Quick Build Crevice Tool

[TenOunce Tone]

Gday all,

Well after my last trip out and seeing some of the dilemmas faced by other members, I decided its time for a new crevice tool!

I went to the local Aluminium place and bought a scrap length of pipe, 10mm or so diameter by about 800 long

I then set about one end with a hammer and semi flattened the last 60 mm or so.. ended up with this

I then stuck it in the vice, grabbed the grinder and cut a slot in one side as shown here.

I then cleaned up the slot and opened it up to make a bit of a receptacle for the dirt.

[img=out]https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/img/member-images/288/1371036260_004_2013-06-12_18.47.55.jpg[/img]

Last bit was to put a bend in the end, I put a number 1 size phillips head screwdriver in the opening and then clamped the lot in the vice and bent a bit beyond 90, the screwdriver stopped the vice from crushing the opening.

The reason it is beyond 90 is so that the dirt wont fall out when your dragging it out of the crack, I may put a spike on the other end so I can get into the crevices with one tool.
i will also let you know how the aluminium holds up, I think the metal may wear a bit on the rocks, but you never know..
all up it cost me $2.00 for the tube.

Cheers and good luck, Tone

 

[WalnLiz]

That garage of yours must get a good old workout Tone. Look forward to the feedback from the next hunt on those crevices. Best of luck and hope those cracks are full of gold.

Cheers Wal,

 

[TenOunce Tone]

Well went out today and found a decent crevice, the tool worked well for some soft dirt. When I went into some harder packed dirt the aluminium bent and the hook snapped.. next one will be steel of some sort..

 

[WalnLiz]

But did you get some gold before it broke mate???? 8.(

Cheers Wal,

 

[TenOunce Tone]

Yes I found one small picker and a few flakes. will pput up a pic later

 

[Jordan&Inna]

are you using this for dry areas or wet? and do you then suck it out with a pipe or just brush it out? sorry for silly questions I am not sure how all of this work as i have seen people using pipes and a screw driver.

 

[TenOunce Tone]

Jordan and Inna, I was using it in a dry area, but there is no reason you can not use the tool in the wet also, you would just have to clean it in the wet.. I have not used a pipe, but I have been using a brush, I guess pipe could be worth it in the wet. Have a look at my Hand dredge tool for some ideas on something you can make for wet areas.. there are many variations..

I will be making a new crevice tool out of steel, don't use aluminium, it wont last.

Cheers Tone

 

[sh4ggs]

Hey Tone,

managed to find this one left behind in a local creek yesterday. Much faster way to build one.

It's gone straight into the kit bag (unless someone wants to claim it)

looks much bigger in the pic than it really is.

 

[TenOunce Tone]

Looks ok for the shallow crevices Sh4ggs, what was it, an old Teaspoon? I am in the process of getting a bit of steel pipe so I can make Crevice Tool II.. I will make sure the finished product survives the bend test.. may even get some steel bar and reinforce the tip.

Verticle crevices were only 1 - 2 cm wide at the widest, difficult to get into and get the dirt and gold out.
The horizontal crack was no wider than 5 cm.

this is the crack I was getting into.. The crack on the left went down at least 30 cm

You can see some of the tools I use, there are two crevices in the bottom pic one was vertical and I could get down about 30 cm, the horizontal crack was 15 - 17 cm deep by the time I finished and the tool broke..

I did not have a decent brush and pan to get ALL the soil, I only had a small paintbrush, I will be putting a small dustpan and robust brush into the kit bag.

Cheers, Tone

 

[sh4ggs]

wow - can see the problem now.

i originally thought maybe a fully charged dustbuster with a narrow pipe, but that wouldn't have enough power either.

good luck mate - hope there is some shiny stuff at the bottom of it.

 

[Dogmatic]

Did the crevice in your pic produce anything?

 

[TenOunce Tone]

Yes one nice small picker.. and the usual small flakes.

 

[BrisJoe]

You want to build it like this

 

[TenOunce Tone]

Is that a home build or frm a shop. looks the goods. i have seen something like that on u.s. web sites for 20 odd american. the30 dollar shipping is the killer

 

[BrisJoe]

It was homemade off the site I found, it was just a round bar of steel which the guy flattened out, and bent and ground out the scoop with a dremmil
I'm looking at making 1 as well, well several lol
Went looking through kmart/BigW tonight looking for an assortment of tools that can be used for crevicing, mainly looking for the L shape tool in your second picture there for deweeding concrete, but all I managed to find of use was a plastic trowel spade which I'll keep aside for when I can afford a MD.
Guess I'll have to hit up bunnings for the other fancy tools

 

[Ag Man]

Hey Tone,

managed to find this one left behind in a local creek yesterday. Much faster way to build one.

It's gone straight into the kit bag (unless someone wants to claim it)

looks much bigger in the pic than it really is.

Uhm, I do believe I'm missing one of my Ye'oldern day spoons that I bent up & filed/cut to a nice pointy shape

Spitting image of mine that I cannot find from about 2-3weeks ago(hell could even be longer - I don't get out much). Did you happen to find it North of Warragul or North of Trafalgar by any chance? ? I could name said creek in a PM if you need clarification haha.
Small world...

I spray painted the handle of it with that orange Hi-Viz mark out paint years ago.

If that's it - finders keepers. I got a spare I'm using allready LOL.

It was a good tool though.

 

[TenOunce Tone]

BrisJoe, I got the green handled L shaped tool from bunnings or masters, cost me less than $5.00, great for breaking up the crevices, you can scoop out the dirt with it, but the dirt tends to get left as it is quite thin. Needs a scoop part as per your pic to be really useful. I also use a three pronged garden tool for getting the largish rocks out of the way. I will put up a pic of the tools I have collected..

 

[sh4ggs]

Hey ag man,

Your right, small world.

No doubt we'll bump into each other soon and I'll give it back, I know what it's like to loose a favorite tool.

But I will keep any gold I manage to scoop out with it in the meantime

Cheers
..Dave

 

[BrisJoe]

Yeah I spent some time at bunnings today's collecting a few things
Walked out with everything to make my hand pump, my miners moss style mat for my sluice build and a few hand tools for digging, hacking and scraping

 

[TenOunce Tone]

I have a piece of 10 mm re-bar.. going to try that for crevice too mk II. what do you guys think? will the steel be tough enough or will i have to get the tips tempered. going for a scoop at one end, narrow pointed hook the other..

cheers, Tone