Tag Archives: Gold Prices

Mar 4 2014

Poorman’s Methods of Prospecting, D.I.Y Gold Pump

How to make a “Gold Sucker” pump.
This document contains pictures with appropriate instructions.
If your pump fails to work, (or fails to work to your satisfaction) it’s your problem.
Experiment, maybe you can improve on it.
OK, here we go.
What you need:
1.PVC pipe 50 mm, 600 mm long
1 PVC pipe 40 mm, 600 mm long
2 PVC reducers 50 mm to 40 mm
3 PVC reducers 40 mm to 30 mm
2 PVC reducers 30 mm to 20 mm (or cut one in half)
1 PVC pipe 40 mm, 100 mm long
1 PVC 40 mm Elbow
1 PVC pipe 20 mm, 150-200 mm long
1- 30 mm Steel Ball (about $ 10)
1- 30 mm Solid Rubber Hi-Bouncing Ball (Toy stores)
PVC Glue
Suede leather off cut, enough for 4 washers.
Hot Melt Glue Gun. Don’t use anything else.
Good Scissors
OK, now take one of the 40 mm reducers and cut app. 25 mm off. Be sure to be very accurate.
Keep the off cut, it’s very important.
Leather Washers: You will need to get some suede. Use the 50 mm tube and mark it on the leather.
Inside this, use the 40 mm tube and mark it. Cut at least 4 washers out. The better they are the better
your pump. It’s ok to make the inner diameter a bit smaller then 40 mm. But not by much.
Now
assemble the
inner pumppart
as per
picture (NO
GLUEING
YET)
Put the
“Cutoff” on
the 40 mm
tube push it up. Put the washers on, push them up You may want to use only 3, that’s ok. Push the 40
mm. Reducer on hard up and then push the Cutoff hard against the washers.
Mark this spot with a indelible pen.
Take all apart, put some PVC glue on the 40 mm pipe (only just before the mark you made), put the
offcut on and let it harden. Make sure it sits tight and solid and secure.
Glue one of the 30mm to 20 mm reducers into the medium sized reducers. Let it harden.
Press fit (ONLY, DO NOT GLUE) assembly as shown. Make sure that the washers are tightly pushed
together and held firmly by the Off cut and reducer.
If not, you stuffed up. (Cut a bit off the 40 mm pipe.)
Insert the steel ball. Hold it upright and try to suck air from the bottom bit. It should be almost
impossible for you to suck any air.
If not, you stuffed up. You must fix this up before you go any further.
Then assemble the top part. Make sure you follow the instructions, or you will need to buy new parts
Your steel
ball is still
able to fall
out of the
assembly.
It’s best to
have them
“captured”.
What I did, I
used split
pin on the
bottom section. Make sure the steel does not rub or interfere with the operation of the pump. You can
try your own ideas, or keep spare steel balls handy :-).
For the business end: that’s what it should look like.
This fits onto the 50mm outer tube.
Take one large reducer, insert the “modified” 40 mm reducer and with the Hot Glue Gun, fill in the
space between them at the bottom end.
When hardend, 30 min app. Insert the 30
mm to 20 mm reducer and the 20 mm PVC
Pipe. Best to PVC glue them. Sit the 30 to
20 mm Reducer at least halfway up.
When dry. Put the 30 mm rubber ball into
the assembly, hold upright and try to suck
air. A little bit is ok. The balls are not
perfectly round. If you can suck a lot of air,
you stuffed up.
Let’s say all is well:
Assemble your pump, by putting the 40 mm
pipe into the 50 mm pipe. Wont go: That’s
ok. Use your scissors to trim the washers,
but be careful, don’t overdue it. Once it fits in easily, give it a bit of light oil. It will help the leather to
be more pliant. Don’t forget, when the leather gets wet, it will increase and seal up more (and make it
harder to pump).
Your
pump
should be
looking
like this
Use a flexible hose about 3 meters and a bucket and get your gold bearing mother lode from your
favourite creek/river.
This pump
can be
taken apart
very
easily,
when you
do, you
may lose
your balls
(Steel and
Rubber,
that is).
You can
do some
mods to
“capture
those balls, split pins etc to retain them, but make sure that they have enough movement, because the
sand/gravel must be able to get past them.
Use the pump in an upright position, that’s when the balls act as a check valve.
Another suggestion. In order to stop the larger particles (5- 18 mm) to be sucked up, put 2 split pins
in a cross fashion on the very bottom of the suction. This will help tremendously.
If it
does not
work,
you
stuffed
up.