home made rock crusher

hi all, spent a lot of time dollying up the conglomerate i took back from the last trip and it was taking ages so i decided to knock upa rock crusher from an old disk rotor i had laying around. it has two chains inside to pulverise the rock and uses a drill to power it. seems to do a great job and only takes about 30 second run to get it to this fine.
cheers

BUT was there any gold ?

only just started crushing Chris and have not panned it off yet. if i find some you will all know about it that's for sure, this is the stuff that came out of that noisy hole where i found a nice nugget and a nice specie in so hopefully there will be something for the effort.
cheers
Martin

Martin

if you were a Kiwi I would call the Kiwi ingenuity!!! what a sweet little setup using what you have.

but was there any gold?

cheers Tom

still looking for the gold Tom, im hopeful there is something there and will do more investigating on the spot when i get back in a few weeks. the crusher is a bit rough but it does the job and didnt cost anything apart from a few welding rods and my time.

Martin, good timing. I brought home a rock to crush for the first time and it turns out that the dolly pot is not as romantic as the old books suggest. Would love a pic of the internals at the chain and sieve end. Gotta be cheaper than the chiro. Panning is a new art that eludes me at the moment too. Long live big clean nuggets.
Cheers.
Mick

hi Mick, i will take it apart tomorrow and take some pics, i didnt put in a sieve just put it through some flywire after grinding and anything that doesnt get through goes back in the next run. panning isnt too difficult with a bit of practice just put some dish washing liquid in the water and start off with not too much in the pan, when i first did it i followed a you tube vid on panning, gold will sink to the bottom after a good agitation and agitate on an angle with the ripples down so they catch any gold and take it slow once you get down to the last centimeter of concentrates. getting the black sand out can be tricky but i found if you put a good rare earth magnet underneath the pan you can pull most of it out. the last bit i use the smooth side and gently wash out any last bits then swirl a tiny bit of water up and down over the final bit leaving the gold behind, i use a gold sucker to get the fines out. hope this helps



Cheers
martin

cheers Martin, I managed to pan out what I had crushed and sieved and got a tiny grain of gold but the fine powdered stuff is getting away, if it's there of course. Will try again with a drop of detergent and the magnet.
Mick

Hi Martin, what a great idea. I have fair bit of stone that I would like to process and that looks like a lot easier way of doing it than the old dolly pot! Have you had a chance to take a photo or two of the internals? I would love to have a crack at making one.

Cheers
Stingray

been away for a week stingray but i will get around to it soon, sorry buddy.
so far NO gold fellas.

and after re digging the hole no further noise in it so ive left it and will do more crushing and panning of what ive got.

I often look at those hotrocks thinking that there may be something inside but one smack with the pick and. I figure they are too hard. I like the rotor idea.

Would be interested in the workings of this rock crusher Martin. Picks would be nice when you get the time.

sorry for the delays guys, here are the pics. dont look at the cocky shyte welding, i only had a stick welder with wet rods so did the best i could.

















cheers

for the centre bearing i just used an old socket with a 10 mm hole through it and for the spindle a piece of 10mm all thread with locknuts and washers to bolt it all together.
cheers

martinjsto wrote:for the centre bearing i just used an old socket with a 10 mm hole through it and for the spindle a piece of 10mm all thread with locknuts and washers to bolt it all together.
cheers

At least you have it working. It looks like a good basis for a series-2 including a few refinements.

Thanks Martin, they are a great help. I've got a mate who is keen to have a crack at it and best of all he can weld and has time so we'll see what happens.

Cheers
Stingray

yep Phil, the next one will be made with a screen and a collector so its a continuous flow design.
pretty basic stingray but works a treat and sure beats a dolly pot.