Post by glot on Jan 28, 2015 19:05:07 GMT 10
I have been giving my Turbopan a very good workout. I am quite impressed. A few negatives in my view but so far my favourite pan.
I dig dry dirt from creek beds. I don't classify. Rocks up to fist size go in the pan. I can do 1/3 of a domestic bucket at a time. This much takes a bit of practice though.
Do the washing machine action. Do full swings. As far around as you can. Water is the trick. Copious amounts of water.
Then still under water, start slow gentle anti clockwise swirls. Watch the water action and not the pan action.. This quickly washed the big rocks clean. Stop and chuck them out. Stuff down to walnut size. Further if you want to spend more time per pan.. Then a few more gently swirls. The pan will have a lot less in it by now. Then start broad but even swirls. Lift the pan a bit helps. Get a good sluice action going around and around anti clockwise. Slowly throwing the lighter material out the sides.
My personal technique is to go down to a couple of cup fulls and then dump/ flush that into another pan or bucket. Unless you are sampling, don't waste time taking each pan right down. Load up and repeat. Each pan full takes a couple of minutes. Then rework your semi concentrates in the turbo again. Go down to a cup full and save. Then rework all these cup fulls down to 1/2 a cup full. I then prefer to switch to a standard pan. The turbo is great for the final but very slow. I can wash the last bit quicker in a normal pan but I normally do that at home in a tub. The turbo is hard to use in a tub because you need big wide swings.
If I want to really push it along, I will use a hogpan first as a very very fast classifier. This then speeds up the turbo pan process.
The negatives for me are that because I over load it, the pan flexes too much.
It doesn't need deep water but needs wide water.
You get wet.
It requires a completely different action and takes a bit of getting used to but it is fast for a pan. I reckon I can pump through as much as a small sluice AND it is legal in Qld.
