riffle rapper
it's a simple and effective
Gold Gettin
mod for your bellows drywasher
After seeing a lot equipment lately with various ways to shake,
rattle and roll the gold down, I thought of a way to make
the ole bellows drywasher a little more efficient.
I came up with the idea of a long steel rod that gently taps the
bottom of the riffle tray on each downward stroke of the bellows.
We don't want to send the gold flying out of the tray, just set up
enough of a bump or tap to sink it to the bottom and keep it there.
Here the bellows spring trigger is holding the rod and pulling it
downwards. You can adjust the trigger to any amount of tension to
hold it for short taps or longer slaps. Notice the rod simply goes in
from the front of the bellows box and two screws hold it in place.
The trigger is simply two spring steel wires much smaller than the
rod and bent to make a V shaped locking device. Smaller gap more
holding power, larger gap less holding power and less tap. Note the
end of the rod has a double bend in it. This allows the long rod to
shove up against the riffle tray while the trigger is locking onto it.
The bolts the triggers are attached to are the bolts that hold the
connecting rod bracket underneath the bellows piston or door.
I also modified my riffle tray to distribute out the bump to all free
riffles. I tacked and glued a small 1/8 inch by 1 inch board to the
bottom of 5 of the riffles. Before this just the first 3 riffles had a bump
to them now all 5 vibrate. It also distributes the tap to the whole unit
so those first 3 are less prone to breaking loose from the frame. We
don't want to be hitting them that hard anyway, just a gentle bump.
A gentle gold gettin bump.