Camel Mining Desert Fox User manual

Published by Camel Mining Products
Copyright 2012
All Rights Reserved
Revision DFI 1-02-2012
THIS IS
YOUR OWNER'S MANUAL
Learn more about this product on our website
www.camelminingproducts.biz
ABOUT OUR WARRANTY...
All Camel gold panning machines are guaranteed against
defects in materials and labor for an initial period of one
year from the date of purchase. IN ADDITION we extend
the basic warranty for a period of four more years to origi-
nal purchasers who take reasonable care of the equipment
covered by this warranty. IF there is no evidence of abuse
or lack of reasonable care described in this manual. We
will repair or replace the equipment at no cost to the cus-
tomer except transportation to and from our plant.
Funds for return shipping must be included with the item.
Alterations of any part of this machine will void this war-
ranty.
Call 1-928-927-4009 to request a return authorization
(RA) for warranty repairs or replacement. The RA must
be clearly noted on the package label.
WE BELIEVE THIS IS THE BEST WARRANTY IN
THE MINING EQUIPMENT INDUSTRY.

page 14
page 1
REMOVE
THESE
PARTS
FROM
ACTION
PACKER
STEP 1
Open Stand
STEP 2
Rotate D. Box
STEP 3
Insert Wheel
STEP 4
Install S. Assy.
DESERT FOX QUICK SETUP GUIDE
notch
drive pin
VIEW INSIDE ACTION
PACKER. THE STAND IS
PLACED TOWARD THE
BACK OF CASE
Taking care of your Desert Fox...
The Desert Foxis not a fussymachine but it does require a
certain amount of common sense in its care and keeping. You
should never put the machine away with wet or dirty parts. Al-
ways keep it clean and drywhen it is stowed away. Never stow the
machine with wet sand in the tub. If water is allowed to condense
on the parts of the machine, you can damage the drive motor as-
sembly, (a costly part to replace).
It is a very good idea to keep your Desert Fox out of
direct sunlight when you are not using it. Ultraviolet radiation can
cause the plastics to crystallize and crack. Likewise it is a very
good idea not to store it in too hot an area... like the trunk of an
automobile inthe summertime. Extreme heat cancause the plastics
to warp or change shape as well as dry the plasticizers from the
plastic making it brittle.
If you wish to leave your machine set up while you do
something else for more than an hour or two, it is a good idea to
remove the spiral wheel from the drive unit. This is because the
minerals in the water can dry and "weld" the wheel to the drive
tube and make it almost impossible to remove. A thin coat of
Vaseline petroleum jelly on the wheel tube may prevent this from
happening.
Never store chemicals or mercury in your closed Action
Packer. This includes Jet Dry or other wetting agents. Chemical
fumes can DESTROY your machine!
Lastly, take it out and use it occasionally! The fresh air and
exercise will do both of you a lot of good and you may even find
some gold!
from each intersect or hole on the grid. Number the sample or note
the results from each test on your map. When you start finding
gold you will know which areas to work. . With the Desert Fox you
do not have to pay for assay work because each sample run is
likely to be as accurate as any assay you can get and you alone
will know what the findings are and from where the samples came!
ALWAYS WASH THE MUD OUT OF YOUR CONCENTRATES
When prospecting with the Desert Fox as a gold locator you can
test an area by panning samples from a grid. Make a map of the
area you are investigating and draw a grid over it. Take a sample
PLACE
TAILINGS
TRAY AS
SHOWN
PLACE MACHINE
IN ACTION
PACKER.

SETTING UP FOR OPERATION
When you unpack your machine you will findthe following items...
Gold and sand sample is for you to practice with. The
three small real placer gold flakes are in a small plastic bag in
the same bag as the sand. Add the gold flakes to the sand
before feeding it to the wheel.
page 2page 13
FAQ FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Q. I AM LOSING GOLD INTO THE TAILINGS TRAY.
Q. THE SPRAY HOLES IN MY SPRAY SYSTEM KEEP STOPPING
UP.
Q. I USED THE STOCKING YOU SUPPLIED OVER THE PUMP
BUT THE MUD AT THE BOTTOM OF THE ACTION PACKER
SWAMPS THE PUMP AND THE STOCKING SUCKS INTO THE
PUMP.
A. THE NUMBER ONE CAUSE OF THIS PROBLEM IS THE AIMING OF
THE SMALL TUBE {AQUA-JET}. ON PAGE 4 OF YOUR MANUAL THE
BOXED DIAGRAM SHOWS YOU THE PROPER SETTING OF THE SMALL
TUBE. ALWAYS CHECK THE SOFT COPPER TUBE BECAUSE IT CAN
BE ACCIDENTLY BENT.
THE SECOND POSSIBLE PROBLEM IS THATYOU ARE NOT CLASSIFY-
ING YOUR CONCENTRATES. IF YOUR CONCENTRATES CONTAIN DIF-
FERENT SIZES OF GOLDAND LARGE GRAVEL, THE SMALL PINPOINT
GOLD MAY WASH OUT. PAGE 10 WILL HELP YOU UNDERSTAND THIS
PROBLEM.
A. THE AVERAGE PLACER SAND USUALLYCONSISTS OF EVERYPOS-
SIBLE SIZE FROM GRAVEL DOWN TO FACE POWDER SIZE. IF YOU
DO NOT WASH OUT THE FACE POWDER SIZE IT BECOMES MUD AND
THE WATERYOUARE USING BECOME MURKY. YOU WILLNO LONGER
BE ABLE TO SEE WHAT YOU ARE DOING. EXPERIENCED PROSPEC-
TORS PRE WASH THEIR CONCENTRATES BEFORE FEEDING THE
GOLD PANNING MACHINE. IT IS FAIRLYEASYTO CLARIFYTHE CLEANUP
WATER BYSPRINKLING IN A LITTLE COMMON BUILDERS LIME (AVAIL-
ABLE AT YOU LOCAL HARDWARE STORE) TO HELP THE MUD SETTLE
OUT.
A. ALWAYS EMPTYTHE TAILINGS TRAYBEFORE IT OVERFLOWS INTO
THE ACTION PACKER. READ THE FAQ ABOUT PRE-WASHING YOUR
CONCENTRATES.
Q. MY MACHINE HAS A VARIABLE SPEED CONTROL BUT I
CANNOT TELL ANY DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE FAST AND
SLOW SPEEDS.
A. The variable speed option allows you to slow down
the wheel without slowing down the water pressure
from the pump. You will hardly notice the change in
wheel speed until you add gravel to the wheel.
You will not need the speed control when panning ordi-
nary placer gold sand. Use the control in the normal
speed setting.
1 Wheel assembly 1 Pump and spraybar
1 Drive unit and folding frame1 Gold catch cup
1 Action PackerTub & Lid 1 Nylon stocking
1 Tailings tray 1 Instructions pkg.
Begin assembly of the machine by spreading the stand
legs and rotating the drive unit into an approximate 45 degree
position.
Secure it with the adjuster knob located on the right
side of the frame.
The drive unit has a 1" diameter tube running through it.
On the front side there is a drive notch. The wheel has a 7/8"
diameter tube sticking out on the back side. The wheel tube
has a pin on it.
The pin mates with the notch on assembly of the wheel
to the drive unit. Place the wheel in position on the drive unit
and turn it while pressing gently down until you feel the pin drop
into the drive notch.
notch
drive pin
Position Spray Bar Assembly over pan.
Attach to Spray Bar Mount located on the
top of the Drive Unit with Wing Nut pro-
vided. Cover pump with nylon stocking.
Place gold catch cup on hook.
Fill theAction Packer with enough water to
cover the pump (approx 3 gallons).

page 3 page 12
General description of the Desert Fox...
The Desert Fox operates on any 12 volt DC power
source capable of at least SEVEN amperes output. This
can be a motorcycle or automobile battery, a power supply
or a 35 watt solar panel. (Avoid liquid lead acid type batter-
ies which tend to spill)
The Fox has an enclosed gear drive motor assem-
bly and a detachable pump and spraybar. It is designed to
be very portable and sets up in a RubbermaidAction Packer
which is included with the machine. The wheel is 13" in
diameter and the whole machine weighs about 11 pounds.
The machine dismantles and stows inside of the
Action Packer which makes the stowed size about 19 1/2"
in by 15 1/2" by 12" high.
The photo below points out the principal parts of
the drive unit. This is a back side view.
FAQ FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Q. I DID NOT FIND ANY SAND SAMPLE TO TEST MY MACHINE.
A. THE GOLD IS SEPARATE IN A TINYZIPLOC BAG IN A LARGER BAG
CONTAININGTHE SAND. CAREFULLYADD THE GOLD INTO THE SAND
BEFORE FEEDING IT INTO THE MACHINE. BE CAREFULL... EVEN THIS
TINYAMOUNT IS VALUABLE.
Q. WHY DO I NEED TO ADD A WETTING AGENT TO MY WA-
TER?
A. Wetting agents for your water are important. Wetting agents
are used to make the water "wetter", that is they break the natural
surface tension of water and cause it to wet or "get on" the surface of
the gold. Crystal Clear or Jet Dry anti-spotting agent for automatic
dishwashers can be found at any super market. Put three or four
drops per gallon of water in your machine and you are ready. We do
not recommend regular soaps because of the sudsing factor.
Q. I PACKED A WETTING AGENT IN WITH MY MACHINE IN
THE CLOSED ACTION PACKER AND NOW MY MOTOR DOES
NOT RUN.
A. NEVER STORE WETTING AGENTS OR ANY OTHER CHEMI-
CALS IN A CLOSED ACTION PACKER. THE FUMES CAN DE-
STROY YOUR ELECTRICAL SYSTEM. NEVER STORE YOUR MA-
CHINE WET
Q. I LEFT MY MACHINE SET UP A FEW DAYS AND NOW I
CANNOT REMOVE THE WHEEL TO PACK IT UP.
A. ALWAYS REMOVE THE WHEEL FROM THE DRIVE UNIT IF
YOU MUST LEAVE THE MACHINE IDLE FOR A FEW HOURS. MIN-
ERALS IN THE WATER CAN WELD THE WHEEL TO THE DRIVE
UNIT.
Q. CAN I OPERATE MY MACHINE ON HOUSE CURRENT?
A. Your machine operates on safe 12-Volt D.C. current. You cannot shock
yourself using battery power. However, you can purchase a 3.3 AMP power
supply that eliminates the need for a battery. You must be careful with this
setup and make sure the power supply is kept in a high and dry location. 110
VOLT CURRENT CAN ELECTROCUTE YOU!
COMPONENT LOCATIONS
motor
catch cup hook
power
switch
fuse
s p r a y b a r
mount
pitch adjust
pump attach
variable speed if installed
oo
Pump is installed by attaching pump clips to
power studs. RED stud is POSITIVE and BLACK
stud is NEGATIVE. Pump clips go on corre-
sponding colors.
This new setup allows you to use the pump on
other accessories, such as sluice boxes or high
bankers.
Q. HOW MUCH WATER DO I NEED TO PUT IN THE ACTION
PACKER?
A. You need to fill the action packer with enough water to cover the pump.
Approximately 3 gallons.
Q. WHY DOES MY THIN FLAKE GOLD FLOAT OUT EVEN WITH
JET DRY?
A. Glacial gold is very flat. The surface of the gold is larger than the specific
gravity of the gold. Try using distilled water and only 3 drops of jet dry.

page 4page 11
NEVER AIM SMALL TUBE HERE
OR YOU WILL LOSE GOLD
The aqua-jet is critical to the efficient operation
of the machine and it must be aimed so that the stream
does not point into the starting zones of the riffles or on
the riffles. When correctly positioned it will point at a
spot somewhere near 4:00 or 5:00 O'clock and at the wall
<
ALWAYS AIM SMALL TUBE LIKE THE
PICTURE IT IS VERY EASY TO
BEND IT BACK TO ORIGINAL
SHAPE
Feed water
Gold ore
is fed in
Rotate the
GOLD
in catch
How the wheel works!
Waste
LOOSEN THE
ADJUSTER
KNOB
SLIGHTLY TO
CHANGE
WHEEL
ANGLE
FAQ FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Q. I WAS TOO ANXIOUS TO SET UP MY NEW MACHINE AND NOW I
CAN'T REMEMBER HOW TO PACK IT UP.
STEP 0NE STEP TWO
A. BEGIN BY PLACING THE SPRAY SYSTEM & PUMP IN THE
BOTTOM OF THEACTION PACKER. PLACE THE FOLDED MACHINE (MO-
TOR SIDE UP) ON TOP. NEST THE PUMP & AQUA JET BETWEEN THE
LEGS OF THE STAND AS SHOWN IN THE STEP ONE PICTURE.
PUT THE SPIRAL WHEEL INSIDE THE TAILINGS TRAYAND PLACE BOTH
INTO THE TOP OF THE ACTION PACKER. IT SHOULD LOOK LIKE THE
PICTURE IN STEP TWO.
Q. MY MACHINE SLOWS DOWN AFTER A COUPLE OF HOURS WHEN
RUNNING IT ON A BATTERY.
Q. I FEED GRAVEL INTO THE WHEEL AND WHEN I TURN ON THE
MACHINE THE GRAVEL JUST ROLLS AROUND AND DOES NOT CLIMB
THE SPIRALS.
A. APPARENTLYYOU HAVE PUT THE BATTERYCLIPS ON THE
BATTERYTRMINALS BACKWARDS. THIS WILL CAUSE THE WHEEL TO
TURN CLOCKWISE. REVERSE THE CLIPS AND YOU WILL BE GOOD TO
GO.
Q. I AM RUNNING PURE BLACK SAND IN MY MACHINE AND I CANNOT
SEPARATE PIN POINT GOLD FROM THE SAND.
A. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO SEPARATE MICROFINE GOLD FROM
PURE BLACK SAND! MIX CLASSIFIED BROWN SAND WITH YOUR CON-
CENTRATES ABOUT 50-50. THIS WILL HELP GOLD FALL TO THE BOT-
TOM THROGH THE DENSE BLACK SAND.
Q. I HAVE LOOKED EVERYWHERE FOR THE SMALL SEALED LEAD ACID
BATTERIES. MOST STORE HAVE HEAVYCAR BATTERIES.
A. THESE BATTERIES ARE USED IN ALARM SYSTEMS. SEE YOUR
LOCAL ELECTRONICS STORE OR CHECK THE YELLOW PAGES. SOME
ACE HARWARE STORES MAY CARRYTHESE BATTERIES.
<
A. CHECK THE CHARGE ON THE BATTERY. REFER TO PAGE 3.
Fine Tuning your Desert Fox Panning Machine...
Make sure that the pump is attached to the powers studs and the
switch is turned off before connecting to the battery. Hook up the
battery connections, red to positive and black to negative. Turn the
switch on. Adjust the valve until an even but not splashing flow is
obtained on the wheel from the spraybar.
You can adjust the Aqua-Jet by gently bending it to point the stream
of water into the area shown by photo below
The correct feed point is on the lower left bottom of the wheel. You
can use a small scoop or cup to put in about 4 ounces of material
every 20 to 30 seconds. The tailings will be displaced by what you are
adding and will sluff out of the wheel over the lower front edge. Some
materials can run faster than others and you will need to experiment
with your ore to find a suitable feed rate. Feed material gradually
rather than dumping it in all of a sudden.
Loosen the adjuster knob and set the pitch steeper to hold the
black sand back or flatter to tune the machine. Adjust the wheel tilt to
obtain a pyramid of black sand that stops below the center hole.
Water settings and wheel pitch interact and since no two placer
sands run the same in the machine you may have to make both ad-
justments to find the best running combination for your machine.

page 5 page 10
The Desert Fox is an easy machine to set up and
use and it can be fine tuned to specific ores. Because no two
placer ores will work exactly the same in the machine there
are a few basic things you should understand about how the
Fox separates gold from sand.
The Desert Fox uses specific gravity differences between
the gold and sand to allow for mechanical separation of the two
materials. When grains of gold, black sand and brown sand
are compared, it will be noted that if the weights of the grains
are equal the size is greatly different. Likewise, if the grains
are classified so that they are uniform in size, then the weights
are very different. It is this size to weight ratio that allows the
FOX to separate the gold from the sand.
Always be suspicious of minerals that won't separate
from the gold in your panning machine. Remember that any-
thing more than 10 times the weight of water is worth some-
thing!
Some black sands carry platinum and palladium group
metals. Platinum occurs as a gray metal which is as heavy as
gold and is worth more! The Fox cannot separate platinum from
gold.
The wheel is made of a slippery material which allows
gold or other heavies to slide in the bottom of the riffles. This
effect is enhanced by the water and motion of the wheel.
Gold is usually nearly pure in nature and being a metal
has a natural affinity for oil. Oil attaches to the surface of the
gold and will cause small pieces of gold to float on water due
to the surface tension of the water. You can counter the ef-
fects of oil on your gold by using a wetting agent to stop flota-
tion of oily gold. Wetting agents such as Jet Dry Rinsing Agent
are available in most grocery stores in the soap department.
We do not recommend regular soaps or detergents because
of sudsing.
Water settings and wheel pitch interact and since no
two placer sands run the same in the machine you will have to
work both adjustments to find the best running combination for
your machine.
THE VARIABLE SPEED OPTION (If installed)
The variable speed option allows you to slow down the wheel
without slowing down the water pressure from the pump. This
feature is handy when separating properly classified precious
stones like diamonds and saphires. You willhardly notice the
change in wheel speed until you add gravel to the wheel.
You will not need the speed control when panning ordinary
placer gold sand. Use the control in the normal speed setting.
Grain size is also of importance, especially when the
placer material is much larger than the placer gold. The gen-
eral rule is that if you have gold of a specific size range then
your maximum sand grain size should not be more than 5 times
the gold flake size. How is this calculated? Well, let's say your
target gold is in the -100 grain size (1/100 of an inch or smaller)
then your correct starting screen size would be #20. This for-
mula is very easy to remember, just divide the average grain
size of the gold by 5 and you have the screen size!
We recommend a starting screen size for unknown ma-
terials at 1/10" or #10. The mesh size of the screen is gener-
ally given as the particle size (fraction) which will pass through
the screen.
Simply set the wheel up at a convenient angle between
30 and 45 degrees and start it up. Feed in a little ore after the
water is running on the wheel and watch what happens. If the
black sand is getting in the hole make the wheel pitch a little
steeper. If the black sand is way down on the face of the wheel
do the opposite. Always remember this...
You will not lose any gold from this machine because it
is a closed system, If you think you have spilled gold into the
tailings then rerun them. Once you become comfortable with
the machine then you will know when it is OK to dump the
tailings
Can't separate your gold from the black sand? Let's
explore the possible causes... First if you are running straight
black sand in the machine that is probably the problem! De-
concentrate by mixing in an equal volume of brown sand. This
will give the machine a chance to work the material and allow
for some flotation effect on the wheel.

page 6
The pump sometimes gets a rock
or piece of trash stuck in it and needs
to be cleaned. The procedure is
simple.
The first thing to do is to remove the
stocking from the pump to gain ac-
cess to it.
Follow the instructions on the en-
closed pump warranty.
Special Note:
The fuse is your only protection
against burn out ! ALWAYS check
the pump for debris In any event that
the pumpdoes not pump water when
it is turned on. Never substitute a
fuse bigger than 6 amperes rating.
Never operate pump dry or if it is
clogged and not pumping water.
Pump Details
Place stocking over pump
LIFT AND HOLD LEVER
TURN TOP OF PUMP AND LIFT
TO OPEN PUMP.
REMOVE MOTOR
CARTRIDGE TO
CLEAN IMPELLER
PUMP IMPELLER