Gold Cube
I just got one of these and I have
to say I am impressed. This is one of the few piece's of equipment that does what it says it will do. I only had about
3/4 of a bucket of cons left after we got done classifying them down to 8 mesh like the instructions said to do. I had
2 or 3 buckets of material from dredging laying around just waiting for me to process them. They had been sitting so
long they had grass growing in the buckets. These were heavy buckets of Llano River stuff. Lots of thick black sand. I got my wife to start classifying the material with a 8 mesh screen while I set up the Gold
Cube. Set up was easy once I got the frame together, just stack the trays up with the slick plate on top, hook the hose up,
and fill you catch tube with water. I let it run for a while to wet the mats and get all the air bubbles out of the matting
before I started running cons. They advertise 1000 lbs an hour and they say it will catch 98% of the fines down to 100 mesh.
If it can catch our flat Llano River gold it will catch anything.
The wife
finished classifying the buckets and gave me 1 bucket 3/4 full of heavy stuff. I took a standard plastic prospecting scoop
and started feeding the Cube. I fed pretty fast one scoop right after another. I didn't time how long it took to empty
the bucket but it was pretty quick, a lot quicker than panning for sure. I let it run for a minute or two to clear the mat
of any blond sands that might be hanging on and then I turnd it off and started cleaning up each tray one at a time. I was
really impressed with how much gold was in that first tray and how much of the really fine stuff it held on too. Now the second
tray. After panning it down all I found was some really fine gold 100 mesh stuff but there was a lot of it. 3rd tray. The
3rd tray still had one or two specs in it but they were small 200 300 400 mesh, I don't know, but you could
barley see them. This is not meant to be a bank fed unit but it will run a lot of 8 mesh classified material fast and
it will get your gold. This would have been nice to have at some of our old outings when we would get 30 buckets of material
to run. I highly recomend the Gold Cube .
Black Magic Fine Gold Recovery
This clean up
sluice is like the old Miller tables. It is meant to be run with very Little slope and very little water flow. It will catch
fine gold as long as you go slow and let the water do the work. You will need to classify your material if you are going after
100 mesh stuff. Get a cold one or two and sit back your going to be there a while.
Blue Bowl
This is one of my first cleanup devices I bought as a prospector,
actually I got the older green bowl. The blue bowl works, its just slower than Christmas. You will have to do a lot of classifying
50, 80 and 100 mesh to get your fine gold. You will also really have to control your water speed at all times and each size
of gold requires a different water velocity. You also can only feed it a couple of table spoons of material at a time. I recommend
several cold ones and a comfortable chair your going to be there for a while.
Garrett AT Gold
I am still learning this machine, but I can tell you it
is sensitive to small targets. It will easily pick up lead bird shot and for a VLF machine it has good depth on 2 to 3 grain
nuggets. I will have more info soon..
Garrett Pro Pointer
This is my most used detector I have. Since I found
out about the Pro Pointer I have attached one to every detector I have owned. I had one on my Minelab SD2200, one on my Minelab
Etrac and now I have one on my Garrett AT Gold. I use it for coin hunting and Gold prospecting. I just tape the holder it
comes with to my detector shaft and I am ready to dig. I use the detectors pin pointer to locate the target then I cut
the plug and use the Pro Pointer to probe the plug and hole. It vibrates, it beeps, it has a LED light and it is sensitive
to small targets.
COILTEK "POCKET ROCKET"
I JUST BECAME A NEW COILTECK DEALER AND I JUST GOT MY FIRST ORDER IN. I
ORDERED THE COILTECK LITHIUM ION BATTERY SYSTEM (POCKET ROCKET) AND THE 5" X 10" JOEY MONO COIL FOR MY MINELAB SD
2200V2 DETECTOR. THE BATTERY SYSTEM COMES WITH 1 REGULATOR, 2 7800mAH LITHIUM BATTERIES, 1 AC/DC CHARGER, 1 CARRY
POUCH ALL FOR $295.99
IF YOU OWN A MINELAB GP OR SD UNIT AND YOU ARE STILL USING THE BATTERY PACK THAT
CAME WITH IT YOU REALLY NEED TO TRY ONE OF THESE SYSTEMS OUT. THIS SYSTEM WEYS LESS THAN A POUND (14.8 OUNCES) AND IT
FITS ON A BELT OR JUST MOUNT IT DIRECTLY TO YOUR DETECTOR. ITS SMALL ENOUGH TO FIT IN THE PALM OF YOUR HAND. THE SYSTEM WILL
WORK ON BOTH GP AND SD UNITS, THEY ALSO MAKE UNITS FOR THE NEWER GPX DETECTORS. THE REGULATOR HAS 2 SETTINGS 6.7 VOLTS
FOR THE GP UNITS AND 7.3 VOLTS FOR THE SD DETECTORS. ON A FULL CHARGE EACH BATTERY WILL LAST ABOUT 7 HOURS.
TODAY I TOOK THE NEW BATTERY SYSTEM OUT ON MY SD 2200V2 INTO THE 100 PLUS DEGREE HEAT AND GAVE IT A GOOD TESTING FOR ABOUT
3 HOURS. WHAT I NOTICED RIGHT FROM THE START WAS THAT I DIDN'T FEEL TIED UP BY MY DETECTOR. I HAD MORE FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT,
LESS CORDS PULLING ON ME AND GETTING TANGLED WITH EVERYTHING, ALSO THERE WAS NO WEIGHT ON MY BACK FROM THE STOCK BATTERY
PACK SYSTEM. THE NEXT THING I NOTICED WAS WHEN I TURNED IT ON. FIRST LET ME EXPLAIN THE TURN ON PROCESS YOU NEED TO HAVE THE
DETECTOR IN THE ON POSITION BEFORE YOU SET THE VOLTAGE SWITCH TO THE 7.3 OR 6.7 VOLT POSITION WHICH TURNS THE REGULATOR
ON. THIS PREVENTS THE REGULATOR FROM TRIPPING ITS INTERNAL SAFETY. IF THE INTERNAL SAFETY IS TRIPPED YOU WILL NEED
TO PUT THE BATTERY BACK ON THE CHARGER FOR A FEW MINUTES TO RESET THE SAFETY.
WHEN I TURNED THE UNIT ON I NOTICED
THAT MY SIGNAL WAS CLEARER AND MY THRESHOLD WAS MUCH MORE STABLE. I STARTED OFF WITH THE 11 DD COIL THAT CAME WITH
THE DETECTOR. THIS IS A GOOD ALL AROUND COIL BUT ITS NOT VERY SENSITIVE TO SMALL TARGETS. I HAVE AN 11 GRAIN TEST NUGGET THAT
THE SD 2200V2 COULD NOT EVEN HERE WITH THE STOCK BATTERY, BUT WITH THE NEW BATTERY I COULD MAKE IT OUT. I AM NOT SURE
IF IT IS BECAUSE OF THE HIGHER VOLTAGE OF THE REGULATOR OR BECAUSE THE UNIT WAS RUNNING MUCH SMOOTHER. THE SD UNITS WERE
NOT KNOWN FOR THEIR ABILITY TO FIND SMALL GOLD, BUT THEY WORK GREAT ON BIG DEEP GOLD. MY NEXT TEST WILL BE WITH THE NEW
BATTERY SYSTEM ON MY SD 2200V2 AND MY NEW 5"X10" JOEY COIL FROM COILTEK AND THEN WE WILL SEE HOW IT WORKS
ON SMALL GOLD.
IN MY OPINION THE COILTEK "POCKET ROCKET" SYSTEM IS A BIG IMPROVEMENT OVER THE STOCK BATTERY
SYSTEM IN BOTH PERFORMANCE AND WEIGHT. I THINK ONCE I MOUNT THE SYSTEM TO MY DETECTOR I WILL LIKE IT EVEN MORE. I ALSO PURCHASED
A SHORT POWER CORD SO I WOULDN'T HAVE A BIG MESS OF CORDS HANGING OFF MY MACHINE. I WILL ADD MORE INFO AS I USE THIS SYSTEM
AND REALLY GET TO USE IT OUT IN THE FIELD.
COILTEK JOEY COIL
I PURCHASED A 5"X 10" JOEY MONO COIL FROM COILTEK FOR MY SD 2200V2 DETECTOR.
I HAVE BEEN WANTING A COIL TO SEE JUST HOW SMALL A NUGGET AN SD UNIT COULD DETECT. AFTER READING ALL THE FORUM INFO I COULD
IT BECAME A TOSS UP BETWEEN THE MINELAB 8" ROUND MONO OR THE SLEEK JOEY COIL, WELL THE JOEY WON. THE JOEY MONO SELL
FOR $220.00 AND YOU CAN GET IT IN MONO OR DD ($230.00 FOR THE DD) AND IT WILL WORK ON THE GP AND SD UNITS. ITS AN ELIPTICAL
COIL WHICH IS GREAT FOR GETTING IN AND AROUND CACTUS AND GRASS CLUMPS. MOST PEOPLE THAT BY MINELAB PI MACHINE PUT BIG COILS
ON TO SEARCH FOR BIG GOLD DEEP, WELL SO FAR AS I CAN TELL WE AINT GOT A PROBLEM WITH BIG DEEP GOLD. SO WHY BUY A $2500.00
MINELAB PI MACHINE AND PUT A LITTLE DINKY COIL ON IT WHEN I COULD GET A GOOD VLF MACHINE FOR 1/3 THE PRICE, BECAUSE A
VLF WILL NOT CANCEL OUT OUR MINERALISATION AND OUR HOT ROCKS LIKE A PI WILL. THE NEXT QUESTION I GET IS SO WHY USE A MONO
COIL INSTEAD OF A DOUBLE D COIL, DD COILS ARE SUPPOSE TO HANDLE MINERALISATION BETTER THAN MONOS, AND THEY DO. A MONO COIL
ON A MINELAB PI MACHINE WITH MPS TECHNOLOGY OR THE NEW SETA TECHNOLOGY WILL HANDEL GROUND MINERALISATION ALMOST AS GOOD
AS A DD COIL AND IT WILL KEEP A NICE TIGHT CONE (V) SHAPED SEARCH PATTERN VERSES THE DD(__) KNIFE BLADE SEARCH PATTERN WHICH
ALLOWS THE MONO TO PUNCH A LITTLE DEEPER AND BE JUST A LITTLE MORE SENSITIVE TO SMALL TARGETS.
OK, NOW THAT
CLASS IS OVER LET TEST THE DAMN THING TO SEE IF THIS DOG WILL HUNT. MY TEST AREA IS A 100' BY 100' LOT NEXT TO MY HOUSE. IT
IS OLD RIVER GRAVEL OVER GRANIT BEDROCK IT IS FULL OF BLACK SAND AND EVERY KIND OF HOT ROCK THAT I HAVE SEEN, MOST VLF MACHINES
THAT DO NOT HAVE SOME KIND OF AUTO TRACKING WILL NOT EVEN WORK HERE. THIS LOT MUST HAVE BEEN THE LOCATION OF AN OLD BLACKSMITH
SHOP BACK IN THE 1800'S. IN THE PAST SEVEN YEARS I HAVE PULLED BUCKETS OF SQUARE HEAD NAILS, POTS, HORSE SHOES, AND ALL KINDS
OF LARGE CHUNCKS OF OLD IRON OFF OF IT. I STARTED OFF WITH MY FISHER GB2 ON THIS LOT AND HAD TO TURN THE SENSITVITY TO 2 0R
3 AND GROUND BALLANCE ABOUT EVERY 5 OR 10 FOOT JUST TO CLEAR IT OF ALL THE IRON. IF THATS NOT BAD ENOUGH THERE IS A SET OF
3 PHASE ELECTRICAL LINES JUST 50 FEET FROM THE LOT. PI MACHINES HATE POWER LINES.
OK, I GOT MY SD2200V2, MY COILTEK
POCKET ROCKET AND MY COILTEK JOEY MONO COIL, HERE GOES NOTHING. I ALREADY HAVE MY DETECTOR TURNED ON BEFORE I TURN ON MY POCKET
ROCKET, I TURN THE REGULATOR ON AND START MY NOISE CANCELLATION, OF COURSE THE POWER LINES ARE WHERE THE NOISE IS COMING FROM.
AFTER THE NOISE CANCELLATION THE FIRST THING I NOTICED WAS THAT MY THRESHOLD WAS NOT AS WOBBLY AS IT USUALLY IS NEXT TO POWER
LINES, IN FACT IT WAS VERY TOLERABLE, BUT IT WAS STILL ENOUGH THAT I THINK IT COULD MASK THOSE REALLY FAINT SIGNALS. I DON'T
KNOW IF THE STABILITY OF THE THRESHOLD WAS FROM THE JOEY COIL OR FROM THE POCKET ROCKET, OR FROM BOTH OF THEM TOGETHER.
I DECIDED TO GO DOWN TO THE RIVER BED ON ONE OF THE GRAVEL BARS JUST TO SEE IF THE THRESHOLD WOULD STABILIZE EVEN MORE,
AND IT DID. I AIR TESTED A COUPLE OF NUGGETS ONE 29 GRAIN AND ONE 10 GRAIN, BOTH COULD BE HERD CLEARLY. BEFORE WITH THE 11
DD COIL I COULD NOT EVEN HEAR THE 10 GAIN NUGGET NOW IT WAS COMING IN CLEAR. NEXT I BURIED THE TWO NUGGET IN THE GRAVEL AT
ABOUT 6 INCHES. THE 29 GRAIN CAME IN LOUD AND CLEAR THE 10 GRAIN WAS FAINT BUT DEFINITELY REPEATABLE. WITHOUT A SIGNAL ENHANCER
7 INCHES IS PROBABLY MAX ON THIS SIZE GOLD. THE 29 GRAIN NUGGET PROBABLY COULD HAVE GONE DOWN 8 OR 10 INCHES MAYBE MORE. THE
RIVER BED IS FULL OF BLACK SAND AND OTHER MINERALS LOTS OF HOT ROCKS AND CHUNKS OF GRAPHITE THAT WILL DRIVE A VLF CRAZY BUT
THE LITTLE JOEY WAS REALLY QUIET.
NOW BACK UP THE HILL. OF COURSE THIS LOT DOES NOT HAVE ANY GOLD ON IT BUT IT DOES
HAVE LOTS OF BULLETS OF ALL SIZES. I HAVE BEEN OVER THIS LOT WITH MY X-TERRA 70 A FEW TIMES AND HAVE FOUND 19 22 CAL. BULLETS
SO FAR AND A FEW PIECES OF BIRD SHOT, SO I AM NOT EXPECTING TO FIND MUCH. WELL I WAS WRONG. EVEN NEXT TO THE POWER LINES I
STARTED GETTING SIGNALS. THE FIRST WAS A 22 CAL BRASS AT ABOUT 4 INCHES, THEN A FEW FEET MORE I GOT A 22 SLUG AT ABOUT THE
SAME DEPTH THE SIGNAL WAS A CLEAR WEEE WOO EVEN OVER THE SLIGHTLY WOBBLY THRESHOLD. THEN IN A FEW MORE FEET I GOT ANOTHER
SIGNAL AND IT WAS A BOOT TACK AT ABOUT 2 INCHES, NOW THATS SMALL FOR AN SD. AFTER A FEW MORE MINUTES I GOT A STRONG SIGNAL
THAT I THOUGHT WAS SOMETHING BIG LIKE A BATH TUB OR SOMETHING. I GOT DOWN ABOUT 10 INCHES AND MY TARGET WAS OUT OF THE HOLE,
NO BATH TUB, IT WAS ANOTHER BULLET MAYBE AN OLD 45 CAL OR SOMETHING.
AFTER ABOUT 3 HOURS IN THE 100 DEGREE HEAT
I DECIDED TO CALL IT QUITS. I FOUND A TOTAL OF 5 22 CAL SLUGS, 3 22CAL BRASS HULLS AND THE BIG 45 CAL SLUG, OH YES AND
THE BOOT TACK. I AM NOT EVEN GOING TO COUNT THE SQUARE HEAD NAILS I FOUND. MOST OF THE NAILS MADE A WOO WEEE WOO SOUND
I QUIT DIGGING THEM AFTER ABOUT 30.
THE JOEY COIL WAS QUIET AND STABLE IT HAD NO PROBLEMS WITH THE HOT ROCKS. IT
DIDN'T GIVE ALLOT OF FALSE SIGNALS WHEN I SHOVED INTO THE CACTUS, IT HANDLED THE BUMPS WELL. IT IS MUCH MORE SENSITIVE THAN
THE STOCK 11 DD COIL. I HAVE GONE OVER THAT SAME LOT WITH THE 11 DD COIL AND I HAVEN'T FOUND A TARGET YET WITH IT, BUT THE
POWER LINES REALLY MESS WITH IT.
IF YOU ARE A TEXAS MINELAB PI OWNER AND YOU ARE STILL USING YOUR STOCK COIL
YOU MIGHT WANT TO TRY SOMETHING DIFFERENT. IF YOU ARE GOING TO FIND GOLD HERE IN TEXAS ITS NOT GOING TO BE BIG AND DEEP, ITS
GOING TO BE SMALL. YOU MIGHT WANT TO TRY A MONO. MY NEXT COIL IS GOING TO BE A COILTEK 14" MONO. I WILL LET YOU KNOW
HOW IT WORKS WHEN I GET IT.
