Gold Panning the Easy Way

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Description:
This is my design of a spiral gold panning wheel (see link below for original inspiration). The motivation behind this is that I wanted to make this more affordable and portable. To make it portable I designed it to be water driven by a river or creek and thus doesn't need a motor or large car battery to be operated. It also can be slightly submerged to replace the effects of a water pump just like the one in the link.
   • 2012 Gold Show - Gold Magic - Gold Spiral ...  
In the end this design cost me about $50, which is way less than the typical $300 options out there.

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See https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:312... for more info.

How to use:

You need to set it up at a 45 degree angle and submerge it enough that the material doesn't stick to the wheel. Make sure that the current is strong enough to turn the wheel even with material in it. Use a hand shovel to poor small amounts of material at a time and
let it do the rest. This is very similar to the one in the link above, just that this one is water powered.

Build Instructions:

This takes about 2 Kg of filament and 5 days to print.
For the settings see the Cura settings posted in the pictures. For the axle I made the infill to be 50% because it takes more stress than the other parts. You can change the settings and it will still work.
The assembly is simple. You press fit all the parts together (glue is optional). Use light sanding if it is too hard to push together. I didn't have to do too much.
The axle fits inside the wheel and the bearings fit inside the axle mount.
Then slide the washer on the axle and then the axle into the bearings with the flat side of the mount facing away from the wheel. Next I put a small bag on the end of the axle and tied some strong string around the bag that grips by sliding into the slot on the back or the axle. This will catch your pay dirt so make sure it is snug but still able to be changed out.
I used some 1" o.d. by approximately 18" long conduit PVC pipe with a three way fitting for the stand. You should tailor the leg lengths to the depth of the rivers you plan to go to. There is a place for two 1/4" by 1" long bolts and nuts in the mount to hold the PVC but this isn't absolutely necessary. glue or duct tape could be applied to the pipe for a snug fit.
For the bearings I tried one packed with Vaseline (petroleum jelly) and one without. I found the one without does better as it doesn't trap dirt in the bearings so it lasts longer.
Finally something optional that I did was cut a slot in the ends of the PVC legs and slid some 3/4" o.d. (the same length as the PVC legs) metal electrical conduit inside with small duct clamps to tighten the PVC to it (see picture). This made the legs adjustable which is nice since rivers aren't very accommodating.

I used the following Thingiverse design along with Airsoft BBs to make the bearings. I included the bearings I customized in the files so you don't need to design your own.
bearings: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:276...

Notes for future improvements: (In order of significance)

This design works great if you have medium to fast flowing water. If I were to redesign the entire thing I would change the angle of the paddle cups coming out from the middle. From this iteration I found that I had designed it for a waterfall, but to optimize it for horizontal flowing water I would offset the paddles so that they come off at a more acute angle as shown in the last picture. This would help evacuate the water that gets stuck in the back side of the cups. This is partially due to the fact that the wheel has to be slightly submerged to work. If this were done it would help improve its efficiency in slow moving water.

Next I would change the axle to be a bit longer and design a "C clip" to hold it in the mount where the current notch is and then a separate deeper notch for the bag to be tied on at the end. There are reasons for the way it is now, but they have become obsolete from design iterations.

Another interesting addition might be to add water scoop cups like in this link at ll:50 mark.
   • Gold Magic Official  
If you do end up trying modifying this I suggest you scale it down and try testing the wheel on a small dowel like a pen or something first. This is a big print and takes a lot of time and filament.
If I have time I will probably make some of these changes, but that's a big IF.

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