Hand Trommel Build

[Eklawok]

A bit away from the metal detecting, so I hope nobody minds if I post this. I have been working on  a "mikes hand trommel" that i came across a few years ago while surfing youtube. Seems like it will be pretty nifty little unit and it is easy to build. And cheap too boot. Still need to add a hopper and figure out what I am going to do for a feed chute off of the bottom to dump into my sluice. Just felt the need to show off a bit. Here is the link to the direction to build one.

http://mlaine.net/Trom/

 

[sjmpainter]

Nice looking build. Keep me posted as to how that holds up in use.

I am looking at putting together a large sluice about 2' x 10' for a remote location. Something like that may be a good add.

 

[fredmason]

if you get some angled fittings you can get the front legs out in front for stability...very neat!

fred

[Eklawok]

Yeah, I probably am going to put the angled fittings on it so I can have the legs splayed out. Also going to get some allthread to use for holding the barrel in place instead of the metal pipe strap that they have in the parts list. I have seen a video of a guy who has added a spray bar to his, but I'll hold off on that for now. All the places I go I end up having to pack all my stuff in, so less is more for me.  When I get it to a point where I can do a dry run on it, I have a friend of mine who has a load of fill that they bought from a guy that wasn't classified in the way that they were told it would be. It was a discussion about that pile that spurred on this little project. It is only about a pickup truck bed size load, so it should be a good trial run.

[gambler]

interesting idea. have you ever tried taking every other riffle out, putting the thinest miners moss down then expanded metal? then the riffle bar. run the sluice as fast as you can, dont bother classifing at all, except for really big rocks.

[Eklawok]

I haven't went as far as to remove any of the riffles. But what I have been doing is running the dump end of the sluice pictured above into my other sluice with miners moss added to the mix as suggested above. Usually I don't classify as I like to spend time digging as opposed to classifying materials. And I try to run water fast enough through them that I have considered getting a set of dredge riffles for one of them. When I have done clean outs, maybe twice a day max, I have never found anything on the lower of the two boxes. But it doesn't hurt to have them second one going inline just incase. Especially when I am doing a controlled dump of 10 gallons of material at a time (2 -5 gallon buckets). But I hope to hit a few new areas this summer. And if the water in those areas is running slower, classification will probably be nessesary. I figured that this contraption might help speed things up in those areas. I'm kinda of an impatient guy when if comes to that

[gambler]

me too(impatient that is) I keep the highbanker running fast too

[LipCa]

Don't glue the legs in.  I found that after time, the pvc will start bending due to the angle.

It wasn't a trommel, but a highbanker.  Same situation though.

[Eklawok]

Yeah, the legs glued on didn't sound good to me either.