Trommel design

[oldies1955]

Hey all:

Ive been kicking around the idea of building a small 12VDC trommel for my dad to monkey with when we go back in.

Been looking at all the designs on the web and had a few questions I cant seem to figure out.

Does the reverse helix reduce the heavies down so you dont need to run a sluice under the barrel? Does it have to run slower? IE Little mountain goat type trommel.

I know how to make a barrel with the reverse helix but do I need that?

Is it worth it as far as production speed to just run a sluice under the barrel for the small stuff and let it sort the heavies? Then pan the sluice out?

Tks all

Tom

[AMC]

Typically, it does not eliminate a sluice. It does reduce the amount of light concentration because of its design. So, yes it does gravity classify. They must be run slow to work properly. The small plants like the Javalina, they are meant to process and classify the entire material from beginning to end. Fairly simple design. Still requires a sluice and panning the cons. It doesn't matter what you're trying to do in gold mining, it usually comes down to a sluice. I have heard that you can run the trommel very steep and get mostly gold and some black sands. I would think it would be losing gold also. I've got a 18"X72" reverse spiral two stage trommel off a large commerical plant that I have wanted to experiment with. It is just a matter of finding the time.

Jerry