Hand crank trommel build

[Goldtarget]

Knocked of work today and walked past the pile of materials stored up for the build and decided I should stop thinking about it and start building it. I had started on a smaller one but the neighbour down the road was getting rid of one of the old school tables so I decided to up the ante a bit size wise and build one to last. I'm sure the welds would make an engineer weep tears of sorrow but it's solid enough for me and what I intend to do with it, hopefully daylight might help me out. Got it to spin which wasn't a bad effort in the three hours I spent on it, prob if I wasn't engineering on the fly it might have taken less. Still a way to go, needs handle, hopper, mesh, and collection point so I could be up for more than a few hours yet, but I feel better it's not just a pile of stuff, it's progressed to a project. Couple of progressive pics.

 

[G0lddigg@]

Looks like a good start GT watch this space

 

[dwt]

hook in cobber, starting to look the part, let me know if i can help you out with any cutting/pressing/rolling/machining, ect,

 

[Goldtarget]

Sheesh mate i didn't even give it a thought, but in the end i used what i had. Definitely looks homemade, just got excited and wanted to get it to work, so took a couple of shortcuts which I'll revisit in the very near future. Still need spray bars and a bit of chain to hang a box but it lives. Will redo the hopper and put on a detachable handle, but here's a pic of where it's at. Can't wait for Tuesday to test it out in the field and wash the blood off.

 

[Goldtarget]

Cutting for screen

 

[Goldtarget]

Fitting screen

Assembled with hopper box and turning

Driveway dreaming of thousands of tonnes being classified and hundreds of grams being collected.

 

[Goldtarget]

So if you see the green drum spinning (aka 2152) come say hi, and have a peek and add your input. I'm sure it needs refinement just wanted to put the buckets away without spending the $800 that you may pay for something similar. Total build cost $60, not including rods and power to weld. Safely under the $100 mark doing it diy

 

[dwt]

So if you see the green drum spinning (aka 2152) come say hi, and have a peek and add your input. I'm sure it needs refinement just wanted to put the buckets away without spending the $800 that you may pay for something similar. Total build cost $60, not including rods and power to weld. Safely under the $100 mark doing it diy

Mate i reckon you have done a top job on that, that should work a charm....
And to build it for that price,................Siiiiiiick.................

 

[Hagsy]

Hey all,
New on here , first post, I knocked one up a few months ago out of totally recycled bits

, to classify before I put through the cube, works excellent wet or dry.

 

[Big bryza]

Mate I reckon it looks great, will process lots for lots of yellow, will drop in Tuesday after work soon as I can! P.s the mrs will like the growing biceps also!

 

[Goldtarget]

Put another $20 in for the hopper, heavy wall purlin/c section, second hand (ok so the scrap yard did give me some other stuff for that price) turns out I'm pretty crap at engineering....didn't give enough clearance for the hopper to enter the barrel. So as every hack would do i got out the angle grinder and started some trimming. Problem solved! Testing tomorrow mount couple spray bars and some sidewall place low banker underneath and gtg. I'm sure that will show up a few flaws. I'll put up a pic in the morn ran out of daylight.

 

[TenOunce Tone]

HiGT, have a look at this thread form last year, yours looks good, I think yo may need a cover over your classifier section. This will stop the spray going all over the place and direct it into your sluice..

https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=783

Cheers, Tone

 

[Goldtarget]

Intended to run the spray bar inside the barrel and second flow down the feed hopper, the screen is less width than my smallest box, that said i have some of that purlin left over to collect up the water and gravels a they drop out if need be. Worst case scenario I'll just keep welding bits on till it's a goer, I'm building it without plans, sort of build, test, rectify, build, test etc, i find diy builds are like that, unless it's ikea speced i just dial up the determination until it happens. Likely scenario is this will end up as a prototype a the last smaller one did for this build, just refine till it works as it should

 

[Goldtarget]

Hmmm, should be interesting, I'm not worried about getting wet or muddy I'll pan in a thunderstorm, might just see how i go getting enough flow and spray into the right areas. Maybe an internal deflector? If i go around the outside I'll need a bloody large sheet and i wanted to keep the barrel removable so it want so heavy to lug around. If i spent this much time on a z banker i intend to build it would be done by now.cheers for the link and your thoughts, I'll nut this one out yet, without a drop of water through it yet things could get interesting.

 

[dwt]

Hmmm, should be interesting, I'm not worried about getting wet or muddy I'll pan in a thunderstorm, might just see how i go getting enough flow and spray into the right areas. Maybe an internal deflector? If i go around the outside I'll need a bloody large sheet and i wanted to keep the barrel removable so it want so heavy to lug around. If i spent this much time on a z banker i intend to build it would be done by now.cheers for the link and your thoughts, I'll nut this one out yet, without a drop of water through it yet things could get interesting.

Hey GT, Tone is on the money with the cover mate, you dont want to blow any fine/small gold strait out of your screen, and or the water tracks down on the outside of the low side of your barrel, you could counter act this by having pressure adjustable reverse facing spray bars, spray some of the water facing back towards your feed hopper from the bottom end of the trommel, at a low rate the oversize will push past but allow most of the water to flow a couple of inches back up towards the centre of your sluice box.
Also i dont know how your crank handle is set up but you could stick a garden hose fitting on the downside end of the trommel (barrel spinner/crank section) and use the the trommel (axel) as an internal spray bar, simply drill some holes along in accordance with where your screen is placed and with a garden hose fitting on the end tied off it will simply turn and not bind up the hose, securing the hose would also assist in the fitting spinning.

good luck GT and im keen to see some pics with how it turned out

 

[Goldtarget]

I did have something like this in mind in the cooking up stage, but i feel the horse has bolted. I really appreciate the time give taken to sketch this out. I guess i have a couple of choices, redo the drive shaft and adopt the design above, keep the design I've built and do the go slow on adding spray bars (thankfully i left enough gap to get them in from the hopper end) and take my chances, or plan the next one with a bit more care and revisit my pile of metal for projects.

 

[dwt]

I did have something like this in mind in the cooking up stage, but i feel the horse has bolted. I really appreciate the time give taken to sketch this out. I guess i have a couple of choices, redo the drive shaft and adopt the design above, keep the design I've built and do the go slow on adding spray bars (thankfully i left enough gap to get them in from the hopper end) and take my chances, or plan the next one with a bit more care and revisit my pile of metal for projects.

cool man, best of luck to you today

 

[Goldtarget]

Ran the hose through it.....now I see the issue. What an oversight. The old physics will undo me everytime. Thanks for the heads up guys, might be here a while.

 

[TenOunce Tone]

Just clamp or cable tie on some black 13mm garden poly to the middle bar and put in some holes... you can buy hose fittings and an end cap at your local hardware for around $10.00.