Steel v's Plastic Pans

I am interested as a newbie to this past time if there is a difference between metal and plastic panning equipment. I have a couple plastic ones but wondering if there is any perceived advantage in going with metal. I have taken to using my detector in creek beds to try and identify targets to be panned . (mind you with out success so far.) which allows me to not pick up the pan during my sweeps but I wonder if the metal ones i have use seem more comfortable and easier to use.

I prefer plastic due to the weight. Especially if carrying around a bit of gear. I have a black unit that lives in the back of the car just in case!

Plastic. Hiking in & out of spots, the less weight the better. Plus the garrett pans with the riffles are great for catching the fine gold.

I was actually about to make a post about this, check out your local Aussie Disposal store I just found out today they sell both plastic and metal pans at really cheap prices the plastic ones start at around $5 and the metal at about $14. I haven't done any panning yet so I don't know what the quality is like but for those prices I'm gonna give them a crack.

Stick to plastic with good deeper riffles and the green ones like Turbopan or Garrett Super Sluices make life easy. Green is proven to make the gold (even flour fines) stand out to the naked eye. The worst pan I bought was hot pink plastic...useless! I find my older black one much harder to see than the green. There are also blue ones too which can help if you are colour blind to the more common green pans. Turbopans make for really quick refining but they are quite large & heavy when fully loaded (for a weak chick anyway!). Use a good classifying sieve too - plenty of plastic ones to choose from out there & in the gardening sections of Bunnings etc.

Go plastic as said before. Deep drop riffles are the go.
Metal pans are good for finishing off your cons... They got a big bottom of the pan which you can gently swirl the water round on.
Also the metal ones you can bung on the bbq or fire to dry off your gold.

i'm just wondering if peeople have a preference on either. I've got a couple of old steel ones that i haven't used since jesus was a little boy and was wondering if the plastics were a better pan or not

I'll pan at the creek with plastic(Garrett) & if I got lots of cons/black sands, will finish off with a steel one at home - they got a big bottom that you can get a nice swirl happening on.
Good for drying your gold with over a flame too...

I have the Garretts as well super plastic ones. The 90 degree riffle captures a lot of fine gold and blacksands. I do like the black no name pan I have at home I can see small pieces of gold a little easier as the black sand sort of disappears and you only see the colours. Found my first gold in a steel pan but given the choice I'd say plastic is your go. Invest in a couple of sieves to well worth it.

I've been running the garret super sluices for a lot of years now and I wouldn't use anything else ...got 2 of the old metal ones and as Ag says....great for drying out the gold.... Cheers Wal.

Certainly the Garret Super Sluice is the choice for me, but I still use my old tin pans, had them since I first started out back in the early 80's.
I dont get enough gold to dry out in my metal pans, have to use the small saucepan on the stove for that...
Cheers
Brad.....

Hi All,
I've been using a 14-1/2" Klondike Special, it was my one and only pan until recently when I started doing some loaming on a property and found it too big and cumbersome to use in buckets.
I managed to find some 10" tin pie trays at a $2 shop that do a great job and are easy to use in a bucket or tub.
Today I was out at Miners Den in Parramatta and bought myself a 10" Eswig clean up pan, haven't tried it yet but it looks as though it will need some conditioning before it's ready for use.

Cheers
Mick

I only have one pan, not sure on width, about a foot i think, and a 1/4 sieve, what would be a good additons to my set up?

Mate I use a couple of pans, so get another if you can.
Also I always pan in a drum, you would be amazed how much gold one loses!!
My kids get the dirt in the drum at the end of the week and they always get grams of pocket money!
Point is, try to get some sort of container to pan into.
When practising for the panning comps, we bought a $10 kids paddling pool!!

TenOunce Tone said:

...what would be a good additons to my set up?...

Click to expand...

I swear by using a 1/2" bucket sieve.

Look here for info: https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=541

I was told that steel pans are better if they are rusty,rather than shiny & the plastic garret /turbo pans are better in they are scuffed up a bit.
The guy that told me this reckoned the minute specs of gold was easier to work out from the junk black sand etc
Does anyone know if this is correct
Thanks
Pete

G'day Pete,

I think it just comes down to personal preference. I hear the Garrett Super Sluice is a very popular and great plastic pan to use (yet to try one of those myself). We've personally used the large steel pans since the 80's and I really love those. They require a good touch and a perfect technique as there's no safety riffles on the edges to stop the flakes from disappearing back into the creek

I have two plastic Trinity Pans here but I couldn't really get used them. They had a nasty habit of getting clogged up with clay. Very difficult to clean out the fine gold dust. I should post a pic of those as I haven't seen them on here as yet.

Give everything a try and see what you feel most comfortable with.

All the best with your choice!
Shauno.

hey Pr2cv

absolutely doesn't mater what pan u buy first thing to do is get a big handfull of rocks and sand and scratch the crap out of it, the old metal pans are great at holding the fines once they are rusty and i've heard that people throw them in the fire to blacken them up so you can see the gold better. I personally have a 14 inch garret 10 in gatrret, turbo pan and many other plastic pans with vrious riffle hight, size etc they all work much better with scratches mate.

Sorry to have to disagree with you Golddigg, but i wouldn't scratch the crap out of a new Plastic pan. Wash the grease off yes. Deep scratches on the bottom of your pan catch the gold in the scratches and prevent them from smoothly flowing to the bottom front of the pan during the forward wash.

Same with the "Backwash", deep scratches in the bottom make it difficult for the black sand to flow freely to the back of the pan. Gravity separates the gold during the swirling action and the easier it slides on the bottom of the pan the easier it is to concentrate it to one specific spot. ( my opinion only).

Cheers Wal.

I'm a huge fan of the Garrett Super Sluice. Try and throw a nugget out of one of those, I bet you can't

Nugget.