Non-Chemical Apache Chip Grinder

[burningsuntech]

I saw a post on using a drill and edging blade in a bucket to slash grind chips and it got me to thinking how my ancestors would have done it. I settled on using a homemade grinding stone and a flat concrete patio for a base.

The grinding stone is made out of Quickcrete Concrete Mix. After mixing the concrete, pour it into a large flower pot. Bury a metal rod or pipe in the center if you plan on doing the grinding by donkey or geared down motor. Otherwise you will be doing all the work by hand. I happened to have two of these that I made as posts to string lights on for lighting my porch.


After processing the gold edge pins of memory sticks, I processed the sticks with chips attached using the AP process. I collected all the chips and gold and washed them separately and dried them for further processing. Using the stone on my patio, I ground the chips down stopping every few minutes to collect the powder and sieve it. I returned the unfinished chips to grinding and saved the powder.



I continued to grind down the chips until I got to the point that very little powder was rendered. This left me with fine powder and metal parts and fiberglass bases. All of this will be processed for gold and silver.



I plan on building a motorized version of this grinder to process larger batches. I also considering having a grinding base and stone made out of granite when I get the funds.

Hope this idea helps. Let me know what changes you would make to improve this. I'm open to any comments. Thanks to the forum and this great bunch of fellow metals hunters.

Happy Hunting!

 

[butcher]

I like the idea of a motorized Apache mortar and pestle, you could make the pestle, cover it in plastic kitchen food wrap, and use it for part of the mold for making the mortar, the mortar could have a screened an escape port for the finely ground material to escape so the mill is not clogged by the finer material, the only thing missing would be a water wheel and a good flowing creek to power your corn (chip) grinder.

 

[burningsuntech]

Thanks butcher. Creeks are in short supply so I'll stick to my original plan to hitch a donkey to the pestle. Dangling a carrot also gets the job done sooner.

I like your plastic wrap idea. But I'mnot to sure how to do a screen to allow fines to be expelled without the chips breaking the screen in the process. Gonna give that one a thot or two.

 

[total-resale]

Good thinking, I like the method. Personally I'm paranoid of the loss just doing it on the ground like that. Maybe if you had a large metal pot or something you could rinse out, be sure you were not loosing any. Have you tried just incinerating them? I know its hard for some if you don't have the space, I get very little fumes from incinerating so that's not much of a worry.

 

[burningsuntech]

Hi total-resale
Thanks for the reply. The ground is concrete. Actually its my back porch. Im considering doing a reverse of the flower pot in concrete so that I will have a matched "mortar & pestle" set. That way Ill lose nothing in the process. Still looking to replace the donkey too.

As far as incineration is concerned, I live in a town that is nuts about a person even burning leaves in the fall. So doing incineration is out of the question unless i can make the fumes smell like steak Bar-B-Quing on the grill. I am also working on doing pyrolysis for incineration. It looks clean even if the thing does sound like a jet is taking off in your back yard. Deano has a nice design and I am going to mimick his gadget.

 

[JHS]

Hi,has anyone ever considered a cement mixer and a few 6 pound cannon balls.
I do not know if it will work,but I might be trying it tomorrow.
I picked up a couple american air Lines telecom devices from the 60's.they are
3 x 3 x 8 foot.loaded with boards and silver contacts that are gold plated.
any way they have a component that is 2x3x3 inches.I have ten gallons of them,they have some gold inside.the problem is the black coating (thick)
IS HARDER THAN A ROCK.Took 3 hits with a 2 pound hammer to crack one.I think i can cover the barrel with
heavy plastic,and finally use some duct tape,to keep the hopefully dust in.

outside the box
john

 

[FrugalRefiner]

John,

Many have considered it. Some have done it. Wears the cement mixer out pretty fast. It's not made for that pounding. A slurry of concrete flowing around the barrel is a lot different than 6 pound balls falling onto those thin walls.

Dave

 

[JHS]

Hi Dave,it's old heavy duty and almost worn out.like me,no great loss if it turns to scrap iron.
john

 

[butcher]

I have used an old heavy iron cement mixer to grind rock to powder, loading it with all sizes of rock from about 6" down to gravel, would run it with a little water, and when the mud would begin to stick to the walls would add more water, it worked well for grinding ore to powder, after it reduced the rock to a slurry and gravel I would dump it, screen the remaining gravel back into the mixer with more rock, run the slurry through a sluice box to concentrate and pan the remains.

The blades inside had to be bolted back on after a week or two of running time, other wise it held up well, very noisy but I don't have any neighbors close enough to disturb.

I think cannon balls would be a bit large, but I guess that would depend on caliber.

You might also want to make some kind of bolt on cover, if I added a little to much water I would get sloshing or splashing out of some of the mud.

 

[JHS]

I did not think of a sluice box,I am now.the cannon balls are the old 6 pounders.
I have some that are not great and would not mind using them.The mixer is real old heavy duty commercial machine.
It blows a bit of smoke too.
The pieces are hard as a rock so I figured 6 pound balls might break them.

 

[bswartzwelder]

Before I retired from a major airline, I worked in the building maintenance department. We often had to work on conveyor belts. Bearings would go bad and the shaft would wear down and then break where it passed through the bearing housing. The repair meant installing a new shaft and throwing the old ones out. Most shafts were 1.75 to 2.25 inches in diameter. I saved a few of them and cut them into pieces 1.75 to 2.25 inches long. If I ever finish building my ball mill, they will be used in place of actual balls. They are cylindrical, not spheroid, but when they drop, I would imagine they will pulverize chips. I have read on the forum where others have used lug nuts from tractor trailers. I doubt my plastic barreled cement mixer would last long for this application and suspect the speed would not be optimal.