena.. and then only briefly. I hope you are well and that we cross paths for a more lengthy meeting next time. ] Rossco.

Hey Rossco, Good to hear from you. I agree re the river sluice, but expect that the cradle would be effective when there is not enough flow to run a river sluice. That's been the case the last few times I've been at Tuena.

I'm chugging along OK, for an old bloke (turn 60 next year!). I still have a few years left to go at work, mainly to get my three expensive daughters off the payroll, before retiring.

I'd look forward to catching up in field, that's for sure!
Regards

Chris

we will make it happen, mate! :Y: ]

 

[iamagoldenoldie2]

Dr Duck, what radio frequency are you tuned into, must be mine, I've have been having a good look at the rocker box not the wooden one but how to convert my highbanker into one unless the government has a highbanker buy back scheme, those hand operated bilge pumps range in price from $20 upwards , so lets start burning brain material, a flat rack on the ground you stand on it to keep it there the bilge pump handle is on a removable upright connected to your highbanker all you need is the curved sections under the banker the spray bar needs to be attached to the ROCKERBANKER better get the patent on that pronto, all hand operated,,, small scale fossicking ( the magic words on my new fossicking permit) our futures here LOL

the rocker action, its weird, side to side with a centre bar to brake the tension might be a bit slow for some but sure beats a bad back bending over a pan but it all works

 

[yobskin]

Over the past two years of me posting about my Rocking yobskin i get i can pan faster or why bother just highbank....
Well im laughing hard now....if you want pm.

 

[aussiefarmer]

:lol: ]

Sell a heap before they ban that aswell :lol: :lol: wont be able to fart in the bush soon ]

 

[Jemba]

:lol: ]

Sell a heap before they ban that aswell :lol: :lol: wont be able to fart in the bush soon ]

That only applies to cows.

 

[iamagoldenoldie2]

never new the Rocking yobskin existed, only saw the old time timber cradles, so there goes another one of my so called brilliant dreams , another legend in our midst , Yobskin , just luv you dream machine and how it works, found the post and video on searching your avata couldn't find an index on topics on the forum page this forum has some deep thinkers who have been there done that i am amazed

 

[MikeB05]

Over the past two years of me posting about my Rocking yobskin i get i can pan faster or why bother just highbank....
Well im laughing hard now....if you want pm.

I have seen your rocker in action Yobs and can attest to what a great machine it is. Fully hand operated..... so 100% compliant. Perfected through hours of use in the field.

I can now see manufacturers lining up to ask you for plans so they can make and sell in lieu of high bankers.

I reckon sell plans to PA members at $10 per time....to recoup your time/development/know-how

You are a couple of years ahead of the rest . Well done !!!!

 

[Redmanti]

Perfect for all those areas without access to much water. I would think this could be be very useful for that.

 

[Nexen]

old and the new rocker box, still playing with idea's on riffles and matting.. Any suggestions and idea's are welcome. The water will be hand poured to keep it simple, I'm going to try small expanded metal over rubber backed matting with aluminium angle riffles for now. The small cradle I used deep grooved matting with small expanded metal on top with 2 riffles at the end which so far worked well on the flour gold :Y: I'm hoping the red one will go faster

 

[iamagoldenoldie2]

G'day Nexen, do some google research on the good old rocker box, the modern design has a diagram bilge type pump that pumps water and acts as a rocker mechanism, the action is from side to side seems to work but if you could resign the action to follow the length of the box so the action is back and forth then you will have something different , hand operated and perhaps challenging for the authorities

hint , look at a cam link ?????? to change direction

 

[silver]

Gday Nexen.... Yobs has a beaut thread you should see.

https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=157628#p157628

 

[Keitzy]

U don't get the water flow in a rocker to have riffles working. Just one at the end as a sort of 'nugget trap' will suffice.

 

[silver]

If you were looking for the video... it's here.
https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=249605#p249605

 

[Nexen]

Thanks for the advice and information guys much appreciated :Y: great video's by the way great to see them in action. I had thought of using a hand pump it may be an option down the track. The expanded metal iv been using is smaller over all as there's a lot of black sand where iv been prospecting which accumulates pretty quick. The riffles on my first rocker was just to allow the water to dam up while the rocking allowed the heavys to drop and every thing else keeps moving. The rocking action on both of mine is a lot shorter and sharper than in the video's the knocking against the wooden frame on each stroke seems to work well in getting the gold to settle on the bottom in front of the first 2 riffles iv been using. A bit like shaking and bumping your pan before the reveal. I did have the stroke a lot longer but it may of been to much :N: the silver rocker design is based off NQ explorers YouTube video same matting and riffle bars but iv put fine expanded metal over the matting. The red rocker I may be able to get away with having 1 riffle on the top draw and one on the end of the bottom deck I recon if I had any more it may not get enough water flow to keep the materials moving. The top draw "apron" is 20 inches long and the bottom deck "sluice" is 35 inches long by 9 inches wide so plenty of drop out points as long as I keep the riffles to a minimum and keep the riffles fairly short hopefully I won't have any drama's "hopefully" with it being so wide hopefully it will be a bit more forgiving with pouring the water so not to wash any gold out. We find a lot of agates with the gold so we usually come home with some thing the gold is usually very fine or micro but spec count is any where from 1-9 per pan just enough to keep you interested "just" once I start going to other areas I'm sure that will change very quickly. Great to see the rockers still being used there certainly not common down here any more that's for sure! Thanks guys I'll give an update once I have some results

 

[Justjohn]

Hello all from NE North Carolina, coastal USA. I have been looking for an aluminum rocker box/cradle as more and more areas here in the US are becoming off limits to powered equipment. I have been unable to find what I want in terms of quality and portability here in the States. I found one that looks promising on an AU website called Gold Dog but was hoping there are other sources to compare. If anyone could recommend a source or a specific product, I would appreciate the help. I figured if any group would know good equipment, it would be you guys. Thanks for any recommendation you may offer and cheers to all, John

 

[user 4485]

Any good fabrication shop could make one up.
Maybe you could get something made to suit using these plans:
https://www.911metallurgist.com/blog/gold-rocker-box