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Guess Who Got A New Gold Pan?


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phrunt.....that Le-Trap is a different design....square vs round......

Hmmm....

HH
Mike

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That Le Trap square pan is my secret weapon for doing final cleanups, nothing beats it IMO and you can get gold totally clean, even ultra fine stuff. I don't use it like a normal pan at all though, not sure I ever would but who knows maybe it works good like that too.

The way I clean up with it is use the "riffles" carved into the far 1/3 of the pan bottom to collect you material and shake it side to side and back to forth slightly at the same time to settle stuff. Keep just a little water in it, barely up to the 1st real riffle. Swoosh gently the top material off your pile of cons to the back of the pan then snuffer it up and replace the water you removed. Repeat this 10+ times until you have mostly gold and a bit of heavy cons scattered on the pan bottom riffles. At this point you can do a tap on the corners, sides and back that gathers the gold into a little pile in the corner of the pan (a little gentle shaking while tapping sometimes is necessary), it will be close to 100% clean gold. Snuffer that up. Now you will have a little bit of fines and a little bit of heavy cons left. I personally just dump that all back into a container which itself gets dumped back into the Le Trap on the next dredge cleanup and the process repeats. but you can also clean that bit further using the same process if it's all you have or want it all seperated right away.

It's really quick once you get it down, you'll surprise people who can't understand how you can get your gold so clean. It's far easier with the square Le Trap than with any other pan I've ever used. You can even clean hard rock crushings which are very fine when you get good at it.

I should probably buy a few more myself just in case they disappear entirely, I love those things.

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Mine doesn't say Jobe Tools on it, but I bought it like 15 years ago. As long as it's got those little molded in tiny riffles on the bottom that look like overlapping arcs then it should work fine though. Those things really catch the small gold and hold it while letting the black sands move a bit more (thus easier to seperate), which is why that pan is so good for cleanups. The rectangular wide bottom really helps too because you can get a straight "wave" moving back and forth very accurately. No swirling, more like rocking.

For regular test panning a round pan like Mike Hillis' always worked better for me though.

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That’s one of the “genuine LeTraps” Simon though second generation? The originals were made in Canada and I was once one of the few suppliers. Then Jobe took over and made them. And now a couple other outfits?

Jason probably has a true original. I think they were fiberglass, not plastic like the newer copies.

The design was patented as you can see. Too busy right now but maybe somebody can check the patent status.

i sold zillions of steel pans in Alaska but nearly all were to artists who painted on them... big tourist item in Alaska, the painted gold pan. And then to tourists directly who wanted that old steel pan.

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We sold quite a few Estwing steel pans but the artists did not like the riffles. The riffles are really more like bumps so not all that effective. But fun anyway. It took me way too long to switch to plastic since I loved my old steel pan!

Here is some gold I panned with the Estwing steel pan (14”) a long time ago....

steel-pan-with-gold-1974.jpg.0de580bb5a7

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Phrunt;

I may have missed it but...

steel pans must be cleaned and maybe burned to rid the grease...the gold will float away with grease.

You want a pan that you use to be a" little bit on the trashy side"...like-well never mind that.

fred

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Lol, you could...or you could just use a blow torch to burn off the oil like every other miner, except the crazy one putting kitchen spray on it. Btw, you wash plastic pans with dish soap if you get any oils on them. I wouldn't think you would try the blow torch on them, but better safe than sorry after the kitchen spray incident ?

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On 7/19/2019 at 6:01 PM, phrunt said:

Here is one of my metal pans,....

Looks like it has a recessed bottom.  I think this is where the value lies -- gold settles in that ledge.  After that, the riffles may catch some tiny stuff but why did it escape the bottom ledge?

On 7/19/2019 at 6:01 PM, phrunt said:

I also invested in a Turbo Pan....

I have a small one, too, but they are rather controversial.  OTOH, I guess every pan is controversial.

 

 

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