Hey everyone! First post, but I've been searching the forums for some time gathering information and getting my gear together. I have even met Crusty and Relicsandcoins at Arapahoe Bar, which is 5 blocks from my office. I went to A-Bar on Thursday and ran my Angus Mackirk Explorer Sluice and have my cons from the trip. After hand panning the cons (which are mostly black sand), I've only managed a couple of small flecks of gold. Everything is classified to 1/4" and smaller. I dont have any mesh classifying screens, but have had good success panning down to just black sand. I'm looking for a way to get the fine and the flour separated without spending more money, yet. I've looked at the DIY blue bowl, DIY miller table, etc. I'd love to be able to find more gold without another investment right now. Any suggestions? Thanks in advance, and thank you for all of the great information thus far!

-Henry

Welcome and it sounds like your on the right track. I have hesitated in buying that equipment also, just not sure which is best.

To answer your question, the only way I can think of processing them is by tapping out the gold a table spoon at a time. A tablespoon is a nice amount to work with. It sounds a little rediculous but once you get in the groove it moves along decently quickly. It's easy and satisfying work and you get very good at it fast. Wash and tap wash and tap. You don't have to worry if a machine is losing gold. You see it all in the pan.
The bad side of it is, you have to sit there and tap out every spoonful. It may be the slowest way to do it as compared to a miller table etc...But most of those are fed by the spoonful too.

If you keep up on your cons its easy and becomes something you can do inside without taking up room in the house. I find it relaxing and I know I got the gold when I do it that way. My pan of choice is the 15" Garret super sluice with the big fat bottom, makes it easy to sperate the material. A touch of water and soap and your set. Im never anal about micro gold. It's not worth the time. Just my $.02 and it works for me.

I sure can't think of anything any cheaper than that.

Great opportunity to work on your panning technique over the winter!

no real short cuts without spending money and even then, you're likely to end up still having to pan out black sand.

Thanks guys!! I bought a strainer from the store to classify down the cons that I have from A-Bar. That helped, but I'm not finding much yet. I'm starting to think that I was in a bad spot. Another group was having an outing that day and the pickins were slim as far as digging spots. I was shocked when I pulled up and saw 20 cars!! Hoping to get out there again on Sunday if at all possible. Again, thanks for the info guys.

You can make your own classifiers as well, but you might spend just as much in hardware cloth, buckets, rivets and time as you would buying a set. You could make a whole bunch though for the same price.

When I had just a pan, I was doing what Johnny recommends in a bin in my yard. Unclassified, small amounts, carefully panning it over and over until you hit the point of diminishing returns. Knowing there is still gold you've missed, I recommend collecting all those already-panned cons and run them again across your sluice. I still do this multiple times with my cons, using a Gold Cube, classifiers and a blue bowl to recover everything I can.

I look forward to seeing you out there sometime.

Thanks EMac! I used the strainer and further classified my material and that definitely helped. I spent a good couple of hours panning the rocks/pebbles/glass that was left in the strainer before moving on to the classified cons. I got through three spoonfuls and found a couple more small flecks of gold and have about 20-30 more spoonfuls to pan. I'm saving all of the panned material for when I can either re-run it through a sluice/recirculating system or a blue bowl. Thanks for the tips everyone. Potentially heading out to A Bar or Big Bend on Sunday, if anyone is interested.

Depending on how I feel in the morning, I may go tomorrow.