Last Post 01 Mar 2018 10:04 PM by  Gregory Ratcliff
Recirculating Blues: A Slurry Story
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Roy Greenhalgh
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10 Jun 2017 05:16 PM
    Been stuck indoors working bought paid dirt.  All Prototyping 3D printed equipment for fine work.  Mostly Recirculating equipment with a mini blue Bowl, a mini Gold Cube, various textures on sluice "plates".  My problem is dealing with the dirty water obscuring vision and hiding the shiny.  Some of the dirt I have been running could be used to make Egg Shell pottery it's so filled with fine powder slurry.

    Just the other day I watched a single DigDug on Youtube.  He was in the  back woods dumping Alum into his recirculating system swearing that it clears the water making the smaller particles precipitate out.  After hearing this, yet not seeing it WORK in his vid, I figured that I that would bring the idea/question to You all.  I have done SOME research and I know it's being used to clear water for drinking in 3rd world nations but...have WE used it?

     So...Are there any flocking agents we could use that are environmentally (and people) friendly, do not hinder the collection and work? Is there a reason why we don't use it in mass?
    Brad Lamb
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    13 Jun 2017 10:05 AM
    Clay Gone or Clay B-gone uses an Al composition for flocking, BUT! I have not seen any attempt to use this stream side as the potential to trigger full NPDES permitting is a risk. Once your treat your process water with a chemical agent and then discharge it, you have created a waste water. Waste waters with chemical constituents trigger permit review.
    Roy Greenhalgh
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    13 Jun 2017 05:43 PM

    Well that would explain why people are not doing it.  However, this is not going to be used stream side.  It's recirculating indoors.  I was kind of hoping Food grade Alum would be ok, since it's food grade and there are worse things going down the drain washing dishes BUT if you think the Feds would get thier thong in a knot I won't bother.  

    Thanks for the insight!

    Brad Lamb
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    14 Jun 2017 10:58 AM

    as long as the recir water is discharged to a sanitary sewer system (WWTP) you should have no issues, as this is not an "Industrial Discharge".

    Be mindful, any flocking agent could cause some drain/pipe issues unless you use a lot of dilution when discarding it.

    I use a home made flock agent (w Al) and have had no issues with putting it down the drain to the WWTP.  Just as you say, "there are a lot worse things going down the drain"!  In this case, any toxicity or turbidity issue is handled easily by the Advanced Waste Water Treatment in the city/county WWTP.

    Eddie DiGirolamo
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    21 Jun 2017 05:29 PM
    I saw a trick online. Jeff Williams had a video of one of his goldmine outings and you could see one of the guys doing it to the material before they ran it thru the cube. Jeff also posted another video about it after. They would put the material into a bucket, probably just half of a bucket then water and jet dry. Next they would use a paint mixer on a drill to mix everything up. Then pour off the slurry, organics and whatever else. It also greatly reduced the amount of material to run.

    Fast forward to the 2:40 minute mark- https://youtu.be/OYFfAEXD4sM
    Bob Lemon
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    01 Aug 2017 04:27 PM
    I've been trying to get the micro floating gold out and I think ive got a decent solution. Everything that I pan in my tub I keep. You can see the gold flicker in the sun light. That drove me nut losing gold. So Here's what I did. I got a quart size metal bowl. Then I have my gold pan next to me. Get the water rotating around in one direction. Dip your metal bowl in holding it going the opposite direction. Just let it fill with water. Than very slowly pour the water back into the tub. The heavies will stay in the bowl. I then add just a little water to it and pour in into the pan for safe keeping. Repeat. The process over and over you'll pull all that floating gold after a bit. I pulled 18 oz of material in 2 hours and I'm still pulling gold. Happy panning Pop Top Bob
    James Lenfers
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    11 Feb 2018 08:06 AM

     

    Since your running it indoors, have you seen that little trick of taking your material, about a 1/3 to maximum 1/2 of a 5 gallon bucket at a time, and lots of water and a drill with a big paint stirrer on it you can pickup from Home Depot, Lowes or probably just about any hardware store.

     

    Process it with the drill mixer, just like your mixing up a bucket of paint.  When its thoroughly busted up, most of the dirt and other junk will be in suspension.  If there is clay it will bust it up pretty good also.  Then pour the muddy water out of the bucket and run the washed material through the recirculation system.

     

     

    This would have to be getting rid of over 99 percent of the crap for a small amount of water, versus running it and clogging your recirculation system causing lots more work and water loss cleaning it back up allot.  This could even be done on a recirculation system in the desert since you don't have to run any contaminants into the process.

     

     I haven't personally done this, but I have seen it done and it seems pretty solid on getting the most out of recirculation system by pre-cleaning.    

    Thomas Wentling
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    11 Feb 2018 06:30 PM
    Doesn't classifying it wash a lot of the clay off?
    Gregory Ratcliff
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    01 Mar 2018 10:04 PM

    Yes, alum (aluminum sulfate) is used for drinking water treatment in USA.  It does require a certain amount of alkalinity in your water to be able to form the "floc" (which pulls stuff out of the water to make bigger pieces). The floc is removed by sedimentation (precipitation) or by filtration.  10 to 15 parts per million of alum into the water should be enough to see if it will work for you. That would be one teaspoon per gallon of water if my math is correct. 

    The end product that most regulators are concerned with is Aluminum. You should not have enough aluminum in many tubs of water to be of concern if you are disposing to sewer. 

    Likely if alum is not making a good floc for removal for you is because it does not have enough alkalinity in the water to react with. Try adding a bit of baking soda (sodium bicarbonate)  and see if that helps.  A bit = try a tablespoon per gallon to start. If it work at all,you can add more but should Not need 1 cup of baking soda per gallon of water. 

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