News from Vault Creek

[Flintgreasewood]

Jim, I would certainly love a visit from you. You have such a incredible knowledge of this immediate area. I truly appreciate all the input and interest from you all, Joe and Chuck and everyone else.
About the wiring, Chuck, it's really pretty straight forward. I'm not much of an electrician so I'm still not certain how everything works inside a motor. In a 6 wire induction motor there are two pairs of wires, one pair, 1 and 3, for the start windings and the other pair, 2 and 4, for the run windings. Wires 5 and 8, as best I can determine,[correct me if I'm wrong] go to the start capacitor. 2, 4 and 8 are connected along with a power lead as are 1,3 and 5. To reverse rotation 8 and 5 are switched. Using a typical motor reversing drum switch, there are 6 terminals. One pair connects at one of the top terminals and the other pair on the opposite side at the bottom terminal. Power leads are on opposite sides top and bottom. 5 and 8 connect on the two middle terminals. The three position lever rotates contactors thus enabling the switching of the 5 ad 8 leads.
Regarding the three knife switches, one handles the two power lines, one, the two pairs and the third, the 5 and 8 leads. From the motor these wires go to the center of the switches. From the down shaft drum switch the leads connect to terminals on one pole and those from the above shaft control on the other pole. Throw the three switches and you are good to go either up stairs or down. I'm guessing I've made all that as clear as year old diesel oil.

[Joe S (AK)]

Kurt,

Obviously that's why I like 12 Volts of DC for my 'stuff' when I can. + and - are so simple (yet so less than practical at times, too).

Joe

[Geowizard]

Kurt,

Thanks for sharing the information.

The connections for a reversible induction motor are important to know. GOLD Prospectors eventually become GOLD miners!

GOLD Mining often involves the type of work you are doing right now, sinking a shaft. Your experience serves as a good example for all of the other miners in the world that are following in your footsteps.

Here's a link to a schematic drawing I did today that illustrates the connections:

http://www.alaska-gold.com/induction_motor.pdf

Wishing you success this season!

- Geowizard

[Geowizard]

Induction Motor Reversing Circuit;

Here's a link to a schematic:

http://www.alaska-gold.com/induction_motor_switch.pdf



- Geowizard

[Flintgreasewood]

Thanks, Geo, for the schematic. I do believe it gave me some insight into how to solve a problem I was having with the particular type of drum switch I was working with. I now have the elevator hoist working and ready to put into service.

[Flintgreasewood]

Greetings from Vault Creek, Spring 2021. Been a while since I posted but for a long while there wasn't a whole lot of interesting stuff to relate. Gradually my little operation is taking shape as a bona fide underground mine. After several months of jack hammering and hoisting mostly ice and occasional pockets of displaced muck and gravel from sloughing off the old shaft walls, I reached the bottom at 93'. Nothing was as I had envisioned. There were no perfectly placed timbers delineating drifts, no narrow gauge rails leading to a bucket sump. Instead I found massive logs forced out of place by gravel that had thawed from excessive heat from the steam points. The original 6' x 6' shaft dimension was reduced significantly, so much so that I had difficulty setting my hoisting bucket on the floor. Just trying to work in the cramped space was difficult and frustrating. One of the biggest obstacles was a wheel barrow that stood on end as though it had been emptied of its final load and just left with handles to the roof. For a time I cut timbers and crib logs with a sawsall fit with a 12" carbide blade. That worked but the going was slow. The discovery of a carbide tooth chain for my electric chainsaw was a great boon and sped things up considerably. I was able to work through a log or pole embedded in gravel without undo concern if i dug into pieces of rock. In fact when I observed sparks flying out of the cut I knew I was beyond the wood.
For weeks I chipped and cut and shoveled and hoisted a mix of ice, gravel, wood and steam pipe. Every now and then I would excavate an interesting remnant of the old mining operation. Shovels, picks, miners candles (boxes of them), gloves and pieces of rubber boot were among the relics that yielded to the chisel bit of my jack hammer. Almost imperceptibly my work space increased in size. The walls and roof of the main drift, once shored up with crib poles and timbers were now exposed virgin gravel. I was finally hoisting mostly pay material,
Along the way I set up my hybrid jack leg drill system, air supplied by a small "pancake" compressor for the jack leg fixed to an electric hammer drill. The trial run went nearly flawlessly and I drilled three 4' x7/8" holes in about 30 minutes. I put the heat rods in place but discovered my generator wasn't powerful enough to handle the wattage
To remedy that I'll soon take delivery on a nice govt. issue 10k diesel generator that will handle the 6 heat rods I'll eventually use.
At this point I estimate I have about 25 yards of pay hoisted and waiting for spring thaw and there's a lot more where that came from. That's it for now. Back again in a few weeks.

[Slatco]

That is so awesome. Please continue to keep us informed!

[Jim_Alaska]

Thanks for the new update Kurt' you have worked hard at getting your project to this point. All I can say is WOW, what an undertaking. I can't even imagine working at 93 feet underground. It must have been really interesting uncovering all the artifacts from so long ago.

Hopefully in the near future that 25 yds. of pay will indeed start paying you back for all your work and problem solving. Having walked that ground myself in the past I can imagine the problems you ran into and I identified with them as you went along.

Please keep us updated as you are able. This is so different from what most, if not all, miners run into, even in Alaska. Mining is hard enough without all the unique problems you had to solve. After all you went through to bring your mine to this point, if you were to ever go back to "normal" surface mining it would be a "walk in the park" for you.

[Flintgreasewood]

Hey Jim and Slatco and everyone else following my adventure. Thanks for your kind words and supportive comments. It really helps in facing the adversity to know other miner friends are pulling for me. I'll keep plugging away for at least the rest of the year, God willing. I'm hoping the really hard work is winding down and depending on how much gold I recover I'll try to mechanize some of the operation. Improved safety measures are always on the table. There is always the specter of danger in any mining operation and more so in underground workings, but I try to keep alert and avoid stupid moves [harder and harder the older I get] Fortunately, God has at least one angel in charge of my comings and goings and I truly experience divine protection on almost a daily basis, for which I'm eternally grateful.