dry washing wit a gold duster

[forrest]

I have just purchased a gold duster dry washer and took it out today. as soon as the dirt hit the cloth above the first riffle it sure seems that there is a lot of gold, black sand and what ever else made be in the dirt being blown away. has anyone had the same problem and how did you correct the problem. any suggestion would help. I have a keene bellows and it never acts this way. thank forrest

[desertdigger]

Hello Forrest,

I owned a Goldduster for many years before going to the Keene 151. You have yourself a great drywasher and will retain gold smaller than a pin head.

Keep you leaf blower on the smallest setting just so the material sluffs off the riffels. A good rule of thumb is a 2" drop for every foot of riffels. However, if yor are running very fine material, you may be able to get by with less steep of an angle.

If you have ever dredged or highbanked, you are looking for the same type of riffels action, the only difference being dry material. As long as you have this type of action, you will be just fine. I also had this same concern when I first fired up the Goldduster....not to worry, it is just mainly fine caliche, dust and sand. If you keep your leaf blower in check and the proper riffel box angle, most of your gold will be caught in the riffels.

Hope this helps.

[forrest]

Hello Forrest,

I owned a Goldduster for many years before going to the Keene 151. You have yourself a great drywasher and will retain gold smaller than a pin head.

Keep you leaf blower on the smallest setting just so the material sluffs off the riffels. A good rule of thumb is a 2" drop for every foot of riffels. However, if yor are running very fine material, you may be able to get by with less steep of an angle.

If you have ever dredged or high banked, you are looking for the same type of riffels action, the only difference being dry material. As long as you have this type of action, you will be just fine. I also had this same concern when I first fired up the Goldduster....not to worry, it is just mainly fine caliche, dust and sand. If you keep your leaf blower in check and the proper riffel box angle, most of your gold will be caught in the riffels.

Hope this helps.

thanks for the info, the problem seems to be that if I run it at a slower speed the larger material does not want to run off. I change the angle and then the smaller materials run off rather fast and over the top. when the material hits the air space there is a huge puff of dust flying out ahead of the first riffle almost like an explosion. I heard that some people put about two inches of duct tape just below where the material would drop. the blower that came with the machine only has click type settings. In other words you cannot fine tune the blower. what type of blower did you have for yours. thanks for the info. forrest

[desertdigger]

Forrest,

I purchased a leaf blower that you can adjust fully from throttle to full speed. That way I had total control over the amout of air entering the box.

I know what you mean by it looks like an explosion when the material first enters the box ahead of the first riffle. Not to worry, this is maily super fine dust.....your heavier gold will settle to the bottom.

[whats4supper]

preload the entire riffle tray with dirt before starting up the blower. this evens out the workload with the blower, minimizing gold or heavy particle loss. while you're at it, fill the hopper with dirt, and adjust the gate for an even feed into the riffles.

you should be running at a speed that allows you to shovel 3 or so shovels into the hopper, and allow yourself a few moments to lean on the shovel and rest/watch the contraption work.

the riffle tray should be set at about a 1-2 inch fall per foot, and set the blower to run at about 1/2 speed or slightly more, allowing the tails to trickle off the box. running at full speed, and/or with too much slant/angle will cause you to lose gold.

roughly 99.75% of your material will blow off, and of what's left, will be the heavy portion, of which, if any gold is there, will be in that leftover. Gold pans, drywashers, sluices, dredges, all work for the same purpose: gravity concentrators to trap the heavy minerals. out of tons of raw material comes the relatively small volumes of gold bearing material. water based concentrators do a better job than air-based types. in ideal setups, water will allow 65-90% efficiency, while air based units work in the 45-65% range. it pays to run material twice while drywashing.

rather than pan out the gold, the Desert Fox spiral pan saves a lot of effort.

PS: on some weed blowers that do not have a click stop for speed, use of a gate valve (plastic PVS) in the air line can control the air feed volume or speed.