Goldzilla hits the field, chews dirt!

Hi Everyone.

I've been prospecting (casually) for years and found little bits here and there.

I've tried waving the magic beepy sticks around, and I reckon I know some places where I can make a fortune........ when the price of old bottle tops & rusty nails goes through the roof.

I've got an old Minelabs 15000 and also an internet cheapy that's probably as effective as the old 15000 these days. I'll get a GPX500 one of these days (after lotto )

The gold I have found was all by panning, but all the work in classifying and panning is hell on the back. So I started looking at all the different machines out there that make panning easier, and being a hands-on type of bloke, I rolled as many of them as I could into one machine, shown here running (mostly) at Creswick a few weeks ago. It's still a work in progress, but it does help tip the dirt to gold ratio in my favour!



You'll note, I'm still digging by hand, so I'm not in breach of my miners right when I use this.
I'm trying to work it all out so I can process everything on site, but on this trip I took a few buckets home so I can experiment with the blue bowl and the small sluice I built yesterday.

Unfortunately my blue bowl pump has crapped out at the moment, so I haven't been able to find out how much we found on this weekend, but I did a few test pans & there's definitely gold in them thar buckets. It's tiny, but it's there!

So check out the video & see what you think

And have fun & go find some good stuff!

Frank

9 out of 10 for ingenuity. Well done and welcome to the forum Frank.

Cheers Kon.

Hi Frank, brother!, that is a one beasty of a machine, welcome to the forum, well done mate!, it's all obviously cobbled together from some stuff that's a bit light on for it's purpose but you seem to have a reasonably well working prototype there at the least, love the use of the poly cut for the screw conveyor, I assume its all 12 V?, what's it driven by?, I think I would like to create one of these myself one day and you seem to have a nice little package going on there, I hope you continue to develop this beast and keep us updated, Oh yeah!... For gods sake! get some kinda cover on that freakin shaker!!! you know what they say, "it's all good fun until someone loses an eye!"

Wayne.

Thanks Guys - yes, it's 12v - if you look at the ground near my feet you can see the deep cycle battery I'm running it off, which I haven't run flat yet!

I normally have to run the water pump (actually a pool pump) off a generator, but the Genny can't put out enough DC power to run the machine as well

The PVC tube frame actually has wooden dowling running through it, so it's actually pretty sturdy.

That shaker has always been a work in progress, I'm just waiting for payday so I can buy some Cogs to make it more heavy duty and chain driven, and I think I'm going to give it teeth! Be Afraid Mwhahahahah!

I'll post more vids next time I take it out

Well I'm finally back in action after a fair break.

After the Goldzilla experience at Creswick, last march, I've revised Goldzilla's shaker, but I haven't had a chance to test it.  

In the meantime, I've taken a few comments on board, and also came up with a combo shaker/dry blower I call Nervous Nellie for dry areas.

Here's the links, if you want to watch the Vids, they're shortish, but they'll give you the idea   

Pt 1 - An overview of the machine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydwKe4pHQec

Pt2 - Watch for the bit around 1:40 where I manage to stick my finger into the rotating weight - You'ld think I'd know better by now
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Az9YSwOeGiY

Pt 3 - The Wrap up
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JBgJQG2uaE

I'm actually thinking of modding both machines so they run off my generator, rather than 12v, as the shaker motor's just don't seem to cut anything other than my fingers in the long run,
In Nellie's case, I'm thinking of bolting an orbital sander to her frame for vibration, and using a hair-dryer as a blower.

When it boils down to it, I'm a madcap re-inventor rather than an engineer, so maybe some of you have ideas to fix those issues.     

But DID also go wild & crazy & bought a GPX5000 today (my butt is still clenching nervously at the thought of spending that much cash),   
But that should cover me for areas where's there's water, and area's where there's not, and places where magic beepy sticks are the way to go.

The reason - Ive got 2 months LSL, and I'magonnauseit!
It's Probably the last chance I'll get to take a big slab of time like this to just concentrate on prospecting before retirement, so i figured I might as well throw money at it, in the hope it pays off.

Wish me luck!   

Good luck Frank and I hope you find the mother load on your travels.

Looks like you have a good start there, just needs a little refining and some engineering upgrades and some safety covers   , you may find some gold but I fear you may lose a finger first   , good luck out there.

Wayne.