Bill's Gold Trommel Page

Here are the Small Trommels.

Four very different trommels, two gas powered and two battery powered.

 

This is the first one we built and it worked very well , it has a small Keene A51A sluice
under it.  It is powered by a small chain saw engine with plenty of gear reduction to get
the slow 10-20 RPM. 
 

Then came the twin engine model, that didn't double our gold production ;-)
so we dropped back to....
 

The new Weedeater powered version. The internal gear reduction of this motor eliminated
lots of parts. This cost less to build, improved reliability, has less maintenance, it used the
A51A sluice too.
 

Weedeater Gas Powered Trommel

To enhance fine gold recovery on this trommel I put a Keene A51 sluice under it. It is much
wider than the A51A and  it recovers fines and small nuggets very well. The original 3/8 screen
 has a 1/4 inch screen inserted in it for just fine and minus 1/4 in material. Note the metal cover
over the rear sprocket and one over the rear of hopper. This protects the barrel sprocket from
rocks and dirt which can cause lockups it's a great Safety addition too. These larger Trommels
weigh in at around 90 lbs are 5 ft. long and 3 ft. high. Plans are available.
 

Battery Powered Trommel

Then I wanted to see if I could build a battery powered trommel with accompanying battery
powered water pump.  Here is my 8 in bat powered trommel, very quiet in operation, and
it exceeded all my expectations on my field test. It uses a Keene A51A sluice box, here it is
running a recirculating test in the yard for over an hour with no problems. They  pulled 10
amps total, trommel 1.5 amps and pump 8.5 amps, the pump is a Rule 2000. This trommel
is 36 inches long and 24 inches high and weighs in at 30 lbs. Plans are available.

 
 

Our  Baby

One of the newer members to the trommel family is this little 6 inch barrel, battery powered
unit. This little baby comes in at  23 lbs, and is 26 inches long and 22 in. high.  No plans are
offered for this unit.

 

The Big Boy

This is the latest member to the trommel family a 13 inch barreled unit with 3 hp Honda engine.
This is a serious gold getting machine, 6 ft. long, 3.5 ft. high, 3.5 ft. wide and weighs in at 130 lbs.
 

If you intend to build one this big I hope you have some energetic friends to help you feed
it.  It has a huge appetite for material and could work one or two guys pretty hard. Plans
for this big boy are pending a couple of field tests to prove its durability and operation.