I was just curious if you could use the blue bowl to classify material or if anyone has ever tried. I have some sand that i classified down to around -20 (if that's the right way to say that. The sand fit through the 1/20th inch screen.) However, i don't have anything smaller then that. So i started to wonder if it would be possible to classify it further with the blue bowl, by changing the speed of the water, (faster first) and slowly adding the sand. Anything it cant remove would be placed into a pan for later, and then anything it did remove would be placed back into the bowl to be gone over again at a slower water speed, and so on until it just cant go anymore.

In my mind it makes perfect logical sense, but in reality i have no idea.

I personally don't own a blue bowl. however, Swizz or caveman (can't remember which) figured that thing out! There is a post on here where he marked water flow for different classifications.

It was Swizz that did the great write up on the blue bowl. Very helpful link to have if you own one, so much so we added it to the "Plans & Tips page" of the website. It's also in this section (equipment) of the forums a few pages back titled "Indoor Gold Cons Cleanup" .

I hope this info helps you some working with the blue bowl Macinley. Good luck and post up some pictures if you like.

Sadly i don't own a blue bowl either but i did make one, which works around as well. Or at least it does when the glue i used wants to hold, the stuff was never made for being underwater. So it ends up being, use it for my cons then re-glue it. One day i would like to get a real blue bowl but at the moment i cant afford the thing.

Either way i will add that post to my reading list, should be interesting to see.

Classifying by BB would be an extremely long, arduous, tedious, and boring process. Buy the classifiers (8 mesh, 20 mesh, 30 mesh, 50 mesh, and 100 mesh) and then pan the +8, the -8, and the -20. Run the rest (-30, -50, and -100) through the Blue Bowl separately. It also works better if you remove the magnetics (this also makes panning easier). You will be far quicker doing it this way, and happier too. I actually have 2 mesh, 4 mesh, 8 mesh, 12 mesh, 20 mesh, 30 mesh, 50 mesh, and 100 mesh classifiers and use them all - removing the magnetics, panning each stage to -20, and BB the rest. It's still a long process, but it works. (I still have to run the last outing through the BB, I just haven't had the time to devote to a day of Blue Bowling!) HenryLee, I haven't forgotten, I just haven't caught up with the maintenance around here yet.

I have a running list of things i want but i just never have the money on hand to pick em up. I did however find some stainless steel classifiers on amazon for about 16 dollars each. I plan to pick up a 50 and 100 for those (maybe 30 and 50 for now, i haven't decided yet.) I also grabbed a splatter screen for the dollar store which is about a size 20 mesh.

As for the blue bowl i enjoy using it, it appeals to my ADD in the same sense as a lava lamp would, i just enjoy watching it work and then seeing the gold being slowly uncovered.

So now i have a half bucket of size -8 which i will be dropping down to -20 today while i wait for my glue to cure again. However, i also have a half bucket of +8 (-4-ish) gravel/sand and I'm not sure if it would be worth going through or not. Or how i would go through it. I thought about running it through a sluice box but I'm not sure if that would really amount to anything.

This dirt came from Miller Creek by Centennial Wyoming, it was our last stop for the day and we hadn't found anything of value other then a ton of garnet sand. So we figured we would fill up a couple buckets to play with, even if there was most likely nothing in it. I'm calling it practice dirt.

Could you caulk the seams to protect the glue? Just a random thought.

Thanks D! You know this forum like the back of your hand! Its almost like you curate!

Possibly, the glue im using right now is Heavy Duty clear Power Grab by Loctite i believe. I have yet to be able to figure out what the stuff is even made from. It holds really well until it gets wet and then it goes to crap pretty fast, lasts long enough for me to run what i have and then it starts leaking, which isn't too big of a problem. It's just kind of annoying is all. I think if i were to try this again i would use a large one piece angel food cake pan. Least then the cone is already part of the bowl.

Im actually going to try doing a test run on some -20 material here today just to see how it performs. We are also trying to rig up some kind of long sluice with our hose to run the larger stuff. Mostly just so i don't have to sit here and pan half a buckets worth. I have screened and stored the stuff that went through our window screen (8) but wouldn't go through my splatter screen (20) That's maybe a coffee cans worth and then the larger gravel stuff i mentioned before. We have most of everything i would need at least.

My "blue bowl." Sadly the cone is a little off center now but thankfully the glue will come apart pretty fast so it's not really too detrimental. Even then it's only off by a small amount.


The sand inside is left overs from my first test. It's around size 8. It could pick up the grains that size but was unable to lift em out through the cone. My test today was postponed until tomorrow because we got hit by a hailstorm while i was working on the sluice box.

And just for shits and giggles here are some pictures of our newly born horse. He was born this morning some time.

Dawwww :3 what a beautiful colt! Congratulations!

Nice little homemade unit. You might want to call it your "black bowl" though. I would think that the center piece fed from the bottom and glued from underneath would do better for the water flow. The water flow would be changed by the plastic lip on the inside making the material also flow improperly..... Just my thoughts. You would then need to figure out how to fill the small gap between the black bowl and the red funnel. That flow is VERY important and any interference will definitely make it act differently. Great looking little colt!! Looks like it was still trying to get use to those long legs.....



You're welcome, I'm always glad to help. Much more than curate, I have seen the CP site and club born and have helped it grow for 10 years to what it is today......( Proud mom)

Thanks for posting those Colt pics, very cool.
I like your innovation with the bowl, hopefully you get her dialed-in!

So far he is pretty goofy. He likes to try and climb onto the mothers back whenever she lays down.

So far the bowl seems to work really well. Friday i plan to order the classifiers i need and then i will be able to really test it out. I did run some like -8 dirt through and it cleaned it pretty well at a faster speed and then i tossed in some gold to see if it would move and it stayed put. However, it was larger gold (flake size.) So in the mean time i ordered some pay dirt beach sand that is supposed to be loaded with super fines. I plan to use that for the real test, classify it down to 30, 50, and 70 and see what i get. The hardest part now seems like its going to be figuring out the water pressure that will carry out the sand but not the gold.

I also built a nice 30 inch long by 4 inch wide sluice box to use with my hose. It works very well on the smaller stuff but i haven't tried with anything smaller then 20. I think it would be ok with smaller stuff as long as my gold doesn't sneak down between the boards and end up on the ground. I kinda figure for stuff that small i will just use the bowl.