sjmpainter

I always wonder what happens to the really cool finds that people have... so this is kind of a interesting read and if you hurry a chance to get a really cool Opal🙂

Alaska Premier Auctions

I always wonder what happens to the really cool finds that people have... so this is kind of a interesting read and if you hurry a chance to get a really cool Opal🙂

Alaska Premier Auctions

On 11/15/2021 at 11:02 PM, Anthony cutchey said:

By any chance you still have them or know where I'd get one.

No, I gave those to Steve H. You should put a wanted ad in the classified section, I'll bet someone has one they can part with. Also contact Fisher repair center they can probably help. 

13 hours ago, Steve Herschbach said:

Coils received, thank you very much. That was quite kind of you! 👍🏼

Your welcome, hope you have a few good adventures with them and share the stories with us. Threads on the old detectors is fun, kinda like an old 47 Ford sedan not much for it but everyone smiles when they see em!

Reading this post jogged my memory. I just happen to have a new old stock 3.5 and 3 x 6 coil. If you can use it shoot me a pm and I'll send em down for you.

Always thought I'd get another Gold Bug and put that small coil on for checking the cracks, but I have to many detectors now and been forcing myself to pass on any new ones.  Sooooo hear ya go🙂

Don't worry about the 300 GM nuggets getting passed thru the sluice, they never actually get passed the hand of the dredge operator to even have a chance of being sent to the tailing pile!!!!!

The grizzle bars did not work, they trapped the rocks under and would not release them. I did have success with a sump set up that fed to a small 2 inch dredge but let that go due to the fact it was complex and negated the benefit of a light weight sub surface dredge.

I don't believe I lost any gold that had size to it. All the nuggets got caught in the first or second riffle, the fines are another story. Basically the sub surface dredge is a poor choice for an area that has lots of fine gold. Salt gold or thin flat flakes etc. but can do really well on the chunky nugget stuff, bird shot on up. Just keep in mind not to hog the material and overload the riffle tray, that's where I get goofed up.

I did add a river sluice behind my box at one point and the extra box being wider did help but back to more complex.

My advice is to add miners moss over the ribbed matting and nothing more needs to be done. The rest is a diminishing return situation.

Keep us posted on what you end up with. Also would love to see a pic of your subbie🙂

I think Jasong is on the rite path. I was thinking you weren’t annealing it as it was work harden but sounds like you understand that process. 

Smelting it two and three times with borax will remove the quarts and rock so you probably have a high amount of zinc in there. Cuppeling it will draw out the zinc and what not.

Good luck and keep us posted on what you end up with. 

Btw would love to see some pictures of your jewelry. Really cool hobby!

On 7/31/2020 at 11:30 AM, microsniper said:

Hey All,  Iv been trying to locate a Refiner here in the USA that can process a small batch of placer gold (2oz) and fabricate some 18/22k jewelry stock.     I am an amateur jeweler and have tried many times to smelt my hard earned gold into some usable material and have not had any luck thus far.     So, I know I can send it off to a refiner and get generic stock back but the point is to use my own gold for some special pieces.      I know someone else out there has gone down this road before, and i would so appreciate a lead on  a reputable refiner/fabricator.    

 

cheers!    

I’m planning to do the same thing for the same reason this year. 

My question is what part of the refining didn’t work for you?

I am assuming you have melting equipment molds for rough cast and a roll mill to produce the finished stock?

Are you smelting with borax to remove impurities? Are you  annealing the gold as it work hardens in the rolling process? 

Any jewelry Smith in your area should be able to make stock for you but it would be nice to figure out making your own.

I never put air in mine and they had plenty of buoyancy. 

More than a pound or two and you could pop them!

good luck👍

Good job on the dredge build! Bet it took a bit to fab up the Tri Jet. LOL.

It would be easy to add the 2 inch foot valve on to check but I don’t think it will make a difference in GPM. I do think it will make it harder to prime though.

I would put on a Honda Gx200/P180 pump and see if that dose it. If not check to make sure the jet and connections are fully submerged, if they suck air the loss is huge. 

I think all dredged need air. Where’s the T80?

The jewelry I find is neat but has no sentimental value so at 1500 an oz. I cashed in and plan to use the proceeds to fund new adventures and some new equipment to enjoy. I will say take a lot of pictures of your finds for future reference, just never know. 

Really I think just the silicon will do it. Lubes it up so it will spin on easy then seals it. If the diameter of the hose is too big you’ll have to mill it, I’d use a four inch grinder and a sixteen grit flap wheel but if your like super Steve you can whittle it down with a spoon. I used the heat to burn off the old silicone from the bullet, only way I could get it clean. Everything was nice and warm when I reassembled it. As gas as the silicon I used what was in the shed, think it was GE tub and bath stuff?Good luck!

Use a torch and silicon, just did mine a few weeks back and worked great! Also screw the hose in don’t just push it.

OK, got a set of TE's heading my way and thanks for the setting tips. I'll be sure to give them a try first!

Out of curiosity what were the other brands you tried?

On ‎11‎/‎7‎/‎2018 at 7:53 AM, Steve Herschbach said:

I emailed Tony at tony@idigbeaches.com to inquire about how to go about purchasing his headphones. Here is the reply....

"I currently charge $175 USD for my custom waterproof NOX headphones which includes shipping in the US. There’s no waiting list at this time so I can get a set out to you in a few days.

The headphones are modified MSA left/right ear muffs with 2” piezos mounted to custom sound boards. The connector is custom made from an Amphenol 4-pin plug and a 3.5mm audio plug. Everything is potted in epoxy and silicone, so the headphones are waterproof at depth.

If you’d like to place an order, I will need confirmation and a little information

*  I need the mailing address to ship your headphones. 
*  I need the email that I can use to send your PayPal invoice.
*  I need to know which side you want the cord attached?  Folks who swing with their right arm will need the cord on the right.

I’ll send you a PayPal invoice for $175 when I have a set available for you.

Thanks for interest and all the best, Tony"

Got my pair ordered.

Did you get a chance to try out the headphones? Any thoughts on them? I have a pair of GreyGhost but they are really quite in the water looking for something better myself.

8 hours ago, PG-Prospecting said:

Correct a 6.5 hp for a 5 inch dredge would be underpowered, but i wasnt sure if you were to add a performance exhaust, air intake and re-jet the carb to pull about 2 more hp out of it would it then power a 5 inch dredge ok.  Would the keene p180 pump become the limiting factor and not the hp of the motor?  

I would think extra HP wouldn't make too much difference as the Honda GX is plenty HP for the P180 pump, there is a reason Keen don't sell a GX 290 with a P180 pump.

With that being said, more RPM might increase the impeller speed and there for the water volume. Not sure on that one but you can remove the RPM governor on the GX200 and increase RPM from 3500 to about 5000 RPM. Just be aware that you need to replace the stock flywheel to an aftermarket one rated for the higher RPM also the intake springs need to be upgraded as well. https://affordablegokarts.com/pages/honda-gx160-gx200-governor-removal

I have wondered if porting and polishing the pump casting would make much difference? All the Keene pumps I have are cast really rough.

Personally id just run two Gx200/P180 set ups myself. I have that set up on my six inch dredge and have plenty of power at 3/4 throttle.

Let us know what you end up with.

8 hours ago, Bear said:

Nice little nugget and great pictures.  How did your spring mining go?

With all of the pictures of the little stuff people are finding that detector is going to shine south of Anchorage.  I may need to get down there for a weekend 

That was no nugget, hell it was a flat thin flake. Really surprised the EQX got it. Found about four more even smaller! All on bedrock and just a slight waiver in the thresh hold, the one pictured actually zipped pretty good!

Spring dredging didn't happen for me, Dad passed last month and I missed the low water flow. Hopping to still get in and give it a go this weekend. Looks like the water is dropping to 1000 cfs that's gonna be tough but I did sample my spot two weekends back and it looks promising so we'll see. If not I will move the dredge to a new spot that will be easy to dredge.

So far I really like the new EQX, I put  my F19 and gold racer up for sell and we'll see about the Ecal. Looks like I may be down to the EQX and my GPX 5000? Really is cool I can use one machine to hit the beach for rings, hunt gold in the hills and hammer the parks for silver coins that by the way do not exist in Anchorage!

Just ordered some Grey Ghost phones today for  hunting wet locations. So I'll see about that soon.

How about you, any dredging yet?

8 hours ago, kiwijw said:

Did you try Multi IQ? It is unbelievable what can happen in that setting. The EQ is a fun detector on gold, full of surprises with that 11" coil.  Nice little find. They will keep coming...I am sure. Thanks for sharing.

Good luck out there

JW 

Hey JW, No I ran it in 40KH figured the gold I would find was going to be small and I was short on time. But the next time I will.  I have used it in gold mode at the park and at the beach and If the trash isn't to bad I really think it would be a killer on micro jewelry!

I think I have about 15 hours or so on it but I can see it having the ability to be impressive in many different areas.

Best of luck to you!

SJM

High Bear, ordered mine last Wendsday showed up Thursday. AMDS is slow?

Whent up to the claim  yesterday to check my dredge, water flow jumped overnight and blew my plans to dredge but I did tote the EQX along and got a short hunt in to check the prospecting mode. 

Not much for it biut was hitting some sub gram stuf in the 40 KH mode really well.

Good luck. 

Well, just listened to my fist Pod Cast!

Steve, I hope you get to do some more of those, reminded me of the old KENI talk shows,  back in the day. Social media is fine but really lacks that personal bit that talk shows have.

Maybe next time start a thread on the topic so we can ask questions and pick the most liked one to talk about on the show. Might be a bunch of fun for everyone.

I was out doing some metal detecting looking for that fist elusive siver coin, I was at an older park that I felt may give me some luck on the older stuff. After a bit of no luck and not much of anything including junk, I hit a solid 58 VDI on my F19 and a short distance from that a second solid 58. Well knowing this to be a defiant nickel sign I dug them up. I like nickels anyway. Date on the first was 64 and the second was 54. Now I know that is not impressive to most but its getting to the age of silver and that is exciting for me.

Before moving on I checked the spot and got a solid 47 VDI thought that was odd but it was really solid so I had to see what it was.

Turns out to be a happy dance 12 Safire and 5 Diamonds at 10 KT.....................

HH, SJM

If you have another coil to put on it, try that and see if helps.

I bouggt a new small coil for mine and it sends my Racer into fits?

Make sure to take a good picture of the content of your luggage! It is the best record if you have to make a claim.

Good post Bryan, that retune seemed to fix  my locking up issues? 

Really surprised Fisher left that out of the operation manual. I wonder what other tidbits are missing?

Way cool! Let me know when AMDS get the demo model in, we'll take it for a test ride