Using a Rocker

After the gravel has been wet, it will need to put inside of the rocker box; this can be dumped in with a shovel, which can be one or two shovels at a time. Then water needs to be poured over the gravel while the rocker is being swayed back and forth. The water can be dipped up with a long tool or if you are able to get one, with a little stream from a pipe or hose. This will clean the gravel inside of the box. Once it has been checked to see if it has any gold nuggets in it, the material that is too large is gotten rid of. The smaller size materials will go on top of the apron, and this is the area where most of the gold will fall onto as well. You will need to be very careful to not pour too much water on it at a time, as this could cause you to lose some of the gold that could get flushed out. The riffles will help to stop any of the gold that falls over the apron. In normal mining work, the rocker is cleaned after it has been used for a two or three hours, and usually more often in cases where very rich ground is being worked on and the gold can be seen on the apron and in the riffles. In order to clean up after the rocker has been being used for awhile, the water will need to be poured through while the rocker is moved gently from one side to the other and the sand and dirt that are on the top are washed off. The apron then becomes a sort of pan. The material back of the riffles in the sluice is then retrieved with a flat type of scraper and is put on the head of the sluice, which is then washed down very gently one or two times with clean water. The gold will be left behind the boards, where it will then be scraped up and placed inside of the concentrates from the apron. The small amount of gold that is left inside of the sluice will become caught with the following run that is done. The concentrate will now have been cleaned. Carefully using the rocker as well as careful cleanups of the rocker will allow you to recover almost all of the gold that becomes trapped in it. Make sure to never rock the rocker aggressively as this will only cause a loss of gold and could cause the gold to spill off of the apron or over the riffles. Make sure to mix the sand that is behind the riffles occasionally, mainly in cases where it becomes compacted, as this will prevent you from losing gold. If there is a lot of clay in the gravel, you might need to soak it in a tub for a few hours before rocking it. In cases where there is not a lot of water, a couple little reservoirs are built, one is usually in the front and the other is at the other end of the rocker. The reservoir that is in the front of the rocker will be useful as a basin for settling. The overflow will drain back to the reservoir that is at the other end and this water is used again. The capacity of the rockers can be powered through the use of power drives. This machine can be rocked by an arm that does around 40 six inch strokes per minute. the total capacity of machine being worked on with two men will therefore be of a one cubic yard for every hour. After there is no more clay in the water, the capacity might be up to three cubic yards per hour.