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Posted by: gold_tutor Aug 25 2004, 11:05 AM

Can't figure this out. The base where waterhose intake attaches, unscrews from the rest of the black holder that the clear tube is attached.

I don't think the small tube wadded up in it does anything at all. In fact, when it arrived the wadded up tube looked like it had oil in it and was just stuck in because the estate sale people thought they belonged together. I can't find a place to attach any tubing, so that doesn't help. And all prospectors know oil and gold don't mix, or bye-bye fine gold.

Will take more pictures of it disassembled from the bottom half black base if that helps anyone figure this out for me.

Thanks for all input or suggestions as to manufacturer or how to use or if something is missing beside the gold

Oh, and the label says: Clovis California and a Phone number. I've called and called and only get voice mail. Have left messages asking for whoever answers to call collect, but that hasn't happened either.

Thanks for looking.

Posted by: russau Aug 25 2004, 04:42 PM

megan, i always yell and cuse it and if that dont work i kick it across the room. this usually helps something, but i havent figured that one out yet! untill then i just keep muttering to myself!

Posted by: gold_tutor Aug 25 2004, 06:08 PM

Thanks, Russau...you're a big help

Tell ya what...I'll send you this'un and then you can cuss at two for the price o'one?
Sound like a deal?

Posted by: russau Aug 26 2004, 04:28 AM

ok but it needs to be full of that good oregon gold cons to make it work correctly! haha.....wally in michigan (wallyMI)(the gate crasher) had some thing simalar to this. and he liked it.you might want to converse with him about the operating principles. i think you could find him on the DEF web site or over at tom ashworths site.

Posted by: Gat-Wa. Aug 26 2004, 02:05 PM

Cool megan thats a heavy metal seperator ive used them tested them and yes ive cussed then too :) well thay have a draw back being thay have a very fine fliter in the bottom you must use fresh clean water from a house wel. If not then its already plugged up and will not work properly. Ok its a teatuss thing to find the right pressure but it can be dun I have some pics of it working corectly some were I think, ill check and see if i can find them. Anyways one thing for sure it needs to be in a tub of some kind so you dont lose any thing. Oh and level also. Ok add some cons screaned down too the size of a window screan size or less the finer the better.Start the water flowe at 0 then slowly increase soon as you see the black sand lift up off the bottom hold the water pressure there 1/8 " too 1/4" then just set back for a wile and watch it seperate the defrent wights,You will see like 3 or 4 levels of cons gold at the bottom watch the bottom level for gold lifting then when you think your tired of watching it lol use the sucktion tube to suck off the top two layers then very and i mean very carefuly suck the last black layer watching for gold lifting. Ok good luck with it if you need more help with it let me know and no i dont want to buy it as i have had one grin .
Gat.
Ps. Dont get me wrong thay do work its just very time consuming is all.

Posted by: russau Aug 26 2004, 06:37 PM

as gat described, it is a form of fluid bed consintrator, this is a simplified version of whats hanging off the rear of my over/under sluice. as youincrease the water column in this system it raises the lighter materials and drops the heavies. specific gravity in action through the use of a water column. and as gat says screening is very important in this proccess to utilize the specific gravity. my fluid bed is 20 inchs wide x 16 inchs long and 9 inchs deep. it is feed from the lower section of my over/under dredge. and it is screened to 1/4 inch then it stratifys on a 4 foot slick plate and it enters my fluid bed through a 1/4 inch slit that goes across may slick plate. at this point the cons are further screened from the action of the stratification of the slick plate. then these cons drop into my fluid bed and are further straified by the action of the water column in the bed. and the lights exit the bed through a 1/4 slit at the rear of the f.b. that is assissted by the exit water that comes from the over sluice and it creats a additional suction action from its water moving over my exit slit at the rear of the f.b. setting up the water column as gat says is touchy. to much pressure will blow out the fines. to little will slug the unit, and itll load up quick!!! its all so clear now that you put it that way! i run my f.b. with about 1/2 inch of water column. to figure what your water column is: it is the height of the water from that plastic line above your water level in the bed, or in this case in the tube. id use a recirculating system to make it work and have some sufactant in the water to keep your fines from floating out. i hope this helped you and i hope im on the right track and didnt misslead you or confuse you!

Posted by: russau Aug 26 2004, 06:40 PM

blame it on zooka! he got me interested in fluid beds with his kitty box fluid bed. he has pics over on goldminers on yahoogroups! once you understand the principals of the f.b. you can amke what you want!

Posted by: gold_tutor Sep 7 2004, 11:21 AM

Thx, Guys! "Gat-Wa" came through: 5 COOL Pix of this working! THX, GAT!
P.S. Gatster....TAIN'T fer Sale :P

Posted by: gold_tutor Sep 7 2004, 11:24 AM

Wonder if this will work on separating out the tiny garnets I have buckets of mixed in with mah gold????

Posted by: gold_tutor Sep 7 2004, 11:26 AM

#3

Posted by: gold_tutor Sep 7 2004, 11:27 AM

#4

Posted by: gold_tutor Sep 7 2004, 11:37 AM

Look at that sweet gold emerge there on the bottom in this enlargement!

I think I can handle the pannin' from here, Gat :)

Posted by: russau Sep 8 2004, 10:09 AM

looks like a super neat little tool!

Posted by: gold_tutor Sep 11 2004, 05:04 PM

Thanks, Russ. I'm looking forward to trying it out one of these days soon, now that Gat has given us all How-2 Lessons.

Finally 'membered to unscrew the base & take a few more pix of it. Here's #6

Posted by: gold_tutor Sep 11 2004, 05:21 PM

Shown upside down, this perforated, hard-nylon perf filtration screws into the gasketed base shown above. Once assembled, there is really no reason to disassemble unless clogging occurs--as warned by Gat-Wa. Thx again, Gat! :)

Posted by: gold_tutor Sep 11 2004, 05:31 PM

#8 Looking Down inside column--where very very fine filtercloth & brass grating are.

Posted by: russau Sep 11 2004, 08:22 PM

yep, thats a fluid bed!

Posted by: gold_tutor Sep 18 2004, 02:33 PM

Pix #9 I jis keep talking to Gat-Wa about this thing, and jis keep learnin'... :)

Here's what I learned this time: there is a permanently seated "flow constrictor" in the throat of this female hose fitting unit... I had to enlarge the image of this totally traditional garden hose female fitting so you all could see this "constrictor"...

So, iffen you be planning t'build yer own, remember to find and install this constrictor thingy...I have NO clue where you would go to find one.

But as you can see from the label on the image, it is tapered on the I.D. toward the center of the opening.

It is a slightly "redder" brass, too, if that helps ya' do it yer selfer types find any....that's how I spotted it...after Gat tol' me to look fer it....had'ta use strong light and me trusty 16X magnifying glass Sure glad it was redder brass...I'd prolly STILL be huntin' fer it iffen it weren't!!!

Posted by: gold_tutor Sep 18 2004, 02:35 PM

Gat also said this was copyrighted 1981. Had no clue this doohicus was 23 years old. :o

I thot it looked like a young pup mahself <_<

Posted by: Steppegold May 30 2007, 12:21 AM

Dear All - maybe its a good idea to revive this sleepy thread...

I've been reading a few hundred US patents, made possible by the USPTO going on-line and Google having a special Patent Search engine too.

I found a patent a while back:
"Hydraulic Flow Distributor in Gold Separator Method"
Inventor: Daniel Osterberg of Fresno, California.
Patent filed for: 30th March 1982
Patent awarded: 29th May 1984 - US #4,451,359
Patent expired: 29th May 1991 due to non-payment of patent fees.

Having seen gold_tutor's posts I suddenly realised that the patent is for the "Quick Gold Separator". This is great news, as I have been wondering if the invention ever got into production (many never do). This device is important as it belongs to a little-studied class of fine gold recovery devices known as 'Elutriation Towers' or 'E-Tanks' for short. About the time the 'Quick Gold Separator' was patented, other forms of E-Tanks (eg by Arthur Lashley) were being tested, including tests by MIRL in Alaska. Anyway the tests showed that SOME types of E-towers in some conditions really can recover very fine gold - and that means a handful of microns!

As the patents of these devices are long expired and the devices largely forgotten I'm very interested in them as a means of recovering extremely fine gold and in doing so to compete head-on with mercury that is a terrible problem here in Mongolia and elsewhere with tons used by artisanal miners. The goal is to outcompete mercury by simple gravity methods.

You can download the patent via USPTO or Google Patents, and I've attached a copy of it anyway below as a small PDF file.

The PDF file will help you guys and gals to understand the device better and how its supposed to operate.

cheers

Steppe

 us004451359_E_tower___simple___Osterberg_1984___SPECIAL.pdf ( 410.82K ) : 1465

Posted by: gold_tutor Dec 18 2007, 04:59 PM

Dear All - maybe its a good idea to revive this sleepy thread...

I've been reading a few hundred US patents, made possible by the USPTO going on-line and Google having a special Patent Search engine too.

I found a patent a while back:
"Hydraulic Flow Distributor in Gold Separator Method"
Inventor: Daniel Osterberg of Fresno, California.
Patent filed for: 30th March 1982
Patent awarded: 29th May 1984 - US #4,451,359
Patent expired: 29th May 1991 due to non-payment of patent fees.

Having seen gold_tutor's posts I suddenly realised that the patent is for the "Quick Gold Separator". This is great news, as I have been wondering if the invention ever got into production (many never do). This device is important as it belongs to a little-studied class of fine gold recovery devices known as 'Elutriation Towers' or 'E-Tanks' for short. About the time the 'Quick Gold Separator' was patented, other forms of E-Tanks (eg by Arthur Lashley) were being tested, including tests by MIRL in Alaska. Anyway the tests showed that SOME types of E-towers in some conditions really can recover very fine gold - and that means a handful of microns!

As the patents of these devices are long expired and the devices largely forgotten I'm very interested in them as a means of recovering extremely fine gold and in doing so to compete head-on with mercury that is a terrible problem here in Mongolia and elsewhere with tons used by artisanal miners. The goal is to outcompete mercury by simple gravity methods.

You can download the patent via USPTO or Google Patents, and I've attached a copy of it anyway below as a small PDF file.

The PDF file will help you guys and gals to understand the device better and how its supposed to operate.

cheers

Steppe

Posted by: russau Dec 19 2007, 06:01 AM

even though the patent has expired, i wouldnt feel right coping it! but i would like to use that premiss to make my own design. not for sale, but just to make it and play around with it. heaven knows i already have enough equipment inside my garage and trailer to do me a life time! that permanant hose restrickter raises the water pressure. i think that depending on the amount of material you put inside of this container, you will have to adjust the water pressure to match the amount of material. i know that the fluidbed i made for my 4 inch dredge had to have the correct water column in it to make it work correctly. im thinking this would be the same.

Posted by: russau Jun 16 2008, 12:46 PM

i saw over on www.49ermike.com in the prospecting forum that they were talking about gold concentrators and someone showed a picture of a device very similar to what you showed here. and the also have it posted over on the Alaskan gold forum with the directions almost visiable for me to read. i guess these are still around now and then!

Posted by: gold_tutor Jul 11 2019, 11:01 PM

QUOTE (russau @ Sep 11 2004, 08:22 PM)