I have been digging dry dirt from the banks of certain creeks and bringing it home to process with my classifiers and blue bowl and gold wheel.
i run dirt through classifiers with water and this system loves to clog up with silt. it takes forever to run just a few scoops at a time through 5 classifiers and uses way too much water. recirculating water would be fine but i'm sort of looking to clean the stuff as i go.
im on well water so im afraid of using too much and running the well dry.
i'm thinking some type of mini recirc. sluice would work but it seems these need classifying too.
i have a 2"dredge/highbanker but not sure if thats overkill in my backyard.
i have alot of dirt i want to process. i need something more efficient. any tips? i am new to prospecting but hooked. hooked would be an understatement.
theres got to be an easier way to classify material at home...

You MUST classify, regardless the cleanup equipment if you expect accurate recovery.
There is no shortcut to classifying unless you own a trommel or similar equipment.
Since you are using screens which is the most popular method of classifying.... only stack them two at a time. Three or more tends to end up being more tedious if you're rinsing a lot of dirt. Maybe screen the dirt ONE screen at a time when you get down to #30 or #50 and smaller.
A recirculation tub is highly recommended. This will allow you to use warm water and add Jet-Dry or similar surface-tension breaker so that you don't lose floating gold in the process, very important. The drawback is that you will want to change your water occasionally as it gets quite dirty depending on the size of your recirc tub (mine is 36 gal).
You have some nice equipment to work with so I think that you can get a good system down. I might suggest that you add a mini recirculation-type sluice which runs on common 12 Volt battery with 500 or 750 gph pump.
I'm still refining my indoor cleanup process but it's running very well right now. Classification is by far my least favorite step in the process but very essential.
Hope this helps!

I also recommend watching this vid several times and taking notes, it did wonders for my perception of the process when I was starting out: How To Process Gold

thanks for the reply. i guess im a bit impatient to find gold.
got the bug over the summer when i found a few grams. now ive been at it almost non stop but havnt really been getting much gold.
hence the impatience. lol i want a machine that i just pour dirt into and gold comes out the other end clean and in a vile.
watched the video...its good thanks for the link.
hadnt heard about warm water yet. does this help with surface tension?
i guess the answer is like you said then: classify with only one or two screens at a time.
seems like i should be ok with the bowl and the wheel. i HAD thought about getting a $35 mini sluice from Bill in Golden but im not sure i need it. what i need is more of that shiny yellow stuff. this winter weather is making me crazy. my jeep broke down and im stuck inside.
pouring over mineral maps and dreaming of paying claims only goes so far.
guess i'll fire up the woodstove in the garage and start classifying some dirt. i'm glad i dug this dirt back in the fall.
cheers!
-e

yes ,warm water helps reduce surface tension inaddition to using Jet Dry (sufactants) i also use Clay Gone in my tubs to help settel any clay/mud. our club had a outting this past summer and while everyone was panning their cons, people kept walking by my tub and commenting about the lack of muddy water in my tub. i told them i use Clay Gone and then everyone came over and asked for a squirt in their tubs aswell.

Russ,
Clay Gone is composed of Sodium Silicate. It can be purchased from one's local drugstore. If the druggist doesn't have it on hand, it can easily be ordered and in your hands w/in a matter of days. The druggist will have it listed as "Waterglass" in their catalog. The druggist always wants to know what people are using something they have to order for them. The standard answer is that you were informed the dipping chicken eggs into waterglass was a great way to preseve eggs. And that is true to this day. It seems to make them happy. If telling the druggist that schtick makes you sound daft, like living in town and raising chickens is illegal for example...then try one of these applications: Sodium silicates are used in detergents, cement, glass and pottery, and for fireproofing paper and other substances. It is also used to fix pigments in painting and cloth printing.

Sodium silicate, aka Waterglass, aka clay-gone, comes in LIQUID quarts (not powder form) from the druggist, and a little goes a LONG ways.

Use of it near moving water out on outings will cause the miner caught with disposing of water directly into running water many headaches/enviro problems as that is a severe no-no with the Ranger types already hassling prospectors.

The last time I bought a quart was sometime back, and I think it was $3.86 for the quart. That's a LOT of squirts! Normally priced in the $12.95 for 8oz bottle, and on sale, BEFORE shipping. That equals $52 a quart....not exactly a bargain. Then make one's own vial of the stuff and stick in your fishing vest pocket like I wear.

Another quick tip...
the stuff can get quite thick as moisture in the quart jar evaps from out of the aqueous solution over time. Just add a few drops of distilled water to restore original consistency, stir a smidgin' and yer good t'go.

Denise/Dan...a tip for you guys since you're working with specimens, mountings, and cabbing, etc...waterglass is excellent for embedding on dop sticks. Dries pretty quickly too. To remove, just place in water for a few minutes, and it dissolves. Just a thought.

Kind regards,
Megan "YellowChick" Rose

Megan thanks for the info!! i was given a bottle of a thick white product that is similar to Clay gone and nobody knew the name of it! i guess i do now! thanks for the tip. also could you email me your emails address. i would like to talk with you off line. my email is: russ au at yahoo dot com eliminate all the spaces and put a @ for the at. but you probly already know this!

Great tips Megan, but the clay gone wouldnt work on dop sticks, as the stones need to be worked wet and the clay gone wont hold on the wet dopping sticks. Plus, most of the stone work I do, I do by hand and not dopping.

According to this site Sodium Silicate is harmful...some other forums say so too but if the product Clay Gone is made from this then why is it when Ralph Yeager adds some Clay Gone to the fish tank it doesn't kill the fish......i guess that shows that animal testing could not harm them but could harm humans.

http://www.jtbaker.com/msds/englishhtml/s4982.htm

http://www.prospectingchannel.com/claygone.html

P.S. I talked to my pharmacist about this today....he said this is also used in makeing pickled eggs.....we both came to the conclusion that it may not be harmful in very small amounts........he said he keeps some in the drug store but he said he sells it for $17 for a 30oz bottle......not as cheap as said on here.....still cheaper then clay gone. It all makes one wonder tho.

Thanks Megan! You've provided great info yet again. I thought I would have to have a bottle of that stuff tested to find out what it was.

And I hope that Golden_Journey you are classifying all that dirt on site before bringing it all home to work!