Stumpy Pick's Rock Crusher

[Colb20173]

Hi Folks,

I'm now the proud owner of a new Stumpy Pick's Rock Crusher. Seems like a great piece of kit so far. Main concern I have is that it came with no instructions and I can't find any hints or tips online regarding the best way to use it. Trial and error seems to be working so far and it's producing some nice flour like material for me to pan. No gold to date (gold does seem to have a natural aversion to my presence) but it's fun crushing likely looking rocks in the hunt for even the tiniest fleck of colour. I'll not give up, and already have more promising pieces to try.

Regarding size of material, feed rates (constant or a few bits at a time and stop/start the motor) does anyone have any experience or advice? I guess the other question I have is "what happens if you hook it up to a corded/mains powered grinder rather than the recommended cordless"? Bad things?

Also from a DIY perspective, the whole unit feels like it would benefit from sitting in a frame or jig of some kind. When processing slightly larger volumes, I've been tapping and then tipping the unit to empty some of the contents via the feed spout. It's either that or stop every 30 seconds and remove the side panel. If a frame of some kind could be built, I could spin the thing over more easily and do partial empties via the spout.

Now I'm guessing your obvious question for me is why not just contact Stumpy Picks? Well I have emailed a couple of times but haven't received a reply yet. I will get around to phoning but was online tonight and figured someone here might have some pro-tips. Any Stumpy Pick's Rock Crusher gurus out there?

 

[grubstake]

For those like me, who have no clue what Colb20173 is talking about, this appears to be the gadget:
https://stumpypicks.company.site/STUMPY-PICKS-ROCK-CRUSHER-p233891110

 

[Colb20173]

Ah sorry about that folks. Yup, that's the fella. Thanks for filling in the blanks there Grubstake.

 

[Moneybox]

Hi Folks,

I'm now the proud owner of a new Stumpy Pick's Rock Crusher. Seems like a great piece of kit so far. Main concern I have is that it came with no instructions and I can't find any hints or tips online regarding the best way to use it. Trial and error seems to be working so far and it's producing some nice flour like material for me to pan. No gold to date (gold does seem to have a natural aversion to my presence) but it's fun crushing likely looking rocks in the hunt for even the tiniest fleck of Asbestosis. I'll not give up, and already have more promising pieces to try.

Regarding size of material, feed rates (constant or a few bits at a time and stop/start the motor) does anyone have any experience or advice? I guess the other question I have is "what happens if you hook it up to a corded/mains powered grinder rather than the recommended cordless"? Bad things?

Also from a DIY perspective, the whole unit feels like it would benefit from sitting in a frame or jig of some kind. When processing slightly larger volumes, I've been tapping and then tipping the unit to empty some of the contents via the feed spout. It's either that or stop every 30 seconds and remove the side panel. If a frame of some kind could be built, I could spin the thing over more easily and do partial empties via the spout.

Now I'm guessing your obvious question for me is why not just contact Stumpy Picks? Well I have emailed a couple of times but haven't received a reply yet. I will get around to phoning but was online tonight and figured someone here might have some pro-tips. Any Stumpy Pick's Rock Crusher gurus out there?

I've just had a quick look at the link put up by grubstake.

Firstly, where are you getting your stone. If I'm looking for gold in rock to crush I collect it from an old minesite. That mullock heap that they've left behind will surely have gold if it was a gold producing mine.

Size and feed rate, well the site suggests you check out his Youtube videos. I haven't but you might get all the answers there. I'd be stuffing anything in that will fit down the tube without catching on the sides. Listen to the action in the drum and you'll know when it's cleared enough to feed more.

Avoid the dust, Silicosis is a similar thing to Asbestosis and therefore potentially more hazardous than some other gold processing methods that we can't discuss here. Good dust masks and safety glasses are available from automotive parts stores or the local hardware.

I can't help you with the volume you can put through before emptying it because my homebuilt empties as it's processed and I feed it a continual flow of small stones no bigger than about 50mm.

The site clearly states "No mains power grinders" and that will be due to their higher RPM and extra power. It's only a small machine and most likely not robust enough to handle the higher speed and power of the 240V grinder.

 

[Colb20173]

Great reply! Many thanks for doing so. I'm typically either sourcing bits of dirty looking quartz from mullock, the occasional outcrop, pickings from my own property (I've found micro flecks panning erosion gullies in our failed dam), and even the odd bit of quartz that gets my detector all excited. Not processed much to date and it's been iron so far in terms of metals found. Haven't done some of the more promising pieces yet as I thought it'd be safer to practice on the more rubbishy (good geological term there) bits first. Just in case.

I did look for the YouTube videos but when clicked, nothing had been uploaded. Hopefully up soon. Fingers crossed on that front!

Re size, I've run a few decent sized bits now and it copes with them well and pulverises them quickly. Possibly better than the other method that I've tried of feeding more smaller pieces. That seems to slow the revs faster with a rapidly draining battery as a result. I must say though that awkwardness of emptying aside, it's been a great little unit so far and certainly easier than trying to get the same result via dolly pot.

Absolutely onboard with your concerns over the dust. Don't worry, I'm taking it very seriously. I don't have any positive pressure gear so use the following method. Outside, upwind, cordless fan at the exhaust/feeder port blowing away from me, P2 Honeywell half face mask (silicone mask with dual cartridge filters), and a face shield for eye protection (saved me a couple of times already). I tried safety glasses but the mask positioning forced them out and up slightly too far. The shield is far better.

If I think to next time I'm using it, I'll grab a couple of photos of the 'ore' (which probably isn't ore but sounds good), and resultant crushed material.

Thanks once again. All tips, tricks, and advice will always be welcome!

 

[Chewy]

This might help.

 

[Colb20173]

Chewy you are a legend and a lifesaver sir. I haven't dared go back to the Stumpy Picks website to see if the manual was right there looking at me. I have enough trouble spotting where I've left my car keys, glasses, wallet each day without adding manuals to the list. Thank you much for taking the time to find and upload this. Truly appreciated.

It's rock crushing time...

 

[Chewy]

No probs mate, I bought 1 a while back. Can't remember if they emailed it to me or if it was on the website. Haven't used mine yet, maybe over the holidays.

 

[Colb20173]

Hi. So I thought I'd post some pictures of today's ore crush. Spoiler alert but I can confirm this turned out to be all quartz and iron. Sample was from a mullock heap. Heavily mineralised as you can see. A mix of dirty quartz interspersed with a lot of iron and host rock. Gave it a few good whacks in the dolly pot then spent a productive half hour running those pieces through the Stumpy Picks Crusher. Just did the one pass for the whole thing so you could see the results. Very little in the way of coarse material survived (sorry, I forgot the mesh sizes so just went 'generic'). The bulk of the material was a very fine flour. Pretty impressive, especially I was using a Ryobi "my first grinder" and changing batteries after a few runs to avoid over-heating.

With a fairly low-spec grinder like that I found that feeding three small scoops of material in slowly was enough. You could hear the drop in revs after that. So I'd then stop, empty as much as I could from the spout and then start again. A fairly clumsy process but I got there and it sure beat the heck out of 5 hours trying to achieve the same with my dolly pot.

Panning unfortunately revealed nothing but iron. I even ran the dregs of the pan under my microscope just to make sure. So this rock was a dud but there's plenty more out there. Not a bad way to spend some time on a rainy afternoon!

Don't worry, I won't be posting every crush but if I do one day find something gold and shiny I'll be sure to let you know!