DAVID JENSEN New Member Posts:26 
| 20 Jul 2016 01:52 PM |
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Which do you think is better at recovering
fine gold, the Gold Cube or Blue Bowl and why? I have owned and used
the Blue Bowl for several years now, and can really appreciate how much fine
gold it recovers. However, I don't like the fact you need to wash your
concentrates first or else the water gets really cloudy, which makes it very
hard to see what you are doing. This process can take a lot of time and
water to accomplish. Unfortunately, I have only used the Gold Cube once,
so I can't really voice a non-bias opinion other than to say it seemed really
easy to use and you don't need to prep your concentrates other than to classify
them. Of course you should do that with any recovery system you are
using. Cleaning up the Gold Cube seemed
a little awkward because of the individual stack size, but at the time I only
had one gold pan to put everything in, not very much room to do the cleanup,
and no running water. I had to use my
sniffer bottle and splash water out of the pan to clean up the individual
stacks. I also have a Desert Fox, which
I also haven't used very much. Now I am thinking about buying a Gold
Cube, so I would really appreciate hearing what fellow miners have to say
on the subject. I appreciate your input.
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Brad Lamb Basic Member Posts:334
| 21 Jul 2016 07:31 AM |
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I have a Gold Cube, Blue Bowl, Gold Miner Spiral Wheel and Gold Magic Spiral Wheel (electric and manual).
The Blue Bowl and Gold Miner Spiral Wheel (just got it back from the factory for a new motor) will both be for sale, along with a Martin Table, at the next Outing (Vein Mountain)-shipping costs too much.
I love the Gold Cube with the Crisson Classifier on top and use it anytime that running my 2.5" Keene Hibanker Dredge Combo is "too much" equipment for the location.
I cannot say enough good about the Gold Cube. I should have bought this first, right after my first pan and classifier.
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JIM ACKER Greenhorn Posts:13
| 21 Jul 2016 09:48 AM |
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I've had the blue bowl, and after many hour of frustration I went to the CUBE. The engineering and process to use is just way more simple than the Blue Bowl..I went with the 3 stack, but have not seen anything go past the first tray yet. The "Banker" attachment will be my next investment to use stream side. 5 Stars for the Cube. I also have found that depending on the material your running you may or may not want to wet classify. I got into some really "clayee"and "rootie" material and found that even though I maybe didn't have too...That wet classifying and doing a pre-cleaning sure made life easier and kept my water in better condition for a longer period of time. Just my 2c. Good luck. JP |
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JOHN DORVALGreenhorn Posts:
| 02 Dec 2016 12:33 PM |
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I don't think you can really compare the 2, I never used the Blue Bowl but was considering getting one to use in conjunction with the Gold Cube. Where I am dredging there is a lot of magnetite after running the gold cube I recover the gold but there is always some very fine gold left in the magnetite this is where the blue bowl would come in handy to separate the gold from the heavies.
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JOHN DORVALGreenhorn Posts:
| 02 Dec 2016 12:34 PM |
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If you are considering buying a Gold Cube Check out this Video:
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ADAM ANDREWSGreenhorn Posts:
| 05 Dec 2016 10:50 AM |
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Hmm, the cube is great for what it does, they sluice now with the screens...But the blue bowl with the water level set properly is awesome. It gets Gold you can't even see until you blow it into a pile with your sucker bottle. And the price is $75 compared to the cube's $400? |
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Brad LambBasic Member Posts:334
| 05 Dec 2016 11:20 AM |
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They are not really in the same category, to me at least.
I can do a lot more (shovel directly into the highbanker attachment and/or super concentrate, and do quick stream side tests, etc...) with the cube than I can with my blue bowl. I bought the 4 stack system, but, rarely find anything of value past the first 6" of vortex carpet in the first stack. You can get by with a two stack (slick plate stack (top), and vortex carpet stack).
Both are great at what they are designed to do, with the amount of material you want to run being part of the formula.
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JOHN DORVALGreenhorn Posts:
| 05 Dec 2016 03:50 PM |
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I have to agree with Brad Lamb the Blue Bowl is strictly for clean up, while I use the Gold Cube for clean up you can also use it stream side, lake side, in the desert or where ever. The gold Cube is a lot more versatile and well worth the $400.00.
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Wayne Crowder Highbanker Posts:105
| 05 Dec 2016 06:53 PM |
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Just got my Gold Cube today . Hopefully, temperature willing, I will be running several 5 gallon buckets through it with fine gold. Panning indicates gold from about 1/16 inch and finer.
I'll try to update everyone on my experience.
Wayne
PS: Temps here are forecast in the single digits midweek.
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JOHN DORVALGreenhorn Posts:
| 06 Dec 2016 12:48 AM |
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Wayne Crowder, I think you will be very pleased with the Gold Cube, let us know how you made out.
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Brad LambBasic Member Posts:334
| 06 Dec 2016 07:10 AM |
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http://www.goldprospector...97-bb18-6fa00e1e3c8f
Please click the link to see my set up running back in August. The CrissonGoldMine.com highbanker attachment is sitting to the left. I had already run the material through it and was superconcentrating the cons from that run, in the pic, just using the slick plate top and all 3 stacks (only need 1 or 2 carpet (recovery) stacks in my opinion).
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Ed BraggNew Member Posts:75
| 06 Dec 2016 08:37 AM |
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Lol, Brad, that looks like my front yard/porch.  I don't have a Gold Cube, yet .. But one thing to note, definitely classify your material less than 1/4, and probably 1/8, it'll work best from what I heard. I still just pan out my cons for clean-up, mostly for stress relief reason (or maybe I'm too cheap). Ed |
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Brad LambBasic Member Posts:334
| 09 Dec 2016 02:05 PM |
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Ed,
You owe it to yourself. If you have the opportunity, get the CrissonGoldmine.com highbanker (goldbanker) attachment. It is built like a tank and sets right on top of the top stack (slick plate).
There is something zen about running the cube with twin battery pumps going (1800 gpm to the highbanker and 1100 gpm going to the slick plate) and just adding a 1/2-3/4 full shovel at a time. It classfies to 12 mesh, which the gold cube eats up. Then, you can either pan out the cup or cup and half of cons you get or rerun it across the slick plate and one or two stacks for a final polish.
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Wayne CrowderHighbanker Posts:105
| 11 Dec 2016 09:06 AM |
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Got my Gold Cube going after adding more wire length to the pump. Washed the Gold Cube stacks individually in my wife's NEW kitchen sink.
I only ran about 3 buckets of material, 2 of which were questionable. Got about 11 pieces total on cleanout from the first stack mat. Gold recovered was probably 50 mesh for the largest and flour size for the rest.
Nothing from the #2 and #3 mats, but will run the cons through the blue bowl in case I missed something with my panning.
Weather here is COLD and temps in my garage are around freezing. Ice has formed on the top of water in my recirculating system and spare water in my 5 gal. buckets.
I've got around 10 more buckets of material to run.
I'll try to do an update later
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Wayne CrowderHighbanker Posts:105
| 15 Dec 2016 04:40 PM |
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Anybody got any tips on using the Blue Bowl?
I am currently classifying to either 20 or 30 mesh, then only running the water level to 1/2 inch below the rim(the 100 mesh level). They stopping while there is about a teaspoon full or a little less of black sand left and panning the remains carefully.
My thinking about stopping there is: I could have missed the extremely small stuff before I started this procedure.
Comments?
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DAVID JENSENNew Member Posts:26
| 16 Dec 2016 06:40 AM |
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I classify everything from 2 down to 100 mesh first before running anything through the Blue Bowl. I then run everything from size 8 to 100 separately through the Blue Bowl, and hand pan everything that is size 2 or 4. I also make sure the Blue Bowl is level and I run the water right up to the top edge of the Blue Bowl to where it is almost overflowing. I usually have to adjust the water level a little bit as I go depending upon the size of material. I think the way I do it is what was written in the instructions that came with my Blue Bowl. However, I do know there are some people out there that don't do it that way.
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Wayne CrowderHighbanker Posts:105
| 17 Dec 2016 11:58 AM |
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David,
Thanks for the reply.
As I recall, the instructions I got with the Blue Bowl stated that with 100 mesh screened material, only go to within 1/2 inch of the top of the Blue
Bowl. If the material is screened with 50 mesh, then go to within 1/4 inch of the top and if the material is screened with 30 mesh, then go all the
way to the top of the Blue Bowl.
However, if the 30 or 50 mesh screened material contains 100 mesh and finer gold, where does this gold go if you run the water level to the top of the Blue Bowl? Probably something I should look into, but being cautious, I have had a tendency to only go to the 1/2 inch mark. That's where I marked the sides of the Blue Bowl so I could 1) level the bowl and 2) make sure I knew where the 1/2 inch mark was without guessing.
Also, being cautious, I don't run all the black sand out, but leave some in, then pan the final bit. Some of the black sand I have seen here is powder/flour size.
Wayne
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DAVID JENSENNew Member Posts:26
| 18 Dec 2016 11:45 AM |
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I bought my Blue Bowl a long time ago, so it is possible they modified their instructions based on customer feedback. I will have to look into that. Running less water would probably lower the changes of loosing gold, which would in turn increase the amount of black sand you would have to deal with at the end. I guess better safe than sorry. After all we work really hard for every flake, so why risk loosing them.
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Lloyd LauckGreenhorn Posts:15
| 19 Dec 2016 09:19 PM |
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go on the prospecting channel and find there video which shows you how to use the Blue Bowl
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john McGrathGreenhorn Posts:
| 21 Dec 2016 09:45 AM |
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I always use the gold cube 4 stack and then pan out by hand which takes way less time than using the blue bowl. HOWEVER if you know you have an abundance of fines running a couple blue bowls at one time will net you better recovery after using the gold cube. Both are good tools. I would like to see a triple sized blue bowl then we are talking something that can be used to process better. |
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