I am getting a desert fox here shortly and will be using it to check out all the concentrates I bucketed, any suggestions? thanks to all replies

I used mine today to work through some concentrates. The only thing I can say is feed it slowly. I used to go a little too fast and missed some gold.

Another thing,the water line off the spray bar that keeps the bottom of the pan wet can plug up. I had not used mine in a year and when I used it today it was plugged up like concrete.

Good luck.

rubinscube,

Some of this may not make any sense until you get the Desert Fox and start working with it.

Get a bag of practice placer dirt. The practice gold that comes with the Desert Fox is very very tiny and you might want to get some practice under your belt before dumping them in. Practice and practice and practice. Take a few pieces of gold from the practice placer dirt and make them smaller and try to find them again.

Be sure to classify your cons!!! I wouldn't bother feeding it anything much bigger than 10. Larger pebbles tend to get stuck in the wheel. 100 works pretty good for flour and specs.

The cleaner the cons, the better. Muddy water will plug the pump, plumbing and make it hard to see gold in the cup.

At first, I made the mistake of feeding my Desert Fox too fast. The slower you feed it, the better it will do (about a quarter cup or so at a time). Let it grind on each feeding for little longer than the suggested 20 seconds if you're working really fine stuff or you find that it's missing a lot of gold the first run. It kind of becomes a juggling act because the wheel will speed up a little bit when it's getting empty. Adding matterial will slow down the wheel a little. Be aware of this if you are trying to get the top of the "black sand pyramid" close to the poop tube. Again, practice and practice and practice some more.

Get some Jet Dry. I usually drizzle about a teaspoon full into the tailings hopper and let the fox run for a few minutes to mix it before adding cons. This will help keep the really fine stuff from floating out of the wheel. You can probably get away with using more Jet Dry just be careful that it doesn't form too many suds.

I try to aim the copper pipe so that the water barely rides along the edge of the wheel. If you aim it too far into the wheel, you will blow all the material into the tailings hopper and the gold will go along with it.

I had a problem with super fine black sand and mud plugging up the pump because the nylon stocking getting loaded up where the inlets are on the pump. Put some kind of object between the inlets and the stocking to prevent this from happening. I used a strainer screen with the handle busted off. If you want, I'll take pictures of what I'm talking about. I'm sure I'm not explaining it very well. This is a very serious problem because you want to keep the water flow as constant as possible or else you will get a cup full of black sand. If the inlets get plugged, water flow will decrease and frustration increases.

When I first got mine, I took it everywhere we went. I learned that is was not nessesary. This is a cleanup machine. It will only slow you down if you take it in the field. It's a lot more efficient to collect your cons and work them at home. My wife lets me set up mine in the living room!!! She enjoys the relaxing sound of the water running and the gold we find is nice too.

Run your material through it until you no longer get gold in the cup. It doesn't do as good a job of getting it all the first time as you'd like. At least that's my experience.

You will always get black sand (and sometimes blonde sand) in the cup along with the gold. If you are getting a lot of black sand, turn up the water flow or slow down the wheel. How the blonde sand makes it to the cup is a mystery to me. I've looked at the blond sand under a microscope and some if it is microscopic gold, but 90% of it is shards of glassy crystal like material. I wish I had a color camera for my microscope to post the pics. Very interesting looking stuff. I keep it in a bag but I doubt it's worth anything.

I still haven't found the best angle to set the wheel. Maybe that's why I have to run cons through it more than once. If you figure out the magic, let me know.

Packing it up and putting it all back in the box is a real puzzle the first couple of times. Try to pay real close attention how you un-pack it the first time. Maybe even take pictures as you unpack it. The instructions help a little but get ready for some head scratching anyway.

Hope this helps. If anyone else has tips, I'm all ears (and eyes).

Boogie.

I have a Desert Fox and have used it extensively. On average, using "cleaned" material screened down to window screen mesh, 30 to 35 degrees. That depends on how you process the material. I found it right about 31.5 degrees.
Cleaned is muds and clays removed.

I had a problem with feed it too fast, but I found the best way to handle that is to have the tailing dump into a mini sluice using the ribbed matting only. It's not perfect, but it will catch what you lose. And I suggest you also run your material twice.

I don't because I figure if I lose it, it's just going to wait for the next guy. I will not lose enough gold to make it a huge loss.

Coalbunny,

That's a great idea!

If not too much trouble, could you post a picture of your setup? I would really love to see how you implemented the mini sluice.

Thanks!

Boogie.

so I got my desert fox and started processing concentrate. however the gold stuff in the collection cup is soooo small I can't tell if it's gold,pyrite,mica, or a new form of life, is this stuff throw away?

I'd say no, don't throw it away.
Save and re run the same batch until you feel comfortable with your knowledge of basic set up/running of your new desert fox. Once you've got a little practice and feel you know how it's working or not depending on the days set up, then you can start to "toss out" parts you've deemed leaverite......as in "leaverite where it lands in the yard".
There are some good tips in the posts here from everyone and like they say, practice, practice, practice.........and have fun!

CP

thanks for the suggestions, I sure with this thing came with a video, because every you-tube video has it set up different.

Rubinscube, the best tool is to learn first hand.