The "Air Beast" aka Dry Blower

[Billy]

Well as promised here is the story and a few photos of my newly acquired dry blower from MJB.
I discussed with him the possibility of getting him to make me one and the logistics of getting it from SA to NSW.
We managed to get my ute to him so the project was a goer!! :lol:
It turned up in a beautifully handcrafted cardboard box with more bubble wrap inside than I've ever seen in my entire life!
Then the search was on for some ducting to transfer the air from my newly bought leaf blower (thanks sis).
The 5 mt length (found on a popular online selling/buying site) turned up a on a Fri arvo a cupla weeks ago.
That sealed the deal, "the beast" must have her first run ASAP.
The next morning I packed up a bit of gear and hit the goldfields.
I knew that working the old alluvials would give me the best chance of some colour, but it was still a bit wet down there, so I headed to the hills and found a nice spot to just have a bit of a dig and learn how to operate the "AB".
What a great bit of gear it is!
MJB you have some real talent in your craftsmanship mate, and the attention to detail in your build is second to none!
Spent 2 nights camped out in the scrub and although I didn't find any physical gold, it was all gold!!

Anyhow thats a bit of background info, on to the piccy's:

You haven't eaten Chinese tucker till you've eaten it reheated on the coals

Big thanks to MJB for a great bit of kit and hope to be able to post some photos of some AU soon.

Cheers,
Billy.

 

[Chewy]

Great post Billy, congrats on ya new unit.

 

[Billy]

Thanks Chewy,
The man can make a quality bit of gear hey!
Haven't met anyone off this forum yet, but you Mt Gambier folk seem ok! (and everyone else )
May have to make a trek!

Cheers,
Billy.

 

[Chewy]

It would be great to meet face to face mate, I'm sure MJB would be stoked to meet you to, you can check to make sure he's looking after the battle wagon. 8)

 

[Teemore]

Great bit of lit to play around with when things dry out a bit, MJB loves shovelling gravels be it to a highbanker or dry blower ...... and there's usually gold as a result.
You'll love playing with this unit.
Cheers T.

 

[MJB]

Thanks for the kind words there Billy, I'm stoked that your happy with the new addition ( the AIR BEAST ) lol to your prospecting arsenal. When things dry up nicely the machine will start to prove its worth. So quick and easy to set up and start shovelling. I recently gave my Highbanker its maiden run and the intitial thoughts were how annoying the 25m of lay flat hose is and how heavy the pump is. No such dramas with the dry blower mate, hook the hose up, start the motor and start shovelling. Oh how I miss the dry weather

We dry blowing folk are all going to have to have a get together sooner rather than later, including you Teemore, and Kman and GoldDigg@, Billy ,Spikegold to name just a few

Cheers

 

[G0lddigg@]

awesome build man

 

[DrDuck]

Saw Trent's (Diggerdude) dry blower in action at Tuena a few years ago, and was very impressed with how well it worked, even with wash that was still damp.

 

[MJB]

Yeah I saw Trents in action at Ararat and was hooked instantly. Within 20 minutes of digging I had my firstlittle speci. Theyb definitely come in handy when water is scarce.

 

[ProspectorPete]

Great post Billy and an awesome build MJB.
I just got my first dry blower last week and really looking forward to the hot dry summer they've predicted (which means it'll be wet again) here in Vic. Great to explore something new and a fun way to spend the weekends.

 

[MJB]

Excellent PP, when things do indeed dry up we will have to meet up and have a dry blowing only weekend.....they are great units to have in any prospectors arsenal. What unit did you end up getting?

 

[Danielkrupski]

How do dry blowers go on super fine gold. Say like oallen ford gold.

 

[ProspectorPete]

Excellent PP, when things do indeed dry up we will have to meet up and have a dry blowing only weekend.....they are great units to have in any prospectors arsenal. What unit did you end up getting?

Yeah sounds like it'd be a fun weekend learning the finer points of dry blowing, quite excited about trying it out soon.
I was offered a s/hand Gold Duster unit from the U.S. delivered at a price I couldn't say no to, the plan was to look into a blower in a couple of years time but the plan got bought forward and I'm glad it did now.

 

[Nightjar]

We moved a lot of dirt 20 years back with this "Falcon" bellows dryblower which was manufactured in Perth.
Built a scaled down model later and still have it in the shed.

 

[MJB]

Looks like a good unit PP, I bet your hanging to get it out there and dusty.
DK, generally dry blowers are not that good on fine gold but I always end up with some smaller fine stuff in my cons...I guess it depends on how prolific the fines are as smaller particles will be blown on and out of the riffle tray.

Nightjar, that unit looks great. One of my dreams is to get over to WA and did a big hole like you guys do and see how well my dry blowers perform. Great pics mate

 

[ProspectorPete]

Awesome photo's Nightjar, the smiles are priceless.