flintgreasewood 38 Report post Posted January 11, 2016 Afew months ago I was frustrated with my inability to get anywhere withthe old Cobb prospect shaft. Between then and the end of 2015 I fiddlefarted around with reconfiguring my steam system and making my workshacks semi habitable in the extreme cold that was to come. When thetemperatures here in the interior of Alaska insisted on staying wellabove 0 it came into my head to put down a new shaft. Earlier in theyear I had carefully walked the area directly downstream from the oldshaft looking for possible sites. Though the ground was now coveredwith 2 feet of snow I easily relocated the chosen spot. With my trustyaluminum scoop shovel I removed the snow from a large area and went atthe frozen moss and brush with a pick adz. Darkness crept in slowlyeven though it was only 4:30 so I ran a 100' extension cordfrom the camp, set up my flood lights and worked on into thenight. Integral to a new shaft would be a new gin pole and I figured I'dhave to cut down a large spruce, drag it a couple hundred yards,jackhammer out a pit in the frozen ground and rig up a hoisting systemto raise it up in place. The prospect of all that work caused me torethink the positioning of the gin pole and it hit me that I merelyneeded to run my highline to the tallest, sturdiest spruce 90 degreesfrom where I had originally thought to place it. I wouldn't need apole that would have to be in service for many years...just a year ortwo. And if I needed something more substantial later on I could takecare of that in the spring. I found the right tree, brought in my 18'ladder and proceeded to position eye bolts and guy wires for support.Thehigh line would need to be anchored behind the shaft and to do that Ihad to dig a pit in which to set a "dead man". However. the angle ofthe high line over the shaft area would be too low to allow a bucket toexit and clear the shaft wall. I had to rig an elevated support, a"quad pod" of spruce poles between the anchor point and the shaft thateffectively raised the high line 5' above the shaft. I'll have to hangthe bucket to determine if the high line is elevated enough. Once I hadthe high line in place I could begin filling the dead man pit, but withwhat? I didn't want to use frozen muck with its high water content. Iopted for gravel and the best and closest source for that was the pitwe've been slowly excavating for our outhouse. Of course that gravelwould be frozen so I loaded up the generator, jack hammer, shovels andweed burner in the sled and zipped on up to the cabin. The jack hammerdoesn't work properly when it's cold and that's where the weed burnercomes in. I spend a few minutes warming up the jackhammer and my glovesand everything works much nicer. I underestimated the amount of gravel Ineeded to fill the dead man pit and had to return for another load. Toinsure a strong dead man I dumped in 10 gallons of water to freeze itinto one solid block. Now I'm working on an electric hoist and assoon as I can get it operational I'll be able to begin actually diggingout the shaft. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Doug M 1 Report post Posted January 11, 2016 flint you are one tough guy thanks for the story doug Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Doug M 1 Report post Posted January 12, 2016 We mine 100 miles north of Fairbanks I know what water problems you run into only we are placer mining keep up the good work doug Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
flintgreasewood 38 Report post Posted January 12, 2016 third time a charm? New shaft site Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
chickenminer 42 Report post Posted January 13, 2016 Kurt... Much muck before you hit gravel ? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
flintgreasewood 38 Report post Posted January 13, 2016 Dick At the new shaft probably 60' of muck. Since I'm working alone I need a system whereby I can get the muck out and away from the shaft without having to climb a ladder each trip. Unfortunately I am working on such a tight budget I can scarcely afford even the smallest expenditure. I am often forced to do every task with just my hands and simple tools much the same as the first miners in Alaska. In some ways I don't mind that as it gives me a connection to those hardy souls. But I'm also getting old enough that work of that sort takes more of a toll than it did 10 years ago. without havi Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
chickenminer 42 Report post Posted January 13, 2016 Are you planning to pick through 60' of muck !?! That is my least favorite part of winter shaft sinking. Fortunately I only have had to deal with 10-12' of muck at most so far. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
flintgreasewood 38 Report post Posted January 14, 2016 I have a 40lb electric jack hammer that breaks up the muck very nicely. I just found a good used motor in Anchorage and as soon as I can get it here I'll get the hoist up and running and start digging. The weather is cooperating nicely and I'm optimistic that we'll not be having any super cold this winter. Why do you dig shafts? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
chickenminer 42 Report post Posted January 14, 2016 Kurt, I like the electric jack hammer idea ! I sink holes for prospecting. Never did any serious drifting in any of them. Over the past 40 winters I've been here in the Fortymile I have probably sank close to a hundred holes on various creeks in the area. Here is one I was working on a couple years ago. This one ended up being abt 26' to bedrock. 1 Ronald C reacted to this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
flintgreasewood 38 Report post Posted January 14, 2016 Dick, That's quite the ambitious shaft sinking. How often have you hit good pay without drifting? How do you remove the muck once you can't pitch it out? The jack hammers I use I got off ebay, the inexpensive Chinese ones. I have 2, one for backup and have been more than pleased with them. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
chickenminer 42 Report post Posted January 16, 2016 Kurt, Yes I've hit some real good pay at times. Keep in mind none of my sinking has been near the depth your doing. I'd say my average shaft was less than 20'. I just used a 5 gallon bucket and rope. Never bothered putting up a windlass until it was at least 20'. That's changing though with age. Pulling up a 5 gallon bucket full of wet slop ain't as easy as it use to be ! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
flintgreasewood 38 Report post Posted January 16, 2016 Dick, Are you currently putting down a shaft or will you start one this winter? If you're interested I can draw up a simple dumping system that I came up with when I removed all the ice from my shaft. It allows you to work down in the shaft and dump a bin full without coming up every time. You would probably have to come up every five or six trips to keep the trough clear. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
chickenminer 42 Report post Posted January 18, 2016 Yes I am. Cleared out a spot last Fall. Not going to start on it until mid Feb. Don't anticipate it being much more than 15'. Thanks but I like it keep it simple. Bucket and hand-crank windlass suits me fine for what I do. Good exercise going up and down the ladder ! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
flintgreasewood 38 Report post Posted January 18, 2016 Yeah, 15' isn't too intimidating. Good luck and be safe. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
chickenminer 42 Report post Posted January 18, 2016 Same to you. Look forward to seeing your progress ! 1 Ronald C reacted to this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
flintgreasewood 38 Report post Posted March 11, 2016 As Jack Nicholson declared in"The Shining"..."I'm back!!" Finally I have some real progress toreport on. It was early January when I began my new shaft at CobbProspect. Most of my efforts then were done in darkness and below 0temps but the excitement of a fresh start kept me on task. Now it'snearly spring with lots of light and often above freezing days. Actually, nearly the entire winter offered more than bearable and oftendownright pleasurable working conditions. Setting up my electric hoistwas not a simple matter; should I have expected different? The hoistcame with a 3/4hp DC motor and controller. The motor was good but thecontroller wasn't, so I gave up and switched to a 1hp AC motor I foundon Anchorage Craigslist. It fit the speed reducer fine and it lookedlike I was in business but when I put the juice to it the generatorstruggled and the motor barely spun. Being somewhat ignorant of manythings electrical I succeeded in letting the smoke out of the motor. And as everyone knows, motors are run by pre installed smoke at thefactory. When that smoke gets out the motor quits working. Simple! Ibrought it in to the local motor repair shop and to my relief I had justburned out the capacitor. But I also got the news that my generatorwas under powered. A friend said he had a 4000watt out at his mine sitethat I could borrow so we made the 50 mile trip out [ran out of fuel onthe way] and the next day I hauled it down to the prospect. I shouldhave paid more attention to the motor technician. A 1 hp motor requires4400 watts for initial startup. The replacement didn't cut it. Ididn't have the funds to plunk down on a new 5500 watt machine even acheap one from Lowes but I applied for and received one of their cardsand was able to get it on credit. The one I picked was marked way downas it had been bought and returned because it was too small. It wasalso a propane only model but I figured I could get along with that. So Ihauled that one down, unpacked it and read the owner's manual. When Isaw how much propane it would consume in a 4 hour run time at 50% powerI was stunned. I'd have to spend at least twice what I would have towith a gas model. I packed it back up, returned it, picked up a gasmodel and hauled it down to Cobb. My plan was to control the hoist witha cheap reversing drum switch I had used in the old shaft. The wiringwas more complicated with the new motor and it took me hours of analysisto figure out how to set it up. It didn't work, most likely corrodedcontacts. I was fed up and went searching for an industrial gradeswitch, found one on an Ohio craigslist and bought it. In the interim Iwanted to use the hoist as I was now deep enough in the shaft that itwas getting too difficult to pitch the frozen chunks of muck out byshovel. I realized that I could operate the winch by simply making asetup where I would have an on/off switch and two terminals that wouldallow the swapping of the reversing wires fit with alligator clips. Itworked. I wanted to use a standing live spruce for my gin pole and hadavailable but one that was tall enough I soon realized that the angleof the carrier high line was too flat between the head frame and the ginpole. For a temporary solution I erected another gin pole mid point onthe line which provided a steeper slope which would allow the bucket togenerate enough momentum on it's return to trip the release catch. That didn't help. Next was to increase the hoist speed by doubling thedrive gear pitch. The additional speed and reduced trip time was greatbut still wasn't fast enough for the bucket to release. I noticed thatif the bucket dump chain got caught and held the bucket still for even acouple seconds, enough slack in the hoist line was generated so thatwhen the chain was loosed, the bucket ran free with enough speed torelease at the trip pin. I rigged up a catch point using a plasticbarrel placed under the trip line. That worked...most of the time, butnot all the time. Adding more weight to the bucket didn't seem tohelp. What next to try? I checked the carrier for possible issues andfound an obvious problem . A retracting spring was too stiff and heldthe catch mechanism too firmly in place for the trip pin to move it. Changing the spring helped but still didn't completely solve the issue. I removed the carrier, took it home removed just one side plate so Icould manually operate the various parts, something I had never donebefore. It was easy to see that a bad angle on one of the catch piecesmade it very difficult for it's mating part to slide off to allow thebucket to release. Those fixes helped even more but I'm still not quitesatisfied; I need the bucket to trip every cycle, not just 90% of thetime. Since I was not happy with my gin pole setup, I decided to erectan even taller one next to the original and using that one to hoist thenew one in place. Using my chain saw winch I dragged the 28' blackspruce down the hill through 2' of snow, reattaching three times to makebends in the route through the standing trees. That was, by far thehardest part of the job. Hoisting the new pole required that I workfrom a ladder propped against the old one. A number of guy wiresconnected to spruces with ratchet straps and turnbuckles were already inplace including the main carrier line and all had to be loosened, someremoved and repositioned and retightened numerous times. In time I wasable to separate the two poles held together by straps and cut the oldone down, leaving the new, bigger and taller one standing alone. Morewire adjustments brought it straight and true. I had managed to dig the shaft down to 8 feet [that's 8'x8'x8']and it was time to put in the cribbing. During February I beganharvesting large black spruce, cutting them into 8' lengths, carrying ordragging them through the deep snow to a sled. I was able to stack 8 or9 of them to be hauled behind my snow machine down to the shaft site.As I prepared to start setting the logs I could see there was not goingto be space enough for the bucket to ride up and down the shaft freelywith a cribbed wall. Evidently I would either have to enlarge the shafton the one side by at least a foot, or move the gin pole. I almostcouldn't bear the thought of another gin pole change, but the thought ofjack hammering and removing an additional 3+ cubic yards of frozenmuck was even more unpalatable. I knew the gin pole was setting not in adeep hole but merely just below the moss on frozen muck. If I clearedout a path through the snow and moss, I could put a comealong on thepole and simply drag it to the new spot 5' away. I just had to keepadjusting tension on all the wires supporting the pole. The entireoperation took less than 3 hours and went without a hitch. Amazing! Inow had plenty of room for the bucket to operate. Cribbing began with placing two over length base logs in place. To accomplish that I had to jack hammer notches in the walls at thebottom of the shaft. Sounds easy? It took more than half a day to getthem set and I was whooped. Successive log courses went in relativelysmoothly and I'm now up to just over half way to the surface. At the 4'point I began placing glass wool insulation between the walls and criblogs which are set to make a 6' square shaft. So that's where thingsstand. Oh, I did receive the new drum switch and found it had a partmissing that kept it from reversing. Just yesterday I made that part inthe machine shop where I am doing temporary contract welding. 1 Ronald C reacted to this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
flintgreasewood 38 Report post Posted March 11, 2016 sorry about all the repeat entries. not sure how that happened. three photos also not included. i'll try soon to get them up. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JR BOI 11 Report post Posted March 11, 2016 Kurt, Glad to see you back buddy, I had really missed your updates. Sounds like you had a productive winter and I'm happy to hear you are making progress. Keep up the good fight.....oh yeah, be careful as well! JR Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
flintgreasewood 38 Report post Posted March 12, 2016 Thanks, JR I'm confident it's going to be a very exciting year Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
flintgreasewood 38 Report post Posted July 17, 2016 Here's a brief update on my work at Cobb prospect this season. I'm now down to the 40' level in my 6x6 shaft. It hasn't been easy with problems of spring snow melt, a snapped gin pole, endless modifications of the hoisting system. trails turning to mud bogs. dying jack hammers and just plain gettin' older and tireder. The gin pole situation was nearly fatal as it allowed the full bucket to be free to return to the shaft and fall 25' to land right at my feet...a real heart stopper. God is good and saved me from harm. I now have a full size 2" x 10" x 10' plank that I used as a shield every time I hoist or lower a bucket. Don't wish to put God to the test again so soon. Then I had to cut and drag into position a new and larger pole to replace the broken one. Raising the 34' spruce with tripods, come along, a small electric winch and lots of guy wires was no easy trick, but I managed. The trail turned bog forced me to find a new high and dry route to the prospect but that entailed crossing Vault Creek and two little pups. To do that I had to build three bridges, two of them 30' long and one 10'. That's a lot of 4" x 4' poles. While pitching some of those poles I threw out my back and an MRI determined I ruptured a disc in my lower back. So I've been limping around for 6 weeks with a numb foot [pinched nerve] and am awaiting laser surgery in late Aug. Fortunately, I am not in pain and can still work in the shaft as normal. I now have all systems working to near perfection with a new jack hammer and even a small hoist dedicated to hauling me up and down the shaft instead of having to use the ladder...a real energy saver. Just the other day I noticed my bucket refused to lower into the shaft. I determined the dead man that was anchoring the main high line was giving way so that the line was too slack. Fortunately, I had several 3 1/2 foot lengths of 1" rebar that I had ground points on. I drove three of them in line 3' apart and connected them base[ permafrost frozen just below the moss] to top and attached the high line to the first one. It has so far proven to be a fine dead man setup. I made sure the posts are well insulated and protected from possible rain. It's been a lot of hard work and sometimes discouraging with the slow pace I am going but I'm learning patience. I have only 16 to 18 feet to go to hit gravel and then things really get exciting. I'll let you all know when I get there. Till then, have a great rest of the summer mining season. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
flintgreasewood 38 Report post Posted August 17, 2016 For those who have been following my odyssey some real progress has been made on my new shaft in the past two months. It's been one hard slog to jack hammer my way down to 55' but persistence is paying off. I'm now in mixed gravel and muck and will be into some gold in a few more feet. The gravel is proving to be more difficult to jack hammer than I had hoped though it varies around the shaft. Some will be almost dry and breaks up easily and other places it will be as hard as concrete. What keeps things interesting though is the fossil remains I'm uncovering. Just today I pulled out a mammoth metatarsal [toe bone]. Last week I chipped out a 5 lb. chunk of mammoth tusk. It's likely I'll be finding full tusks as I drive the drifts. Hoisting is going quite well though I have to watch the weight in the bucket as the gravel is substantially more heavy than the muck and my motor overheats if I overload or send up a bucket without letting the motor cool down a bit. I'm getting ready to run some heavier electrical wire so that should help with voltage drop. We'll be building a new boiler house shortly and setting up the steam system though we may be experimenting with some different methods of thawing. More to come soon. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites