what kinds of soils will a dry washer work with?


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any kind of soil, as long as it it fairly dry. if it has clods, break them up by whacking them with a shovel or something. if running slightly damp dirt, run it twice or thrice, mixing it in with dry tails. set the fall about 1 inch to the foot, and don't blow the dirt through at high speed.

shovel a little, lean a little, swig a little, shovel some more. run about 20 to 40 minutes, then shut down and clean out the box. recharge the riffle tray with tailings, and fill the hoppper, then start again for the smoothest action. keep a five-gal bucket handy for the concentrates, and run everything through a gold screw. periodically check the area and dig hole with a detector. even with the lazy motion mentioned here, plan on running 6 cy in a day. If you're out of shape, plan on a few outings before you get into shape with the pick and shovel

another useful tool- a gas powered vacuum cleaner, whisk broom. when it gets real hot, build a stockpilke in the day time and run the material at night. make some lantern holders and pound in some rebar or t-rail in a triangular setup, and hang 2 lanterns to counteract the shadows, and to keep the snakes at bay.

wear a 2 band particle mask (3M 8210 or 8211), sweatband, hat, and decent boots. breathing in dust from drywashing can put you down quick, and also may get you with Valley Fever, which for some people, is fatal and cannot be cured. make your hole in sort of an inclined fall, just in case you need to get a wheelbarrow at work. If yardwork isn't your bag, drywashing probably won't be either, especially after wearing out a pick or two. wear eye protection when swinging pick as some of the rock chips fly direct to your head at supersonic speed.

Check some of my previous posts on this subject (drywashing). If your hearing's good, work out on a decent detector. if not, take what you got and start digging. maybe Joe Arpairo could get you some tips from Practical Chain Gang Methods on how to dig a decent hole rather than how to dig a decent grave.

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