1515Art

On 1/15/2026 at 10:11 AM, Jim in Idaho said:

Nice work, Clark. I made mine from a piece of 1/4" plate, and a section of an old shovel. Shovels are tough, and I hard-faced the pick end.

Jim

Thanks Jim, that means a lot coming from someone as good at welding and fabrication as yourself. The Aluminum you welded for me while you were being modest is fantastic really and has held up perfectly to all my abuse. I used it a couple months ago clearing a wash in a remote area and it’s a great tool much easier than digging by hand alone I can say for certain now. I’ll do a little write up for everyone and show off you skills, aluminum is much more difficult than steel I know because I tried it once. First I tried it but forgot to switch the polarity for solid wire, after realizing I went back a couple days later for another try unfortunately I forgot to close the main valve on my argon tank and it was empty, I tried anyway but could not get enough heat to penetrate the aluminum plates so gave up. Someday I’ll fill the tank and try again but I’m really unsure if the argon is best or another gas mix?

On 1/12/2026 at 6:42 AM, Rivers rat said:

Hello funny things i went to a shop this morning to buy one to do the same with my spade..........modeing reinforcing learning............the welder was out of stock and was the best bucks for the money but i did bought the helmet/mask

I may ask you advise 🙂 i know how to weld with chocolate pretty well hope it will come handy

 

RR

RR, That Hobart is a pretty basic welder the everyone thinks is reliable and easy to get parts for I’m happy enough with mine. One tip that has helped me a lot is put a headlamp on your visor/shield, part of it has to do I think cause I wear glasses that darken in sunlight and I think they do that welding too, but even with just clear lenses it can be really hard to see the weld and I wind up getting off track so I just dbl sided taped a really bright headlamp to my shield that helps me see where I’m welding. Amazon sells ones made for welding that’s probably better or have some bright light you can shine on your work, anything will help.

As a side note when I was a pretty new FF we got a belt sander call that I think about every time I use my belt sander. We rolled up to this house the garage door was open and this kid he was sitting in the middle of the garage floor holding a belt sander when we got a closer look what happened was he was sanding this box he made with the belt sander in his lap, he was a little chubby and his T shirt got sucked in with the belt along with a good handful of his belly and it was all firmly wedged in place… I’m sure I don’t need to tell you how much it hurt while we were disassembling that sander. So really bad idea getting a belt sander anywhere near  your clothes, gloves or anything else that can get sucked in.

we had another call one time that involved this Mexican torte-a maker  similar but 100 times worse…

1 hour ago, Rivers rat said:

Hello stupid question which tube shall i use to be able to create a good size socket for the handle

 

RR

Great advice from Wes, my last pick I took a piece of the handle material with me and bought a pipe nipple just slightly smaller, cut the threads off the nipple and squeezed it oval in a vice then used my belt sander clamped to my work bench to fit the handle to the modified pipe nipple. I didn’t look a the nipple size but it was probably 1 1/4” ID.

7 hours ago, davsgold said:

thanks guys, and yes I still make the Gold Digger Picks in various sizes, the most popular is the medium size one

cheers dave

Dave, did I buy this pick from you up at the WSPA outing at Rye Patch something like 8 or 10 years ago? I’m going to be 73 pretty soon is mainly why it’s to heavy, maybe breaking my back in that accident  has a little to do with it too… probably. Anyway it’s a great pick maybe someday I’ll try out the small size? That might be a better fit for a old out of shape guy like me, but I just wanted to say again I wasn’t offering it for free because I didn’t like it, that’s just kind of my style if I’m not using something.

I just took a look and see you are in Utah, you are welcome to that pick I posted a picture of if you want it, I’m probably going to drive up to hurricane, Utah next week to go check out Matt’s operation and drop off the little pick I made if you want to meet me there I’ll bring that pick with me you can have it for free.

Jim, you working with a patent Atorney or just winging this on your own? You already past the prior art searches and writing the specifics of what it does and details to support those concepts? I’m pretty sure this isn’t you first rodeo but good luck finishing your project. As soon as you are pending you going to give us a shot at being first in line, I hope so whatever you got going I’m sure it will be great.

I don’t know where you live but I’ve got one I bought a while back I’ll probably never use, it’s a great pick but just a little heavier than I like carrying but pretty much I don’t think you could break it. The steal is thicker and harder than the Apex and the handle is some composite material, I bought it from a guy in the club… it’s a beast and made really well. If you want to pay the shipping I’ll send it to you but shipping outside the lower 48 might be to expensive. 

The orange and white handle pick is my Apex Talon after the reverse shovel blade modification and the orange handle is that same Apex after the long handicap handle was put on the little yellow handle pick is my small Apex also modified with the reverse shovel point, I really like that style pick it moves a lot of dirt easily. The larger beast of a pick I bought off a WSPA member around 7 or 8 years ago at an outing, but it’s on the heavy side I keep it in case I need a pick that will dig through anything but it’s getting less and less likely I’m going to do anything like that now days.

I bought a little Hobart 140 MIG welder a couple years ago and have been slowly learning to use it modifying  picks I’ve bought to suite me better, one an Apex I put on a diet and added a shovel blade to plus an extra long handle I can use as a walking stick to make it easier getting around on uneven terrain. I’m getting a little better walking and just made a smaller version out of another Apex for when I’m healed up a bit more, I’m having fun learning anyway and enjoy making stuff. 
 

im sure many here enjoy watching off road videos, there a lot you can learn some of these  can be really informative, one I particularly like is Matt’s off road recovery if I’ve ever thought about rock crawling I’m pretty sure I don’t want too I hate being on off camber on trails and can’t afford rolling my Jeep but lots of good information for staying out of trouble.

I was watching a couple of his videos where he was road building using a claw hammer to help keep his rig from sliding off a narrow bench road and unless it’s part of the drama wondered why he doesn’t have a small prospecting pick on his rig so I thought with out asking  it would be a fun project to make something custom and send it to him just to see it it made it into his YouTube channel. Honestly if he wanted one I’m sure he wold have bought or made his own but I was looking for something to do that was fun and that I’d need to really work at sending it to someone that really knows how to fabricate and weld.

Digging through my old tools I found an old roofers hammer with an axe blade for splitting shingles, my starting point. Cutting that apart using the blade and half the handle socket I fashioned a pick end into the other half with a rabbit joint and welded that into the top half of my pick. Next I used a 1” pipe nipple notching it out to fit the top half cold forging the two pieces together, it’s a complex assortment of joints with enough surface area it should be pretty strong. Lastly I used part of an old pick handle short enough so as not to take up much storage space, the whole thing heavy enough to dig well but not much bigger than the claw hammer… well a little bigger. The blade is 4” across and from blade end to tip of the pick it’s 7 1/2” and from the top to the end of the handle a little over 16”. The handle is painted yellow but I cut groves into the soft paint a gave it a coat of gold metallic that I lightly sanded giving it a golden wood grain look covering everything with a crystal clear acrylic lacquer finish. I know the paint won’t last long but looks nice now.

So, will it wind up on the show, probably not… like I said I don’t even know if he’d even want one but guess I did this for my own fun so thought I’d share my story.

13 hours ago, Erik Oostra said:

Gold (blue) and silver (black) prices during the last year.. US$

I like those curves…

I think most everyone interested in gold  has seen this but fitting here in this conversation.

 speculation was if there ever is another gold standard would it be world wide?
 

 If we did go back wasn’t the estimated value of gold based on the printed currency and debt (?) to  gold ratio  something like $43k an ounce for gold…?

Would you sell or stash?

I took a chance and sunk all my available cash into gold and silver starting a few years ago buying from an online dealer.
 

My silver was upside down up until a few months ago I bought a bunch of ounces at $30 including premiums but thankfullyin the last few months it’s finally waking up. Silver has the most potential with the low unit price but it is hard to know when and if 

I did this knowing I’d need to sell some gold here and there and it hurts me to sell at all knowing I’d regret those sales every time it went up and it has so it does hurt just a little but better off financially than had I kept it all in cash.

When another driver ran into my wife’s car and totaled it the insurance payoff was just under 30k so I sold one kilo and the profit along with the payoff on her car was enough to put my Wife into a new BMW and give my daughter the remaining money to start her business.

If I could have waited I’d have made 20k more… ouch, but the remaining metals are still worth more than my initial investment in pre inflation dollars so it was still a good move and you can’t really look back you have to remind yourself it was still the best option at the time.

i think it was on the Kitco forum B of A was predicting 4400 gold by early 2026 and the way things are going now that number feels conservative, but there will be temporary dips you just need to ride those out and US gold buyers are positioned well for this run and future increases our market is suppressed compared to other markets around the world. Unfortunately it has become more difficult to take gold out of the country and sell it in let’s say China do to regulatory and reporting requirements that I only know little about, but looking into this it became clear it wasn’t an option. I guess if you’ve got the cahonies you could try ways to not declare the gold but at very high risk. 

There are really only a few ways to sell gold here I’ve found, private sales, online bullion dealers and predatory gold buyers all have their advantages and disadvantages,

private sales come with risks getting ripped off if you don’t know who you are dealing with, the online dealers pay the best kitco bid is only maybe 20 below spot, but you have to mail the gold which I can tell you is stressful, an AirTag secreted in the shipment helps a little.

even with insurance shipping it is nail biting and ups is usually the carrier because they offer the most insurance but UPS has some history of theft issues and the insurance only covers the shipment until you sign for the package after that you are on your own. if your dealer sends you pure .9999 and the package you sign for has gold covered tungsten you could be scrambling to get things right and have made a continuous video from delivery to inspecting the contents but even that might not be enough.
 

Then there’s the local buyers, these have the lowest risk and you walk out the door with your cash but the bid price is anywhere from $150 to $300 below spot and forget about what was paid in premiums on any of the options most buyers don’t cover that unless it is some special high demand bar or coin and even then at a reduced amount lower than market prices.

These rapid increases also tend to increase the amount below spot as the local buyers become more cautious. The best I’ve found with the local gold buyers is $150 below spot nothing for the premiums, but not all metals are equal  it is easier to sell US, Canadian Mint, Perth Mint and the other big names the more obscure bars and coins are harder to sell. 
 

then there’s the tax man which seems just wrong identifying metal as a collectible when the gains are really only just keeping pace with inflation on a commodity that is actually money. Hope that changes someday.

I’ve never sold nuggets since on average it’s cost me 2 to 3 times that of its value… guess I suck at finding gold, lol but getting rich is secondary to the adventure with friends, the latter priceless!
 

All of this is based on my limited experience and I could be a little off in some things so feel free to call me out and offer corrections where needed.

There is a website I’ve used a little, not enough to tell you how well it works but it is based on the section township range format and has tools that iWork converting GIS and has map tools, also some limited free access. Even paying a subscription it wasn’t expensive but you’d have to check it out to see if it’s useful to you, it wasn’t expensive called “Randy Majors.”

https://www.randymajors.org

1 hour ago, Wild Bill said:

There’s some great ideas on here and no doubt best opportunity to find gold.  Both a detector class or Roaring Camp is a good way to have hands on learning.  But if you’re a loner proficient with your detector or pan/sluicing looking for a Lunker… this could be the district for you to strike out or strike big gold!  
I’ve posted about Slate Castle, Breyfogle Flat and the Lure Lodge before.  It’s an option.

https://www.onlyinyourstate.com/stays/california/riverside-cabin-resort-norcal

The Lure has new owners as of 2018.  Right behind the resort is Breyfogle flat a massive placer gravel bar with drift mines under the big meadow.  Slate Castle was my home for several years while my wife and I mined.  We ran two eight inch dredges on a claim below our home.  Next to the Lure Lodge.  We kept our livestock and horses in the meadow over the drift mines.  Slate Castle Ridge has Tertiary channels and old drift mines on the mountain tops.  I built the steel bridge in the 1980s after the Fish & Game tried to cross over the river in a tanker full of trout on the old timber arch support suspension bridge built in the 1940s.  Broke the bridge and the two gentlemen barely made it.  We crossed over from the claim with a track loader and four in one bucket, chainsaw and torch.  Built a gravel bar with the loader and a wing dam to push the Yuba over.  Tore the old bridge down with the loader.  Replaced with a flat rail car and welded I-beams.  Anyway the resort is apparently open with cabins and a new name.  Word has it to possibly replace the bridge with a bigger one like in town crossing the Downie River for fire trucks.  The resort today. 

https://www.yubaverse.com

Back in the 1980s people panned and creviced around there finding a little gold and I remember a woman who had never panned before, dug a one ounce nugget out of a rock packed pocket in the slate bedrock.  

I’ve posted this pic before.  21 ounces.  Found in 1986 with a dredge at the mouth of Slate Castle Creek on the Lure Resort, a left inside turn gravel bar.  Our claim was the next right hand inside turn gravel bar.  

28 ounce nugget found near Sierra Buttes. 
There’s several campgrounds along the North Yuba and highway 49.  I’ve seen some amazing gold come out of these campgrounds.  Forest Service campsites.  We worked five claims up and down the river for about a decade.  Running two 8” dredges below Goodyears bar, gold fed by Goodyears Creek, Woodruff creek and Rock Creek with high grade lode mines and Tertiary channels above.  Rams Horn campground just past Goodyears is a hot spot.  You can book reservations at some campgrounds.  There’s still quite a lot of gold to be found along the Yuba.  Detecting and panning will likely produce some gold.  Pay attention to the quartz cobbles in those gavel deposits.  They occasionally have high grade specimens on or near the surface.  Best of luck!  

Bill, the Lure resort is a wonderful place to stay and the river is beautiful and it was for sale at the same time I made my move to southern Nevada and I considered buying it instead. I think it was listed a 1.2 million. If not for the risk of loosing everything in a devastating fire I would have, but the resort does not have mineral rights in the river and last time I stayed there any detecting wasn’t encouraged on their land and there are private claims in the hill sides. The new owners may have different policies and maybe they held mineral rights prior to pushing or subsequently acquired some?

Bassets Station was for sale too at around the same price but at risk just he same from fire.

5 hours ago, Daniel Tn said:

There's a place in North Georgia that sounds similar to the Roaring Camp.  Cabins and all. It sits right beside the old GPAA claim on the same stream.  I don't know if they do this at the Roaring Camp site but at the one in GA, they take the material for the dirt piles and run it through classification trommels before it ever gets to the customers. Any big gold, they get it there. The dirt piles they sell ya to run through a sluce or whatever has gold in it but they have it pretty well figured out to come out to a little less than what you pay for it.  I did a $400 pile once for my birthday and would have been better off just buying a few of the concentrates buckets they sell. Theirs has the bonus of finding rubies, sapphires, emeralds, and other gems.   That's not quite what I was looking for...kinda want a shot at finding it in the wild.  Might not find as much but it'd be funner to me.  I mean I can buy concentrates online and never have to travel if I wanted to buy gold to pan.  

Well Daniel it sounds like you know what your looking for and it will be a grand adventure.

As far as I know roaring camp is nothing like pay dirt online, I just wanted to add this so Roaring Camp isn’t unfairly judged by reading it compared to something it’s not. 
 

now, whatever adventure you seek it will be  lifetime memory.

It’s probably obvious, but if you did Roaring camp and when you are done you can always try on your own, there are a few spots I don’t remember the exact location but one off highway 49 where the river is public access I went through there when I first started what I found was a moderate in difficulty drive in on the dirt roads and other prospectors sleeping up there and working the locations that produced gold and no friendly faces to be honest. I went off by myself and found a lace to pan but realistically the river has been sampled countless times so the odds of hitting a good spot are slim. There are other places not as remote that feel safer but if there was good gold it would be crowded.

when exactly are you thinking of doing this? We have an outing planned sometime in September at our claim in the high sierra, an area where big multi ounce gold has been recovered, a group hunt last year every one found gold metal detecting the largest nugget was 5 grams we are going to show locations where the patches are and other gold locations we will be up there for a week or so.

https://roaringcampgold.com

you want a fun and productive gold hunting experience why not consider a place like Roaring Camp in the southern Motherload in California. It is a very large property and huge past mining site, they will show you the history, mining and Chinese mining sites and the flumes that supplied water used to route water for mining and share the history and show you the hanging tree for the unlucky forced to take their last walk down the flume to the tree.

They have/had I have not been there since before Covid a few mining programs, but this is not pay dirt in a bag it’s real. One thing they offer is buying a yard of high grade dirt from the mining operation, a wash plant to process your dirt and cabin rentals so you can spend as much time you want… of course they do charge for this but guaranteed you will find gold and it’s a beautiful property with a river running thru the middle. They offered other mining packages too.

Anyway, finding good ground is difficult most club claims are pounded and anyone with good gold producing area generally is not inviting the public in for a hunt.

I use Imagr Size also and have been for a while, I liked it enough I paid to get rid of the adds and the upgrade is worth it really speeds things up.

My wife got a bag of jewelry for customers stolen from her at the airport by probably this group near as anyone could tell. One second she had it the next second it was gone not a trace, this was 30 some odd years ago and what ever surveillance there was didn’t pick up anything.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink_Panthers

Eric, Doc’s lift system is a big help you have practically no weight on your arm, I took mine and integrated it into my backpack using an old soldering iron to poke holes to pass the rods thru and some big heavy zip ties holding everything in place. Last thing I swapped out the waist strap out for a Velcro back brace off Amazon. It is comfortable and quick and easy to take on and off. With everything in one piece.

anyway do get better soon but don’t rush things as was said.

7 hours ago, GotAU? said:

Erik , so sorry about your unfortunate accident. A broken arm is a very painful affair, however it is good it was your arm and not your back or even worse, your head. I have a friend that was hiking on granitic bedrock and slid off the top of one because it was decomposing and he described it as standing on ball bearings on an incline. He had back surgery to fuse broken vertebrae and the surgery didn’t work out so well for him and he’s on permanent disability as a result.  I hope your arm heals well enough for you to resume detecting and other physical activities without pain.  I broke my ulna when I was younger and was lucky enough that my radius flexed just enough to reset the broken ulna and hold it in place, so healing was complete. My brother also has pins in his arm after he broke both bones in his forearm in a fall to the bottom of the stairs of our parents’ home and it also completely healed. So I guess what it comes down to is how well it starts out when it breaks and how well it’s treated while healing. Take care of yourself and do give your arm time to heal before putting too much stress on it. 

Injuries and getting old suck hopefully your recovery goes well which it most likely will and you are back out swinging soon. Surgery is pretty darn good nowadays I know I just got into a car accident the end of April where I broke all my thoracic vertebra, I’ve got an incision that runs from my shoulders to below my rib cage down my back that took 22 staples to close up along with a bunch of rib fractures. They hooked everything back together with  titanium rods and screws along with opening up my lumbar spine too. It’s been about a month and a half since the accident and I’m feeling pretty good, the pain level is now manageable and every day is better. Before you know it this will all be a distant memory.

This is the car… 

An infected thumb nail, also known as Goldenrot, is an inflammation of the nail. It can be caused by digging faint target sounds in heavily mineralized soil.

Causes 

Purchasing sensitive electronic equipment

Frequenting remote desert and forested locations with persistent uncontrollable urge to defy rules of nature doing the same thing the same way expecting different results.

Wet hands or nails for prolonged periods

Prolonged or frequent exposure to soil, rock and black sands.

Symptoms 

Delirium

Yellowish and thickened mass around the nail and Detachment of the nail from the nail bed. 

Treatment 

Home care: 

Keep the nail clean with CLR

Soak the finger in warm acid several times a day. 

Heat any detached nail to 2000* F to remove impurities from the infection.

Medical treatment: 

Your doctor may prescribe counseling. 

In severe cases, surgery may be necessary to remove the infected nail. 

Prevention 

None undetermined

When to See a Doctor 

See a doctor if: 

The infection worsens or does not improve with home care.

You have a fever or chills.

The infection spreads to other parts of your hand or arm. 

Note: This information is for general knowledge and informational purposes only, and does not constitute medical advice. It is essential to consult with a qualified healthcare professional for any health concerns or before making any decisions related to your health or treatment.

I know there is a thread on this but a search did not take me to it so if this needs to be moved sorry for the inconvenience. I recently contacted Garrett about the Axiom update a got this reply from Garrett.

“Thank you for contacting us.  The Axiom is updateable, but to this point we have not released an update for it.  Watch Garrett.com and Garrett Direct.  If/when we release an update, we will announce it there.”
 
We hope you have been very successful with your Axiom! 
 

I had one break too, I used an epoxy by JB Weld specifically made for plastics because i didn’t have time to send it in, it’s still holding.