Total newbee - Gold wheel?

[lrdg]

Can anyone tell me about the best way to use a gold wheel (sprial pan)? I am located in Arizona, within spitting distance of the Vulture Mine so there is gold out there. Seems like a slick idea but I am not sure I totally understand how they are being used. thanks for any help.

[nuggethunting]

Hello Irdg,

I'm not sure what spiral wheel you have, but you can run some of them dry, but best to run with wet. I used to own several different ones for dredge concentrates, but never really used them for normal "run of the mill" material. If you're going to run gravel from the dry washes, its best to classify fairly small and then run it through the spiral wheel wet or dry. Running it with water will get the best recovery.

To get them to work effectively you need to screen down the material, adjust the right angle and then the right water flow (if you're using water).

Any chance you can tell us what particular model you're using?

P.S. Thanks for joining the Nuggethunting.com Forums!

Talk with you soon,

Rob Allison

[Guest keninla]

I have a Desert Fox spiral wheel and as Rob says you should classify your material first. Really it is best to run only the concentrates through it.

It takes some time to get it adjusted right. You have to get the pan angle and the water flow just right so that only the gold ends up in the cup.

As a start try to get the pan angle and water flow set so that the black sands are pushed over the spirals and back down into the pan when the black sand is about one inch from the center hole. You will have to play with it a little to get it adjusted correctly.

What amazed me the the first time was the Damn thing actually works.

You end up with the gold in the little cup. Usually you do get some small amount of black sand also. One of the nice things about the Desert Fox is that it is a closed system. You can re-run the discarded material as many times as you want.

[Frosty]

Irdg,

I've got a desert fox & as Rob & keninla said they work nice. Classify your material adjust the wheel & the water flow, start dumping & let the wheel do the rest. Black sand should form an inverteted V going up the spiral if it's setup with the correct angle & water flow. Being a closed system I have run some of my material thru 2 - 3 X's since I didn't have the correct angle of the wheel & water flow & recovered 99.999% of the Au. - great little machine.

Keep on beeping - Frosty

[bakergeol1]

I used one quite a few years ago- Gold Hound. Great machine- fun to watch. As the other have pointed out classification is important. I felt their main plus point was that when run correctly you could receive an excellent gold concentration ratio- gold versus black sand. The major drawback was they were quite slow and it took a lot of time to run my concentrates.

I used to have on hand a dental pick to unplug the water holes.Occasionally the little holes for the water spray would get plugged up with either sand or more commonly plant material. When one of your water holes gets plugged up black sand starts migrating up the spiral and it ruins your concentrate. So I always had to watch what I was doing.

Have Fun

George