Thanks, man! I'll take a look.

If you find the mortar tubs are too big, try a farm and ranch supply like Big R.  They have round plastic pans about 20" in dia by 4-5" deep.  I found them in the area with animal feed buckets.  I use them to classify and final pan concentrates.

Those black plastic mortar tubs are decent. About $5 for the small one, $10 or so for the big one... Jeff Williams of AskJeffWilliams.com Youtube fame... His
tub that he always uses is the small mortar tub that you can get at Lowes or Home Depot or any hardware store. They are a little fragile, and they will die
eventually.

I've also got a bunch of the grey table bussing bins.. Restaurant supply store, $3.99 and they are made pretty darn well (for plastic).

Feed stores have the big rubber bowls... The small one is 5 gallons.. I recently grabbed a 15 gallon for $30.... I've had a 5 gallon for about 10 years.. Dogs
water bowl... 10 years of sunlight, its been chewed, beaten, played with, crushed, and used to haul dirt when I ran out of buckets, and its beat, but it still holds water
after 10 years of desert sun.

I also have a little plastic guy that I grabbed at a prospector shop in CO, about 20 inches in diameter, about 4" high.. It sits on the end of my kitchen counter, I use it
mainly to do clean ups after it gets dark out, or its really windy out... It was $3. How can you go wrong...

I've also used some of the larger storage containers from the dollar store...

And to get my water... Not for processing, but just sampling out to the claim, I just fill up some 5 gallon buckets half full... They may slosh quite a bit, and you will lose a little, but
even on the roughest of desert roads, they don't lose much... And then the bucket is heavy and you can put it in your panning tub so it doesn't fly away driving down the highway..

If you are looking for perhaps something smaller - try a "bus tub" like they use to clear dishes etc in restaurants. It's a decent size and very heavy plastic. I got mine from Sam's Club and they were two for $12-$13.

Also works well for catching the cons from my Gold Cube.

Rob

The guys down on the east fork San Gabriel use a plastic 55 gallon barrel cut in half. You have to put a rock or pile of dirt under it to keep it from rocking like a cradle but the real advantage of using them is if you put a loop of rope on them you can put all of your gear in it and pull it like a sled down the trail to your "spot".

I found what I think are the perfect tubs.....go to ChinaMart....and in the toy section they have these big 2 foot high barrel shaped tubs for parents to throw the kids toys into. They are super strong with big lip around the top and they have heavy poly rope for handles on each side.