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Drywasher Recommendations?


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Two types of drywashers;  forced air/vibrastatic or puffer/belows style.

When it comes to forced air type, Keene, Royal and Gold Buddy are all good. If I had to choose; Keene 140S or any Royal (both made in SoCal and parts readily avail). Royals are built like tanks where as the Keene has the removable riffle tray.

Bellows Type; In my opinion, the Keene #DW212v or Thompson drywashers are the best puffers on the market today for the price. The Thompson is much liter and very backpackable where the DW212v includes the hand crank and 12v motor power system complete which adds a bit more weight. 

Where to buy? If in SoCal......American Prospector/Treasure Seeker has a good stock of Keene drywashers. 

Bill Thompson makes his own drywashers so you would order directly from him (look up his web site) He and his wife are very nice people and his craftsmanship really stands out. 

 

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Zee,

I prefer the Keene 212 puffer. Not to heavy about 30 some pounds. You can usually find a good used one for around $400, new they run over $800. I like the puffers since you don't have to deal with the noise and fuel costs  of the blower types ( $5.00 a gallon inc. oil vs. pennies to recharge battery). Try Craigs list for a used one. It all depends where you live. I know in AZ they are always on Craigs list or in Prospecting Stores. I would suggest  watching  some You Tube videos on puffers versus blowers to get a feel for the difference.. There are issues with the Keene puffers that are all fixable so if you think you might go Keene puffer let me know and I'll tell you what to look for. That being said I generally only worked in very dry soil with the puffer, the blower types can work with soil that is a little damp. Especially the Keene models that have a  hot air induction system. Hope that helps a little. 

Not knowing your local you need to consider the rain factor and weather conditions for drywashing. I had just walked out of the mining store in AZ with my brand new puffer in January 2012 when the guy who just sold it to me said "you know you won't be able to use it here for a couple months because the ground is so wet". Duh on me!

Here is a link to a friends page that could help. Lots of examples of people using different types of drywashers.

http://www.billandlindaprospecting.com/index.html

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Zeeman for Africa Depar detector is looking after the continent for a lot of small prospector equipment i havee been told i saw a dry washer for $700 on their site

 

 

 

RR

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Puffer! Thompsons 12v model does a pretty good job I could listen to a puffer all day long, set up any leaf blower unit next to me and every second shovel full will be in your fan :)

get someone local to build you a wooden puffer even hand operated to start with.

 

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Boulder dash - Have you ever run any wet vs. dry comparisons on your dry washer? I did and was quite amazed at the results. I took buckets of DW tailings to a stream some miles away and ran them in a sluice. Steve was there and saw it too. I'll have an article on it in the next issue of the ICMJ. The bottom line is that the dry washer did amazingly well - far better than I expected. (I use a Keene DW2, 212 12V puffer)

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Assuming the material is dry, the  Keene DW212V (or most any bellows/puffer drywasher) will be much more efficient at fine gold recovery than the 151, 140s or any forced air drywasher  system.

Running slightly damp material;  then the recovery edge goes to the forced air-vibrastatic machine especially w/hot air induction.

I own both  types of drywashers and use them  depending upon the conditions at hand. I really like the puffer  as listening to the mellow cadence of the bellows going up and down I can almost imagine the old timers working in the diggs with me.

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Agree with HP above. I have drywashed for more than 10 years. In my experience puffer efficiency drops dramatically with damp soil. Blower drywasher can still work soil that is quite wet. My choice of drywasher depends on soil conditions and how far I am packing in. IMHO the current commercial models are all too heavy to be really backpackable (more than a mile or two), especially with water and shovels etc When I have to go far I will opt for a string pull puffer, just for the weight issue, but the ground has to be rich to make up for lost volume and time

 

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