Is a Blue Bowl worth using?
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- Опубліковано 4 жов 2024
- Blue Bowl as a gold clean-up tool. Would i recommend it? Watch this video to find out. In this video I use a blue bowl to clean up some hard rock ore crush from about 500 lbs of rock from an unknown mine site. I show how to use a blue bowl. How to set up a blue bowl and how a blue bowl works. I also answer the question "should I use a blue bowl to clean my gold concentrates?" As I have said before I prefer to use a gold and and simple gold panning to clean my gold concentrates.
This video is produced by Dan Hurd, Prospector, Miner, Teacher and UA-camr, as part of his UA-cam channel based on educational videos about gold mining, gold panning, prospecting, rock hounding, and mineral collecting.
Patreon - / danhurd
Web -- www.bc-claims.no-ip.ca
Facebook -- danhurdgold
Blue Bowl is my favorite method to clean out sluice fines. I've tried many other devices and found to be the best, provided you have the patience for this slow process. "Low and Slow" is the best approach to successfully recover -100 mesh gold. Thanks for sharing Dan !
Thanks! I'm just not patient enough
I agree, They are a staple of many small scale operations. I once thought I preferred panning over using it, but time showed me its value. Especially with gold under 50 mesh
I made my own blue bowl, actually its green. I need to get a pump for it. What submersible pump do you use? Any suggestions on one that will last awhile?
How much material can you put in a blue bowl and have it still operate properly
@@johnhoon7069 generally, I add a tablespoon at a time until the bottom of bowl is covered with a couple millimeters of material, and the star pattern appears. I my situation, I screen the sluice cons to 25, 50, 75, 100 mesh. Each class is enough to accomplish what I consider a full bowl. 👍
Nice video Dan.
I've had my Blue Bowl for about 5 years. Two pieces of advice. 1) Throw that quarter turn valve away and replace it with a gate valve. You will have about 12 times the control of the water flow. This allows you to clean even the smallest of placer. 2) Add some of your recirculating water to you -100 cons before adding them to the Blue Bowl. No soap suds.
Great advice!
agreed that valve is a pos
Absolutely, I replaced mine with a ten turn valve. The plastic ball valve is terrible.
Not only that i am not a big fan of the blue bowl but i found changing the water control to a better one big game changer next also add in marks inside for water lines. I did that so say my -30 to over 50mesh i every time run at x line just walk away come back later. This alone makes it more constant for recovery and time. I did 1/4inch marks in diff colors put a color list sheet next to it. I only use it once in a while like running my desert fox feeding it run blue bowl as i do something else get 2 things done at one time.
A voltage regulator on the pump can also give you fine control
"my hat is part of me" - Dan, your are The Man!!! Thank you for your great videos!
Thanks for a great video as usual Dan. To control the speed of the water I use a Riorand motor controller $13.99 from Amazon. Not waterproof so put it in a zip lock sandwich bag. This makes the pump last longer, is infinitely adjustable and stops that hydrailic shock that could cause gold to float when you switch on the pump, because it starts up at zero speed and increases gently as you turn the power knob. Just keep the valve on the bowl wide open.
i love watching your videos. I recently had a mild stroke and since I'm home I have been binge watching your videos. I'm going to get back into prospecting. Thank you for great content, I love the honesty in your review shows!! This is the first time I have seen the Blue Bowl and it's really cool!
You can't help but like this guy. Bravo Dan.
Cleaning the black sand with a vortex of water is the coolest thing I've seen in awhile!
You do a great job exposing many people to differing aspects of the "Prospects World."
I use a Blue Bowl daily. My routine usually ends at bed time., I rise early to begin another day, wherever God leads us, (Eva and I). Having someone else demonstrating their experiences helps reaffirm our methodology is sound. Sharing failures is equally valuable. It's not a mistake! It's the consequences for not paying close enough attention!
Thanks again, Dan! Your GMGT video was equally impressive.
Respectfully,
Dingus & Eva!
thank you
I do so love a good product review, and from my favorite Canadian UA-camr! I love the pattern on the super fine stuff, mesmerizing to watch.
Thanks
Great display of how the Blue Bowl works, I have considered getting one. We use the gold cube for clean up and then pan from there and that works great for us. I would give the Blue Bowl a try on the ultra fine gold and magnetite.
I am not a gadget guy, but I have thought about getting a blue bowl to use as a zen fountain in the center of my patio table. They are soothing to listen to and I suppose I would use it for super fines if I had one. Thanks for the video Dan Hurd!
Very soothing to listen to!
I like the spiral wheel better, but it would be much more difficult to incorporate.
Great job and thanks for explaining the Blue Bowl! Was never sure if I was running mine right.
Dan,
Grand video. I've used a blue bow oncel on placer gold. I was impressed with the results. Checked out the cons a second time and found no significant gold in the cons. Will continue using it. Keep up the great informative videos.
Thanks!
I find the sound of the blue bowl so relaxing!
One should stick with what they are comfortable with. You're darn good at panning. Great video, it's fun to watch the gold appear. Thanks Dan.
Thanks. I'm happiest when I'm panning (and I'm too impatient for the blue bowl)
Dan Hurd you are probably happiest when panning cause it’s more outdoorsish/ a fun hobbyists approach..The mechanical type approach of the blue bowl seems like a nuisance/ job to do. As the saying goes “ if you enjoy what you do it’s not a job”.. Well, something along those lines... Just keep having fun and enjoying Mother Nature cause you are truly blessed by her!
I use a blue bowl for effective secondary recovery from my bulk cons (several pounds) after a quick panning to recover the easy portion (typically the flatter gold).
First, I wet-classify material with the same 30/50/100 mesh size sieves, sometimes adding a 70 mesh if the particle size distribution indicates it will split my -50/+100 into roughly equal fractions of -50/+70 and -70/+100.
Then, rather than introducing the material before starting the water flow, I first set the flow to my desired level, making sure the bowl is perfectly level and an even cone of water forms in the center, then add material using a turkey baster and allowing it to slowly run out and exchange with the water below the water surface near the inlet; this provides for much more effective separation than adding material, then starting the flow, due to taking advantage of the difference in settling velocity as well as the longer path to travel.
I try to balance the addition rate with the rate which black sands are removed and run the water such that the gold only slowly moves inwards, avoiding large 'rafts' of material forming so the blacks can continue to flow to central cone unimpeded.
Once a solid ring of material forms around the central cone without circulating, I suck up the gold left in the field, then spread the material that has collected around the center back out about 2/3 of the way and run the water just long enough to pull the blacks off the gold, suck it up, then resume with normal operation.
If the material 'freezes', a gentle tapping on the rim of the bowl will usually get the blacks moving again, if not, gently squirting a jet of water over the stubborn material in the same direction or a bit outwards with respect to the current will almost always work if you're careful.
The blue bowl works best for gold with reasonable thickness to area ratios and can lose very flat gold, which is exactly the opposite of a miller table; the two paired together yield very good recovery from concentrates with variable sized and shaped gold.
Dan, Thank you for doing this video. I have always wondered how effective it was. I especially liked your comment on the flat flakes.
Glad you found it of use!
Have had one a long time, setup is perm to use for final cleanup of cons from gold cube, dry washers, panning. Use turkey baster to move material around in bowl or pipette for removing fine gold and separations within the bowl. Mod included adding height to outer rim for greater water flow. An addon was a feeder cone which I also have used but tends to get clogged.
I find it too slow for primary production but great for final panning cleanups and looking in small samples to spot very fine gold when spot checking areas for gold.
Some have added vibration, water temperature effects? Surfactants are really useful.
Takes quite a bit of active intervention while running, hence most useful for small batches.
Good lighting is also really important to spot the small really tiny stuff.
Small sluice or miller table at exit is a good addon as it will lose some gold depending on skill at controlling flow and material handling.
I bought one when I first started prospecting, but find its just as easy to classify and pan.
If you going to use a blue bowl I've found a metal gate style valve will help keep the flow more constant and easier to adjust.
you blue my mind with the closeups another fine video from the miner Dan, thanks!
You're welcome
Nice video Dan. The only thing I do different, is when it gets close to the center I blow the material back towards the outer edge. Much love Dan and you have helped me a lot and thank you for Teaching the kids and showing some of ole folks a new way to do things!
Nice Dan! I modded my blue bowl with vibration on the bottom. Works well.
I was imaginating it while watching Dan's video. glad you successfully have done it.
In addition, maybe a smooth spiral groove in the bottom spinning the opposite direction may be an additional advantage, because the heavy stuff would go outwards while the less heavy stuff might prefer the inwards direction.
Just a theory though.
Possibly
@@ghlscitel6714 Nice Idea!!
@@GreenMountainGoldTrap it has to be done to know it
probably one can alter an existing blue bowl by pressing a hot copper tube spiral approx. 10 mm diametre into the bottom to slightly deform the surface and then cool it down. Hopefully, the mark this procedure releases to the bottom plane may already be sufficient to have a test.
I've been binging your channel and boy learning a lot! I'm out in Northern Arizona and i'm going to start my gold adventure very soon.
Thank you!
How's it going so far?
I'd also like to know, how's the gold in AZ?
Hi Dan, I got the blue bowl when they first came out and I think I used it a a hand full of times. Each time I found I had to rerun the cons to make sure I didn't loose any , and found some . So it makes you gun shy and you keep running over and over again . So now I find it easier just to pan it out the first time. Having said that I think I would like to get a miller table. At least you can see the gold working its way down the table and you can catch it. Awesome video Dan.
Exactly
Do u want to sell your blue bowl?
I love the patterns in the crush, in the blue bowl!
I find it really interesting when you try out the equipment. It’s so fascinating.
Great video again Dan. Looks like a rainy day or cold winter days project to keep the gold fever under control.
Very true
Made one from a bucket and an inverted funnel and some silicone caulk, used 100' hose and a bit of copper pipe and a valve laid the hose upstream and cleaned alot if sluice concentrates as I ate my lunch right on the river, had a simple hose shut off in line at the hole in the side of the bucket.
James Shults...great idea! Instead of a pump, let the stream naturally feed!
Thanks for the great video on the blue bowl. I just had my bowl delivered and look forward to using it!
Nice!
That is awesome Dan. Personally after watching you use this Blue Bowl, I need to get one. It is the perfect way to finish clean up when there is a ton of black sands. The positive comments below are also very helpful, thanks guys for your input, brilliant. Thank you again Dan for another very educational vid :)
Thanks!
@@Danhurd No worries - enjoyed :)
Was fun finding the heavies first! Two rusty old nails, the black sand and then the glimmer of gold under that black sand! Thanks I ave learned so much from your efforts!
Great video as usual Dan. Thank you!
Whenever I have a question about some new product, I usually come to your videos first. You've definitely covered a heck of a lot more range than most.
My intimidation right now isn't in actually getting out there and panning, but in all the "CRAZY" laws, and noise associated with making sure you're legally prospecting on the right areas without infringing upon someone's property, claim or land, and/or violating the turns and bends in understanding whether the land you're on is BLM, Park, city, Unincorporated city, county, blah, blah, ...
I have seen videos where people explain good resources for determining all these things, but I live in Northern Virginia, next to Washington DC and let's just say it's insane here! Every bend in a river can have a new covenant that covers prospecting... :)
If there is anyone from Virginia who scrolls down past this comment, and you'd like to help a green horn out, I'd be much obliged... :)
Nice! Just panned my first pans! Found some real fine gold! Got the fever!
always a pleasure watching you do what you love Dan.
Awesome demo Dan! Thanks for sharing
Thanks!
Hey good luck on your UA-cam channel I hope it grows I’ve got some of my family to subscribe and your videos are the best
Thank you!
Thanks for the informative Vid Dan.. I to have a blue bowl.. and I live in AB where all we have is fine gold to play with.. I've tried many different gold Seperators like a miller table and of course the Blue Bowl and it works if you use a small sluice underneath the middle drop out hole .. I hang a piece of plastic rain gutter with vortex matting lining it to catch anything that gets swept through.. anyway that solves the problem with losing the fine placer gold down the hole..lol. So please feel free check one of my vids out my blue bowl gold lab set-up I call it, to get a better idea.. thanks again for sharing and sluice on my friend!
Thanks for your videos Dan. I really like seeing what kind of diffrent things you do and find. I also like the videos when you talk about diffrent products and how they work.
Thanks!
Thankyou for the experience, the spiral still looks more versatile. Amazing the touch of the human hand & pan is still king.
Looked pretty good. It's always good to talk about how important it is to level out the blue bowl. I usually use a bubble level that is round and put it in the center when it is dry.
I also think telling everybody that they should try classify is important to I usually put it out in the sun to save/conserve oven time and energy.
Good point!
Oops dry classify
Neat stuff Dan you have all the best toys. I bet it would look cool to do a time lapse on the -100 material and see it change
Oh, it would!
Dan in his socks making videos for us!!! Lol. I love it!!!
Thanks Dan!
Buying one right now. thanks dan the gold prospecting man!
Awesome video. I love my Blue Bowl! It’s fun to watch. It’s gives you something to enjoy after doing the hard work.
I saw this video before I bought my blue bowl, and thought Dan was crazy for saying he would rather pan than use it.
After using my blue bowl for a month or two, I see exactly what he means. Panning might take a little more muscle work, but if you’re good at it, I imagine you would be able to separate as much gold as you would with the bowl in less time. Getting fine gold from the bowl is much more time consuming than I imagined, and requires more attention as well.
Love your videos Dan, you gotta come down to Georgia and do a video sometime,
Thats so awesome. I never knew there were so many methods to processing the gold out of concentrated material.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Thanks for that Vid Dan, It looks like I've been doing it waaay wrong all the time I've used it!
I've been using it for concentrating my fines, which I've crushed down to sand size,
but haven't mesh classified at all, and have probably been overloading the hell out of it.
It's just as well I kept the bucket of fines that I ran through the blue bowl, now I'll give this method a try.
I might try re-agitating them all in a bigger bucket first using a paint stirrer on a drill,
and adding borax to the bucket as I do it, to see if that drags the fine gold to the bottom of the bucket.
Just what I need, a new challenge! ;-)
I'm also working on a no-weld, field servicable, wheelbarrow mounted Jaw Crusher, (yet to post vids)
and Millzilla - I converted my dead front loader washing machine into a combination mill & sluice,
There's some early vids of it & GoldZilla (another classifier) on youtube
if you're interested, just search youtube)
I have as much fun making the machines as I do prospecting, but as their names suggest,
they keep mutating as I figure out how I can make them work better & smaller after trying them out
and contemplating how to do that while drinking beer next to a campfire.
That's my favourite part of the day! ;-)
Thanks so much for all your vids, you've taught me and many other's a massive amount of info over the years!
Great info and teaching video thank you Dan keep it coming always fun to watch
Thanks!
I've learned so much from you. Thank you. Great videos. Damn I'd love to have you out on a few of my claims
Nice video Dan . It was fun to watch but , I agree panning is better . I figure if you have too much to pan , you can afford a nice table.
Nice job! Keys are knowing How to use it,& Classification!
Yes!
You can use Blue bowl also with garnets & other gems.
Diamonds.. ^_^
I'd like to see that
Okay
BlackSmith Iwe Done that with Garnets, works great 👍🏽
I love my blue bowl! I use it also to find gems on a slow setting, I've also fine paned everything that comes out. For 4 years I've never found a micron pieces of gold yet, I always still check though.
Good video! It's nice to see someone show using the blue bowl after classifying the material. I noticed the original instructions didn't mention classifying, but I think it's very important. Oh... and nice gold! Haha!
Thanks!
Thank you Dan, getting caught up on some of the videos I missed. Expect to see you back in the field real soon! ⚓🎶🎄🍗😎
Goes to show that some of the best ideas happen when an inventor is taking a shit!!
The blue bowl is just the top part of the hydro cyclone . I think you did a really good demonstration.
Thanks!
10:15 And that is why classification is so important with a Blue Bowl. The Blue Bowl works by separation by mass. Lighter pieces are carried away by the water stream, heavier pieces are left behind. But any large pieces of lighter (than gold) material, like iron, will weigh the same as the smaller pieces of gold, so will stay put.
13:00 That's when you know the water stream is set perfectly. When the gold flakes start to climb, but can't make it up. All the black sands will eventually be carried away.
13:33 _"Ooh, that was a lot more water."_
That is why one should replace the valve with a gate valve, that makes 3 or 4 full turns from full closed to full open. The supplied ball valve goes from full closed to full open with only 1/4 turn. The gate valve makes it easier to get a small change in flow for a small turn of the valve handle.
1/4 turn for a lever action ball valve goes from closed to fully open. 1/4 turn for a gate valve goes from fully closed to 1/12 or 1/15 open.
19:50 You really should define _"a bunch of time."_ As in, how long to go from a ring of black sand to a ring of clean gold?
I have tried these and even went as far to build a custom stand with a delivery system that allows you to slowly introduce the material and just everything. These work but it in my opinion is simply night and day faster to simply pan, when you reach this point of concentrates.
Cheers Dan. Great video. I like the idea of that blue bowl, made sepperating the black sand way easier. I have seen many times how tricky it can be. I am setting up so I can try what I have seen in your videoes. Thank you for your time and effort you put in to making these. I am learning more with each video.😀
Hi Dan ,
Enjoyed your demonstration of the blue bowl ; it was as if I had one at home and was using it myself.
One thing that I noticed, that you couldn’t see , was where you had set one pan into the other; the bottom outside edge of the pan had picked up some of your screenings and were bound to be lost.
Good eye!
Looks like all of us prospectors are getting rained out. Good day for cleaning up the gold. Thank you for another great video Dan.
Thanks!
@@Danhurd I am truely interested in documenting all of the history I keep unearthing, how difficult is this whole UA-cam thing? I'm a little older and not super tech smart, is it alot of work doing this channel? I'm not so much interested in the monetary side of it more of the documentation side.
Hi Dan, I like very much your videos. From france.
Thanks!
long time watcher of your videos and im sure you know your stuff alot better than i do for sure.
put your material on the outside edge of the pan when you put it in. it will separate much better and you wont have to stop the pan and move the material out to finish cleaning it.
that valve on the bowl sucks but im recovering super fine gold and i have to run my pan alot slower than your running yours. start yours a little slower and slowly speed it up and youll catch alot more with it. towards the end you have to back it off some too as the water speed will increase when there is less stuff in the pan causing resistance. i wiped out almost the whole pan on my first run because of that. it got that last little bit of heavy material out and then the powdered gold blew out right behind it. oh well i know where its at and plan on re running my tailings again for any lost material. i need to replace the mats in my sluice but after i do im thinking it should be able to process most of my material and the blue bowl will just be for the cleanup at the end. its too slow for any large recovery with fine. it can take over 2 hours a pan for super fine material if you dont want to lose anything.
I have a blue bowl, and don’t really use it all that often. It seems to take more time setting it up and making sure it’s level than need be. And I don’t like having to rerun everything out of fear that some has washed through. Over all it’s easier to Miller table or pan it out. Thanks for an awesome review. Have a great day
I agree
First prospecting video filmed with only his socks on that I’ve seen !!!!! LOL 😂
Not the first
Dan Hurd LOL !!!!
Fairly certain I would have noticed if he was only wearing socks.
Jim Northland LOL !!!!!
I made a blue bowl from a bunt cake pan, not too sure if it's me or the bowl but it takes forever...still have 20 plus pounds of black sand from Lake Superior to go thru
Lake Superior? I suppose that's some _very_ fine flour gold, eh? Glacial?
@@cacogenicist it's flower gold and I ended up using my sluice to trap it in the mat in there it was a lot of work but there was gold in it and this summer I'll get some more
@@mikemcgarry8621 Fun.
I'm fixing to get down to the southern Oregon coast some this summer to run a hand sluice in a little stream cutting across a gold-bearing black sands beach. Lots of magnetite and chromite and some platinum group metals -- gold recovery should be interesting. :-)
@@cacogenicist sounds cool and I'm going to try to get out to Colorado and do some sluicing in the river, I'm from Michigan
@@mikemcgarry8621 - The Poudre River in Colorado sounds interesting to me. Diamonds from a nearby (defunct now, I think) kimberlite mine can be panned, along with gold.
High Dan I do agree with you but you do make it look easy to pan out and clean up your hard rock crush gold but that's because you have it down to being expert bynow🤑🤑🤯🤯🤯👍👍👍👋👋👋
I ran out of dishsoap and put in two squirts of hand sanitizer, it clumped up the black sand together enabling a final separation of the particles much easier
I was thinking about getting me one of those. Great blue bowl video.
Thanks!
8.68 grm per ton. Good thing it's a hobby. Loved the video Dan. As always entertaining.
I haven't been able to watch in couple weeks but I plan to catch up today thanks Dan
Welcome back!
Thank you I appreciate your videos and the lesson I learned from you ,I can't wait for spring to start so I can get back in the crik and yous your advice and hopefully contribute to your efforts
It was cool to see it work
Timely but effective.Wet cons,add with a turkey baster around outside base away from center evenly and good luck.
Nice demo sir.. thank you
Using 3 in AZ.
Worth every penny
I crush ore to 30 mesh first
Finish at 70 mesh
100+ is extremely difficult
2.173 gms not bad !! it's still nice to get out and enjoy the nature but thanks for sharing enjoyed it
Always enjoy your very informative videos with explanations of whys and wherefores along the way ( I guess it's the 'teacher' coming out in you) It is also great to see getting your gold ...happy to see hard work pay off...even if a little bit!
Thanks!
Frank Dan I use mercury for my fines and the bowl is great I know about mercury is in dangerous but works great in the bowl . Thanks for the video
I do a bottle poofing over and over - While the black sands are not moving again`st the climb shoulder without adjusting water seems like you really have to monitor the flow thinking a nylon gate valve would be better these plastic ones are to much of a ridged movement , This H -R gold sure is coarse hey.
Gold Hog Multi Sluice is the best and fastest and how I clean out now then pan Done.😁The blue bowl works if you don't have the cash to get a good clean up sluice takes way to long in my opinion.......And time is money love your videos. PS I got a blue bowl for sale 😂😂😂😂if anyone wants it 50 it's like new I live in Oregon I also have other equipment all like new
Still got that blue bowl (;?
I've found with the blue bowel that as the volume of the added materals decreases, the water flow increases. So i never walk away even for a minute. As a note; i did change out the valve with the same results. Key action, baby sit the valve
I was wondering about using a magnet but as I watched, question answered. Pretty much.
there is a you tube video where the guy uses the rare earth magnet to help clear the magnetic solids...
seemed to work for him.
try it yourself and report back yeah or neah
Another great vid. Thankyou ☺️
Sometimes i really like You tubes algo. No idea why this pops up in my recommendation list. One of the view ones where is actually good and fun to watch.
I use my blue blow for placer gold ... you just have to go low and slow. You can always put a pan under the bowl if your concerned about blow out, but really once you got it dialed in you never have to mess with it and it will work just fine .... you do have to stir the material up now and again but other than that it's fine.
There is a guy who is experimenting with custom cilicon mats for the blue bowl and is have alot success so much so that I'm considering making a may for my blue bowl. .... 🌹❤🌹
I just got a blue bowl... but I set up a Banjo Pan with rifles directly below the center hole in the Blue Bowl... so whatever spills thru is automatically sluiced on its way to the tailings catch bucket. Still going to run the tailings just to be sure of little to no loss. ( I hope...lol)
Great video...Big Fan from NW Alabama...
As usual. another awesome video by Dan, been following you for years..at least 4 :)
Thanks! And thanks for sticking around (some of those early videos are pretty rough)
Nice work Dan!
Thanks!
i appreciate the various machine and technique that is shown and demonstrated on this channel on prospecting and gold cleaning but this blue bowl takes the cake. the sounds keeps making me wants to go to the toilet....
such a great processing video and tool!
Thank you very informative. Most people run them onto a mini sluice in case the make a mistake.
Great video!...thankyou for the ideas on the recirculation system..this can be done on site.....I may buy both 12 v and 120 volt water pump..Thankyou for all your time spent to share your awesome talent and knowledge!
Thanks!
My mother had 1 and didnt know it but it used an oven no pump,it was an angel food cake pan,it is the same shape as your blue bowl plus a pump! Unless the centre has ridges ,its the exact same shape!
I haven't seen one in any stores lately,but I bet it's a lot cheaper than the blue bowl, just add your pump!
Granted this is already setup!
Great look at how to use the blue, Would i ever use one no. You do a fantastic job at helping people see these items at work. HH Brad
Thanks!
Dan, I use a turkey baster to spread the cons around the bowl. Nice video, thanks
wow so that's how you get the black sand out out standing i gotta get my hands on one of these yes thanks DAN love your videos keep up the grate job you are doing ... maybe you can do a video on what is the best box's to use in creaks !!!!
Good job. Excellent demo.