# Hydraulic Rock Crusher



## eaglewings35

Okay, this is a challenge for me, but probably not for most of you.
I have several pounds of ore that I want to pulverize in order to get the gold.
Here's my plans and thoughts.....
I'm thinking of welding a 1/2" steel plate to the bottom of a 5" or 6" thick walled pipe.
I am then going to weld a long steel plate to the side of the pipe.
Then I will afix the hydraulic ram to the other end of the steel plate.(the ram is adjustable and has extensions to take up the extra room)

What I am trying to do is use the hydraulic ram to push down and crush my ore that is in the pipe. (both the pipe and ram are fixed solid so they can't move)
Here's my question.......
How much pressure would I need to crush quartz rock or regular types that gold is found in?


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## butcher

I would think the hydraulic ram would have a hard time crushing, I have used a hammer drill, or a jack hammer would work better, using a tool head flat head toothed bit that gave ore in vessel some room to escape the hammer head, Ball mills are easy to build, I use my cement mixer like one, I have built a small hammer mill like the big ones used at large mines, my hammer probably weighs 15 pounds lifted and dropped by a cam (6-8 inch drop) on a DC motor, using rectified AC voltage and dimmer for speed adjustments.
jaw crushers can be built, even a stone mill (Astoria?) can be made.


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## eaglewings35

Hey Butcher. It has been a long time since I talked to you. Hows things for you? I am strongly leaning toward making me a ball mill. I was thinking that
a hydraulic crusher would be sooooo easy, plus I have access to hydraulic pumps and rams.


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## butcher

Been staying out of trouble and doing well.

The trouble I see with just hydraulic ram pressure is the surface area, and the slow action if you gave the fragmenting rock somewhere to move to, and getting the ram head or rock to contact each other in the next stroke. (I can see what I want to say but do not know how to say it) (kind of like trying to crush an egg in your fist, you can't but you can with one small finger), and now getting all them eggs in the basket to keep moving under your finger moving up and down fairly slowly...
say a ram in pot a once rock breaks and someof it powders it can pack as tight as cement, and all crushing would stop as even the hydraulic power would not overcome its resistive force.
Do I make any sense?

If you made a jaw crusher with the hydraulics’ then you could crush some rock, the jaw crusher mainly breaks the rock to small bits, the surface area the pressure is applied is at smaller points and as rock breaks it moves up and down in the jaws grips, there are several types of crushers some even use a kind of mortar in a funnel like shape the mortar rotates around wobbling (sorry I do not know its name). I believe the ball mill would be easiest to build and can make fine dust out of rock, catalytic converter, or CPU ceramics.


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## TXWolfie

Ya can send it to my ex-wife, she will take out her stonecold lifeless heart and I am pretty sure she will have no problem crushing it to dust for ya...... :lol:


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## butcher

Tex at least you can joke about it now.


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## Desert Dennis

crazycrusher.com .. To get gold out of ORE it is as simple as Classifacation and weight. Dennis


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## TXWolfie

butcher said:


> Tex at least you can joke about it now.


lmao yeah giggling makes the heart grow fonder .... ahem ... I mean further


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## joem

like this design
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Sore-thumb-rock-crusher-prospecting-dredge-panning-/110742855654?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item19c8c9dfe6


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## goldsilverpro

joem said:


> like this design
> http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Sore-thumb-rock-crusher-prospecting-dredge-panning-/110742855654?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item19c8c9dfe6



I've made a few of those things, but the pestle I used was a long steel rod (about 36") about 2" in diameter and it weighed about 30#. You just picked it up and dropped it. For breaking up a few CPUs for assaying, it works well. For refining a batch of material, it takes WAY too much energy. Just try it and see. I don't think the pestle on eBay is heavy enough to do enough damage.


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## darshevo

I like the idea of a stamp mill for what you are working on. Here is a youtube video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySLibKnEmpY

Its pretty basic, but you can get a good idea of how they work from it


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## Acid_Bath76

if you're mechanically inclined, which a lot of you seem to be, check out a "rock crusher". I'm not sure how long it takes to reduce material in a ball mill, but in my rock crusher I can pulverize pretty much anything within a couple minutes. It's a simple contraption. 1/4HP electric motor that spins a steel chain within a cylinder. There's a front cover that you can take on and off, and a hopper to add material into that is covered when running. One draw back, it can be pretty loud. I'm sure there's a way to circumvent that issue. Maybe some type of insulation .. .. anyhow. Just thought I would throw this out there.


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## Hephaestus

I understand the concept Acid_Bath76 but can't find a video to hear how much noise it makes. If left in a room and walk 10 steps away my ball mill is relatively quiet. It works at the moment and it's 2:10 in the night.


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## Acid_Bath76

wow! that's what I call, "silent destruction"!! Very nice. You can't beat that


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## eaglewings35

Hey Heph,
Did you make your crusher? What makes it so quiet?
Does it have some kind of insulation? Go any pics for us?


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## Hephaestus

Yes it's homemade with no insulation. A plastic drum, a geared motor used for rotating metal axles (for roasting lambs in particular), a wooden base and some wheels.
Will make a thread about it.


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## eaglewings35

Hey Heph, what size drum are you using? I know that there are those 55 gallon plastic drums, are you using one that large? If not, where do you get a smaller one? I thought of using a 5 gallon bucket, but there is the problem of putting a steel rod through it, and not losing your powder at the same time.


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## Hephaestus

I send you a PM eaglewings35.
For every one else interested I made a thread for my ball mill.
http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=40&t=11456


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## solarsmith

I have used a 12 ton shop press with a air powered hydraulic ram.
i just put the rock inbetween the two 1 inch plates and hit the air triger then release and push in a fresh rock from the side pushing the now mostly sand out the back to fall into a bucket on the floor. this worked well but was still to slow for the tons of ore I have. I now have a homemade jaw crusher. 
so my answer is 12 tons for a 3 to 8 lb rock. Thanks Bryan in Denver Colorado. 303 503 4799.


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## eaglewings35

Thanks Bryan, thats exactly the info I was looking for.


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## Dutch

Need some Ideas (HELP)? need to figure out a small portable rock crusher, ball mill application for my claims. have 8 sections,5120 acres. 100 miles from nearest road system, only way in /out helecopter (very expensive) can sling about 450 lbs per trip. my asseys are showing 6.94 oz per ton gold 3,33 oz silver. all in quartz. need to come up with a dyi jaw crusher that can be made dyi , and roller or ball mill to process my ore . of course funds are limited mostly due to transportation costs. any ideas or comments on this would be appriciated. iwould like to be able to crush 1 to 2 cu yards per hour . this needs to be somewhere inbetween (SIZE WISE) a small sample type machine and a large commercial on that can be dismantled to sling in not more than 450 lb loads . any Ideas?
dutch


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## butcher

small Stamp mill built at site, packed in pieces by horse and mules, water power the mill from a creek nearby.


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## Dutch

hi Butcher, thax for ur imput, i havent given the stamp mill much thought, you sparked my intrest. there are very few horses here in this part of alaska and none where i am at. we try to haul as m,uch heavey stuff as weather and tme permits in by iron dog sled (snow machine and seld) every winter. this winter is particulary a hard one lots of snow and sub zero temps.
I am going to try to find out some info on stamp mill. I do have a good sized creek close to where we are working and i havent used water power for 40 years or more but i have a good spot for a water wheel. thanks agian
dutch :lol:


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## qst42know

Strangely you may need a permit to use water power. Probably better to check than to get fined.

http://dnr.alaska.gov/mlw/water/wrfact.htm


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## butcher

Look at how ole timers done it, and pack in some modern tools, to make it easier?

? Dog sled in? Pack in, or find a big moose? An Alaskan saw mill (I made mine home made), with supplies gas, oil, spare chain and other tools needed to cut and drill lumber, nails spikes, and build the mill at site from wood found at site, sled in other parts needed cam's, hammer's, rod's, bushing and bearings......

I built a mini stamp mill for powdering Ore and CPU’s, their is really not too much to it, cam lifts a rod with a hammer (stamp) and drops it repeatedly, rock is powdered with hammer blows, like ball mills there is speed of cycles involved.

Waterpower could also turn a ball mill, or about anything, the lifted water could also be used in long tom’s sluice boxes…

Maybe the ball mill tank could be made into a wagon once at site the wagon wheels become pulleys for turning the mill, if you have a trail accesses.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-VhvtUdoJ7NQ/TVQ8XA__YuI/AAAAAAAANcc/6mhb2xPeY5U/s640/moose+in+harness+3.jpg



http://media.photobucket.com/image/alaskan%20moose%20pulling%20logs/cmoore762004/67.jpg


http://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&hl=en&source=hp&biw=&bih=&q=stamp+mill+gold&btnG=Search+Images&gbv=2


http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/sia/30.2/vanbueren.html

Heck just use yourn imagination.


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