first outing today

was fun and a good and rare day out for us .we went to, quiz location by picture . found a few small ones which i believe is the norm for this place . still enjoyed our self though me and the mrs . a stepping stone into things to come . next is to join a lapidary club and also build a grinding setup for cabbing . that will be the project for the next couple of weeks.
johno
oh yeah pic of where we went not far from us only about an hour and a half drive .took the pic as we were leaving.

Good old BB.... Billabong Blue...

LW....

So that's Billabong Blue? I must get down that way sometime.

next is to join a lapidary club and also build a grinding setup for cabbing .

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Brother's brother-in-law built his grandmother a cabbing machine which we ended up with. Was relatively simple but effective, a two-wheeled job with flat discs/polishing pads fittable to either end. She did heaps of opal on in. It was a bit rusty looking when we got it but I gave it to Gemhunter (I already have a 6-wheel machine) and him and his dad brought it up schmick-o :Y: You don't need a 2 grand machine to do effective cabbing. The purpose built 6-wheeled set up is convenient but the home-made one worked just fine.

i am going to build a six wheeler , i already have a suitable motor and a 10 foot X 1" stainless bar which i will cut down to the required length for the spindle it has about a 35 thou bow in it but i can press that out i think . i have an assortment of pulleys if i cant find what i need in them i can make what i need , so tuesday when i go to toowoomba i can buy a couple of bearing blocks then i just need to buy the wheels and build the shroud and water set up should be a doddle .oh yeah then clear a spot for it to be set up and used .
johno

I seen some very large stones come from BB as well, one mate got a stone there that is 134ct plus quite a few other large one's have been found as well.

Here's a few nice ones from BB, not mine but are a blokes I know who goes there.

texta said:

i am going to build a six wheeler , i already have a suitable motor and a 10 foot X 1" stainless bar which i will cut down to the required length for the spindle it has about a 35 thou bow in it but i can press that out i think . i have an assortment of pulleys if i cant find what i need in them i can make what i need , so tuesday when i go to toowoomba i can buy a couple of bearing blocks then i just need to buy the wheels and build the shroud and water set up should be a doddle .oh yeah then clear a spot for it to be set up and used .
johno

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Bloke on another forum had made himself an amazing set up with about 16 wheels! He was a machinist I think so he must have been able to work out what could be done without overloading bearings, motors etc. That many wheels is probably a bit of overkill but he was having fun at least. Yeah, 6 wheels is a pretty ideal number in my experience, plus a threaded end so you can screw interchangable flat discs and polishing pads in and out.

I can't remember what the diameter of the spindle on mine is. If you can build it to take commercial diamond cabbing wheels that's ideal. The old one we inherited came with silicon carbide wheels. The old lady who owned it cabbed almost exclusively opal on it so that was probably fine but if you cab harder stones the silicon carbide wheels probably wear down pretty quick (though they are fairly inexpensive I think). Diamond wheels are more expensive but the better ones tend to last a while and diamond will eat through any stone without trouble.

Heatho said:

I seen some very large stones come from BB as well, one mate got a stone there that is 134ct plus quite a few other large one's have been found as well.

Here's a few nice ones from BB, not mine but are a blokes I know who goes there.

https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/img/member-images/487/1536528656_20170112_153829.jpg

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Some pretty colours there Heatho, I particularly like the lighter blues :Y:

i would think those stones are from the creek , we only did the tourists set up bit so we would of been going through stuff that was his tailings from the mine .
there was about 20 people there doing the same thing and no one came up with a good size stone . if we ever go back out there again it would be to the camp ground and probably do 2 days with an overnight camp and work the creek . drove down and had a quick look at the creek before we left and it would be very hard to know where to start there i think .might be able to get some more info before we go there again though .
what i am researching at the moment is where i can go with the hope of finding some nice garnets.
johno

BB has had some issues with the Mines Department.... 2 yrs ago a mate and I bought a trailer load of wash after spending the day getting soo many stones out of a pile of wash(Tourists Pile).... We were told that that pile is the last to come from the area that is in dispute with Mines..... So we bought it for $70.... We ended up with over 2000ct but only contained about 250ct of cutters and some 'Star Sapphires'.... The area in dispute is Off-limits now and no one can mine there... Including the Owners...

LW.....

Most of My Lapidary gear is Homemade.... I have a book here with about 50 plans on homemade gear.....

My Flat lap is made out of an old victa lawnmower base... Cost me $15 for a new bearing and some beer for the lap plate..... :Y:

LW....

In 2 days last October, we got nearly 200 sapphires and zircons out of the "tourist pile" at BB.
Will be there again in about 6 weeks time for another run.

must be the luck of the draw because there were about 20 people there and one couple that go every year and nobody from the whole bunch got much yesterday and we chewed up the whole pile by 3 pm when the pile was gone that was it there was no more coming .
johno

As with all Fossicking and Prospecting..... Luck of the Draw....

When the pile is done, just have a look through the spoils from other peoples piles... You may be surprised...

LW.....

LoneWolf said:

As with all Fossicking and Prospecting..... Luck of the Draw....

When the pile is done, just have a look through the spoils from other peoples piles... You may be surprised...

LW.....

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True LW.
There were quite a few tourists at BB when we were there last year.
From what I saw, few found very much.
2 young ladies from across the ditch went home with almost nothing to show for a days work.
They sure must have tossed away a lot of gems.
As I said above, we got around 200 in 2 days from the pile.