Home built centrifuge - gold concenrates from IC's

[rusty]

A lot of folks have expressed their interest in watching this project as it matures, if I had posted this project on facebook there would have been a multitude of questions. Not one question just a pat on the back, my ego does not need massaging. But my gray matter would have been stimulated from your questions.

We as a group may have found improvements to enhance the performance of this centrifuge. Instead I feel like I'm playing prey to a bunch of vultures waiting for a free meal.

 

[skippy]

Gill, I don't know how much input anybody could reasonably expect on a project like this, no one here designs centrifuges, and not very many have the background to make more than educated guesses. If you have any specific questions, ask away I'd be sure to put my mind to the matter in as much as I could/can.

No one is obligated to share anything here, but I see little potential for lucrative secrets in home refining/recovery, although maybe my imagination is limited. In any case, I can't see comparing the whole of the forum, not to mention the members who have tried to give input on this very thread, to vultures. Combined with the shop fire business I gotta say I am perplexed.

 

[butcher]

So far I have not seen anything I could add that would help.

But I really do enjoy watching you make these things, I like the wood in the lath, although I am still wondering what the pretty wood is for in this project, or if you just changed the material to plastic bowl instead.

I have no interest in building one of these, but I really do enjoy watching you build yours.

As far as questions, sorry I do not have any, I am not familiar with the gold centrifuge, enough to know what I could ask, or know enough about it to help you with yours.

As far as patting you on the back, I did not feel I was doing so, when we tell you we enjoy your sharing your project, and how we like to watch.

I also did not see any vultures lurking over your shoulder, only friends interested in your interesting project.

 

[rusty]

So far I have not seen anything I could add that would help.

But I really do enjoy watching you make these things, I like the wood in the lath, although I am still wondering what the pretty wood is for in this project, or if you just changed the material to plastic bowl instead.

I have no interest in building one of these, but I really do enjoy watching you build yours.

As far as questions, sorry I do not have any, I am not familiar with the gold centrifuge, enough to know what I could ask, or know enough about it to help you with yours.

As far as patting you on the back, I did not feel I was doing so, when we tell you we enjoy your sharing your project, and how we like to watch.

I also did not see any vultures lurking over your shoulder, only friends interested in your interesting project.

The larger centrifuges used in mines have a fluidized bowel. the water enters in-between the rungs as a small jet to help with discarding lighter material that is hanging in the heavy metals zone. When the rungs become so compacted with precious metals the water pressure gauge on the plumbing feeding the fluidized bowel with water will rise indicating so much material has collected and become compacted the machine should be shut down and flushed.

The more advanced centrifuges are fully automated and these will run continuously without interruption, cost just under $180,000.00, maximum particle size 38 microns.

Centrifuges have been around for a very long time some of the patents I've looked at are laughable. Now that we have more power and better bearings the G-forces are reaching 600 and have the ability to concentrate ultra fine gold.

Yes I have abandoned the idea of casting the bowel and went with plastic instead.

The small clone I'm building would have set me back $8880.00, it is considered a batch or laboratory machine, you have to manually flush the bowel.

I'm using a Baldor DC 2500 RPM using an SCR to control speed, I'm thinking by adjusting the speed I'll be able to classify different metals which have a greater variance on specific gravity like copper and gold. Perhaps wishful thinking on my part.

Centrifuges are used in the coal mines to remove sulfur, they also have the ability to capture metals from flotation froth.

The first wood pattern was just some fir, the dark rings are were the wood weathered, the last patterns were turned from broad leaf maple. You get your Birdseye, tiger striped and a few other patterns from mother nature. These large maples grow on the west coast they may even grow in your part of the country.. Quit often you will see on the trunk of the tree a hatchet chop where someone has removed a small piece of the bark to examine the wood underneath.

The wood is highly prized for luthier work, people are out stealing all they can get to sell on ebay " figured maple "

A friend of mine has a mill in Chilliwhack BC, he sold me a couple thousand board feet just before we moved to Manitoba.

 

[srlaulis]

Wow. This thread did a 180 and went into the weird, awkward realm. I am no vulture, just a peer blown away by your skill.

 

[Smack]

Thanks for the response and I'm glad you did not lose everything.

 

[butcher]

I have worked on a few lab centrifuges used to spin test tubes, these have to have very good bearings, as they can turn at very fast RPM, these also use DC motors and speed control circuit boards, to change or regulate the speed.

I have seen the Knotty maple in the woods and also seen some very beautiful works of art some of the craftsmen in our area make out of it, I have always liked a pretty piece of wood, also like to see something useful made from it.

Thanks for explaining more about the gold centrifuge, although I am still a little confused as to how you could introduce water into the spinning drum when the spinning action is trying to spin everything to the side and maybe up and out, is the water introduced from a hose or sprayer from above the spinning drum?

Also I am curious how you will protect the motor from water (a mechanical friction seal)?

Actually I was just hoping to silently sit in the corner and watch and learn what your building, just enjoying watching a craftsman build a tool, and not be asking stupid questions not really knowing what or how this thing is or how it works.

Rusty, the post above is not like you are you ok?

 

[rusty]

You posted on Jan. 23 how you had a fire and everything was a total loss, numerous people showed you concern and had questions. 5 days later you come back like nothing happened, with pictures in tow of how you've progressed. So here is a direct question for ya; Did you even have a fire? Or were you upset that your post was not progressing the way you thought it would so you felt the need to say something desperate? And furthermore, if you thought this was like facebook your wrong, no one jerks any so called chain on me. It's clear to me, fire or no fire that what you've done here to these people on this forum is pretty low. You don't just leave people hanging like you've done. I expect an answer from you here in the open forum and if you send it privately I will post it here. If you respond accordingly I will delete this post.

Regards,

Steve

Small plastic fire mostly smoke damage, still stinks inside the shop and everything has a greasy film.

 

[srlaulis]

That is way off from a total loss.

 

[rusty]

I have worked on a few lab centrifuges used to spin test tubes, these have to have very good bearings, as they can turn at very fast RPM, these also use DC motors and speed control circuit boards, to change or regulate the speed.

I have seen the Knotty maple in the woods and also seen some very beautiful works of art some of the craftsmen in our area make out of it, I have always liked a pretty piece of wood, also like to see something useful made from it.

Thanks for explaining more about the gold centrifuge, although I am still a little confused as to how you could introduce water into the spinning drum when the spinning action is trying to spin everything to the side and maybe up and out, is the water introduced from a hose or sprayer from above the spinning drum?

Also I am curious how you will protect the motor from water (a mechanical friction seal)?

Actually I was just hoping to silently sit in the corner and watch and learn what your building, just enjoying watching a craftsman build a tool, and not be asking stupid questions not really knowing what or how this thing is or how it works.

Rusty, the post above is not like you are you ok?

On the fluidized drum is jacketed, water enters the jacket from the bottom through a fluid coupling which i suspect they borrowed from the oil field. The inner bowel is tapered with rings welded to the inside these rings are approximately spaced at 2 inch intervals being about 1.5" wide.

Every manufacture have their own ideas where to place the holes, a friend now deceased several years was manufacturing a concentrator known as the Hy-G, which looked like a Falcon or another popular concentrator the Knelson all manufactured in British Colombia.

The concentrators are belt driven, the larger the bowel the slower the RPM required to generate the required g-force, for example a 24 inch diameter bowel only has to spin at approximately 675 rpm to generate 310 G's. They now claim to have a centrifuge operating at 600 G's.

You will note with the taper the discarded material wants to exit over the top of the bowel, the egg beater or lump breaker located near the bottom is stationary it's also flanged to keep debris away from the crucial parts.

On the one I'm working on I've cut a piece of pipe just over the OD of my bowel leaving 1 inch of the bowel above, the garbage is tossed at such speed it will clear the pipe, so the pipe protects my motor from water and what not. My discharge pipe is cut and welded near the bottom of that recycled propane tank. next time I install a slanted floor sloping towards the discharge.

 

[rusty]

Material types to run through the centrifuge.

If I had a few pounds of tungsten powder I could do a more controlled evaluation.

This is what I have on hand, Incinerated IC's, this has settled out in three layers the top is I'm sure almost garbage the 2nd layer is thick mud while the bottom layer is sandy like with small beads. from the mud layer after its been run through I'll add some acid to see if any precious metals remain.

Also form the incinerated and milled IC's there is visible metallic material that floats on the water surface, I'm curious to see what the centrifuge is able to do with it.

Gold from plated pins mixed with small bits of plastic, just enough nitric to remove the gold. This has been sitting for almost two years. These are from that 45 gallon drum of plugs I run through the hammer mill. Now I've reduced this to half a 20 liter pail.

Cemented copper with precious metals traces, from this lot I get to play with specif gravity with the variable rpm

Cemented silver using aluminum, should be an easy run to separate the goo from the silver cement.

 

[butcher]

I done a quick search on goggle and looked at these, the last link had a video of a centrifuge in operation, this gave me a much better Idea of what you are building, and how they work, I have heard of people who make bio-diesel from cooking oil, making and using this type of centrifuge, maybe you could get some ideas from how they are making their homemade units.
I noticed the one in the video (link below) they used what looked like a removable stainless steel drum, also it seems very similar to me to be like a washing machine on spin cycle, spinning the snot out of the liquids until the solids stick to the outer side of the drum.

Also I guess for gold you would be feeding the unit with very fine slurry of water and gold along with minerals, I am still wondering if the black sand would not just be stuck to the sides of the drum with the gold and other solids of the slurry.

Could you find a stainless steel washing machine and adapt it speeding up the spin cycle?

http://www.nzdl.org/gsdlmod?e=d-00000-00---off-0hdl--00-0----0-10-0---0---0direct-10---4-------0-1l--11-en-50---20-home---00-0-1-00-0-0-11-1-0utfZz-8-00-0-0-11-10-0utfZz-8-10&a=d&c=hdl&cl=CL2.19.7&d=HASHc096d161f676b196cfad56.23.8

http://www.nzdl.org/gsdlmod?e=d-00000-00---off-0hdl--00-0----0-10-0---0---0direct-10---4-------0-1l--11-en-50---20-home---00-0-1-00-0-0-11-1-0utfZz-8-00&cl=CL2.19.7&d=HASHc096d161f676b196cfad56.23.8&x=1


http://www.interfil.com.au/centrifuge.html

 

[rusty]

The key to the gold concentrator is the cone shaped bowel when the lighter material makes contact with that spinning cone there is tremendous upwards velocity generated as is with the heavier material but the later has a tendency to find homage in the groves.

The large commercial rigs will scavenge a certain amount of black sand, this is sent out for further processing.

After my SCR arrives and i get this thing wired to some power, I'll shoot a video running that IC mud.

 

[rusty]

Same manufacture with 38 inch bowels sample of hole configurations.

 

[butcher]

Now I understand the reason for the plastic drum, acidic solutions.

 

[rusty]

Now I understand the reason for the plastic drum, acidic solutions.

No I'm not planning to run acidic solutions there would be a certain amount of misting which would not be good to breath.

it was a case of having the plastic on hand combined with a bit of impatience for want of casting the bowel.

 

[rusty]

Tested the centrifuge this evening, my biggest mistake was not building a larger one.

I ran some slimy mud the concentrates recovered are sandy in texture, tomorrow I'll dry some out and have a better look under the glass.

 

[nickvc]

Keep at it Rusty I love reading your threads about your home built equipment, been able to use your refining recovery knowledge with your ability to create equipment to make things easier always amazes me...makes me feel very useless.

 

[rusty]

After running the XP model centrifuge figured out some improvements to make on the next build.

As promised a video and a picture of the concentrates still in the bowel, as you can see 99% of the black material is removed. What I did learn this evening is that once the groves are filled the concentrates keep building up - I believe the man said it was called co-adhesion.

The concentrates left in the bowel don't look like much of anything, but this is the stuff were after $$$

Tomorrows project find a suitable pump in my junk pile so that I don't have to hand feed the bowel, this thing is thirsty and can handle more liquids being tossed at it.

[youtube] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEbtj2OMVMY&feature=youtu.be [/youtube]

 

[srlaulis]

Now that was a cool video! While watching it, I was overwhelmed with the feeling of "I want to do it, I want to do it"! :lol: Very impressive work!