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tvanwho

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tvanwho last won the day on September 19 2016

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  1. I got it to work .On closer examination, I noticed one of the black rubber washers was protruding a bit and preventing the coil ears from meshing with the rod end. I removed the bad washer and put in one of the red ones, and now it fits together ok. Why did Fisher go with skinny coil ears tho, they sure do look prone to breakage now vs the older coils with thick ears?
  2. I got a new GB2, 6 inch coil off ebay but it will not fit the GB2 I have. The coil ears are barely 1/16 inch thick and too narrow space between them looks like.My GB2 is one I got from Steve H, a while back. The coil ears on my 10 inch coil are quite thick by comparison. So, did I get ripped off or what happened? If I use brute force to make the ears fit the pole, it will break for sure looks like. -Tom V.
  3. how do I fill the hole with water as fast as I dredge out the gravels? If I wait till spring and higher water levels, I would be ok on this.
  4. I found some gold in a gravel area that slopes to the creek where we can pan ok. was getting 5-10 colors a pan and not the tiny points , decent size colors. There is flat bedrock at the base of the slope and then the large creek so I thought for sure the gravel was on top of the bedrock but its not. I dug right where the gravel meets the bedrock almost but I went down a foot instead of hitting bedrock right away. The gold got a bit coarser, one piece looks like an apostrophe and chunky. So, now what? Bring my mini highbanker there and wash the gravels? How deep is this bedrock? Maybe bring a metal rod and probe in numerous spots for it? I hit one larger flat rock but it looked like a flagstone from an old stone sidewalk. There are numerous old bricks in the woods next to the slope. I do have to fill in any holes I make same day. My hole had no water in it either even tho the creek is only a few feet away. Should I wait till spring when water covers this spot, then try to dredge the gravel with my big banker. I have both my big and micro bankers on wheels so easy to move around in my old age. I haven't posted much lately as these damn old age aches and pains make it harder and harder to get out and dig. At least I am still moving and not in an old folks home yet. How to fix my heel and ankle pains now? duct tape kinda helps and lots of pain pills. Had to put padded inserts in all my boots as there were none and my feets were screaming. I also made an odd discovery in another creek.I normally run away from spiders BUT took a chance.There were a bunch of baby wolf spiders running around this one patch of creek gravels. I have rarely found any color in this creek before. So, I stick my shovel in this spider infested gravel patch , VERY hard digging and the gravels are filled with roots. Then a horde of bugs come spilling out, millipedes, centipedes, pill bugs, carpenter ants, spiders. I go pan my gravel and my load of black sands like tripled and there was very fine gold with it, like 5-20 tiny points in every pan. I need to take my mini highbanker there too. A dredge hole was in the creek next to my gravel spot.I panned the persons tailings and got more tiny gold specks. Am also needing a 6 inch coil for my Goldbug 2, used is good, and am looking for a cheap Tesoro Lobo ST that works ok.Had to trash mine as it finally croaked, sure do miss it. -Tom V.
  5. Most likely glacial but does not account for the blue sapphire crystal I posted here some years back, a twinned crystal as Steve told us, an inch across the hexagonal flats. Found accidentally in my highbanker hopper. My map dowsing took me to the gravel bar for the gold, got hundreds of specks. Hope to get to the creek again this year as I finally got a chance to rent a place 1/4 mile from the spot. If I can just get the ok now. Being older now has its other drawbacks, with all these damn old age aches and pains and knee and ankle pains the worst. Hurts to even sleep some days, much less dig for goodies and get up and down steep hillsides. I almost got stuck in a creek last year, right knee refused to stretch to get up the creek bank 6 feet.Lucky I had my shovel with me, cut baby steps in the bank to get up it. Recently saw a new 2021 Ford Bronco with the Sasquatch tire package BUT was unable to get into the darn thing,too darn high a step, same issue with old legs, dang it...
  6. In gold mining books pertaining to the Carolinas, they constantly talk about saprolites, weathered loose bed rock, containing rich gold, that they dug out with only shovels.
  7. so, whats the deal with red dirt and gold nuggets anyway? My buddy and I found a rusty red/black gravel layer under 6 feet of dirt, and a layer of brown clay under it. 1st day we got 2 little nuggets, 1 bounced 3 inches when I dropped it into the gold pan. and it was half black on 1 side, and shiny yellow as the sun on the other side. Next day all we got was fines, so dunno if the bigger stuff was in the clay or what?
  8. No, I did not dredge this gold, a friend did so with home made 4 inch dredge. He hikes for miles up the local rivers looking for gold hot spots, dunno how, wish I had that much energy? But he was cash poor and I had some green, so we worked something out. So, 1.17 ounces of Indiana gold pickers to show off, NOT dust like I always get. -Tom V.
  9. Just wondering why the newer GB2 machines seem to have a meter on them now or is it my imagination? The knobs look different too? -Tom
  10. I recently was sitting in a parking area next to a fenced off swim pool in a public park. There was a wooden fence in front of me and I eyeballed something more yellow than it should be on a fence rail. I was about to drive away but decided to get out and see the mirage 1st. Hmm, whats this? A heavy gold chain laying on the fence rail with broken clasp and no markings!!! It is quite heavy,just no markings, eyeballing paid off, or at least it wasn't just my wild imagination. No detector needed. Should I take it to a jeweler or what? -Tom V.
  11. I almost threw out this tiny gold nugget while panning cons, thought it was a trash rock, but it caught my eye for some reason.Held it up close to eyeball and it was golden metallic yellow, NOT sand, and bounces an inch when dropped in my gold pan. I got it sluicing gravels with my home made electric 18 inch long sluice/banker, like 10 feet from the creek where I found a gold gravel deposit with my map dowsing . About the size of 2 pinheads side by side, dime for comparison, casts a shadow in gold pan... came from central Indiana near Attica....
  12. DUCT TAPE, apply 4 -6 inch of duct tape in front of heel, sole of foot, side to side, if foot objects, let it loose, and not soo tight
  13. my local detector dealer told me the Apex uses a built in lithium battery and a replacement costs a bunch of moola if it ever goes bad? He doesn't like them for that reason alone. Is this an issue or not? Main reason I decided not to buy one. -Tom V.
  14. Lobo does not have 9 volt batteries, only 2 packs of 1.5 volts batteries
  15. can we get together when the weather warms up perhaps? I have a 2 inch dredge and wheeled highbanker I don't mind sharing. I'd like to see your finds and go out digging too. I am retired now , living in West Lafayette, Indiana. I am sure its a bit of a drive to you but I have no schedule anymore, just need warmer weather and hope the virus ends soon? Can you post some photos of your Illinois gold, 1st I have heard of gold nuggets in Illinois? Send me a PM please. Thanks for the reply. Assays run about 40-100 dollars. I found gold and silver in Galena I had metal detected in SW Wisconsin some years ago. Assay revealed them. The lead was more valuable than the gold tho. 0.13 ounce a ton for the gold but 70% of the galena is lead.
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