There could be a host of things you are doing wrong .To much air ,running at the wrong angle,Running to fast .

 

Thanks, I'll try doing things different.

Howdy Bryan,
Just a thought - is your material dry? If just "shy" of being really dry, you might try spreading out on a tarp before feeding to the washer. Also - run through the dry washer a couple of times.
What type of air supply are you using? Does the blower have heated air (draws warm air from around engine)? This type of blower may also help some, if damp dirt is causing the issues.
Also if the material has a high clay content, this might be keeping gold locked up until wet processed.
Just a couple thoughts.
Good luck!
Let us know what you figure out.

Jim

     Bryan, the first thing that came to mind was do you have the riffles in the right way?  The riffles are installed the opposite direction in a dry washer as compared to a water box.  Even though I live in Arizona I am not a fan of dry washers because the material needs to be very, very dry, they are way to dusty for me and in my opinion the fine gold loss is higher than a water box.

 

     As Joseph mentioned the other factors that could cause gold loss are the angle, feed rate and air flow.  Seeing how you were running pay dirt bags I doubt that moisture or clay were an issue but something to keep in mind when in the field.

 

     Your best bet is to find someone that has a lot of experience to walk you through the set up and how to run your dry washer while in the field.     Ron 

I laid my dirt out for 2 weeks before I ran it. My blower is not heated. When I cleaned the ripples I got some fine gold, but the tailings I only had 3 or 4 speck of flower but 5 or 6 big flakes. I was pumped with the clean up until I worked the tailings. The big bag of dirt I had was real dirt like what I'll be digging.

That sounds like to much air ,or you are running it too fast.Slow your feed and run at a less angle and see what happens.All your air needs to do is keep your material moving around in the box .Not blowing real hard.

Thanks everyone, I'll get some more dirt and salt it and give it a try. Thinking back I think I had to much air and a little steep by what I'm hearing and remembering. I got about a month and I go on my annual digging trip.

Hope you play around and find out what you are doing to loose gold .Have a good trip.

just a thought.. something that I do with my keene 140 is ill run a 5 gal bucket or two.. and adjust for what I think is right. ill toss the cons in a cons only bucket and re run my tailings to see if I lost any gold.. if there is any gold after I do a clean out and pan it ill adjust my bottom box again.. I know it sound like a pain in the butt but it works.. good luck

On my drywashers I try to run as flat as possible and only use enough RPM on the blower to keep the bed fluid and moving. I also added which some drywashers already have it is a blind under the riffle so once a piece of gold gets into the bottom part of the riffle it receives less turbulence and less chance to be pushed up to the top of the dry fluid flow. The blind spot is very small going across at each riffle. For fines be sure to check all edges that they are tight creating a good sealed from the top of the riffle box down to the screen or cloth. When you are finished check the bottom of the box also, many time there will be a fine powder in the bottom this likely will have very fine / micron concentration of gold. To much air as stated below will send large flat pieces right over the riffles like a leaf.

Drywashing is something you master over time, insure you keep records of the angles for different types of soil, wet, dry, sandy, or mixes of everything. Classify down to 1/2 or less and most importantly take your time in feeding your machine. Check your riffles, check the matting on the board, replace it if needed, check the angle of the hopper to ensure levelness and then you air supply. Run about 35-50 buckets before you clean out and then tag them with date time soil conditions and all other info listed above and then after a few times out you will be able to dial that puppy in for some great gold finds.

Create dead spots on the underside of your board by placing duct tape the width of your board just under the or at the riffle. You only need a couple strips approx. 1/4" to 1/2" to create those dead spots. I have 3 of them on mine and I pick up everything to include those pesky buggers the size of a grain of salt or smaller.

If you only ran a third of a bucket you may of have gotten the dirt running right and had to use to much air to get it flowing correctly perhaps? Also sometimes gravel with no dire in it will not flow properly....

 

I am not much of a dry wash guy but every one told me I had to have one before I came to az. so I put one together on my green giant trommel. even air flow was the problem so I put the cloth on nitting boards, you know the things made of plastic and have hundreds of holes and your grandma made you two different size  socks with. They only cost a buck or so and they evened out the air no matter what the speed of the blower. Tom

My Gold Buddy drywasher instructions say to start out at a thirty degree angle. I thought that was nuts. I drew a red thirty degree line on the side of my riffle tray so out in the field I can just set the line vertical and drywash. I've been really surprised how well the dirt processes across the riffles. You can put your finger in the tray and actually feel the action and see dirt working under and over the riffles. I just have to keep the tailings clear more often.