Opal Mining Newsletter July-15, 2004 on Mining Underground for Opals in Coober Pedy

Well we are getting close to the end and hopefully we will be finished at the end of this month, if I had a partner I would be further along than I am as the body is getting old and tired so I do what I can every day, what little I do today is a little less I will have to do tomorrow, but we are getting there and will not be long before we are moving dirt with the machine, so we now carry on where we left off working on the tunnel machine.

This is the angle bracket for mounting the 65 amp cable plug that I managed to get welded on this morning as the weather was fine and not windy.

Here is the bracket with the plate bolted on, now I just have to bolt on the base of the plug and have the wiring done, which I am waiting for at the moment, this will put the plug out of the way of me at the back when I am operating the machine, you will see later on how the cable will lay along the side and be hooked on at the back to stop it pulling out.

Here you can see the start of the bracket for mounting the seat with, there is still a lot to do and there is no design on paper so I am making it up as I go along and I hope that I get the measurements pretty close as I am using a stool that is what I think is the right height, just a matter how fat the seat is from the machine and of course I have to put a clamp and pipe on the back of the crusher box, that is the round opening at the bottom with a clamp on already so I can allow for it in the measurements.

Below are pieces of steel that I am using in the making of the seat, at the bottom is a steel tube that is 40 mm square, (outside) that goes inside a tube that is 50 mm square outside, but the inside of this tube in a lot bigger than the outside of the small one so I have welded a 3 mm 2 inch wide flat plate on 2 of the sides to make up the difference.

You can see here that the bigger 50mm tube has seam where it is welded at the steel works, this stops me sliding in the smaller one so I have had to cut a groove in the steel plate that I welded on so it can slide in and out, this is the part that will allow me to adjust the seat in and out, all I have to do now is drill some holes in them.

Here you can see the adjustment part with the holes in it, I have made so I can adjust it one inch in or out as needed, but right now I do not know if this is the correct length, the blue tube at the bottom, the one with the single hole in it is 14 inches long, I may have to cut off 2 inches on each of the tubes below as right now I think it is too long, I want it so I have 2 adjusting holes left so I can move the seat in closer if needed, will know tomorrow for sure, when I tack the upright for the seat on and test it.

Now we are getting somewhere, the bracket is finished and bolted on and if I do not have to cut any off it will stay as it is, when I have finished the seat and it is in the right position, the next job is to make the foot rests which I will make out off 3 inch wide steel plate and roll it so it fits just nice around the back of that ring you see below the bracket and then I will weld the foot rests on each side of it and put a bolt through to hold it.

This is what I will using to make the rest of the upright bracket for the seat itself, the plate will have the bolt put through and welded to it, then the plate will be tack welded onto the chair frame under the seat itself, next I will tack the square tube with the nut already pressed in it onto the tube with the adjusting holes, then I will screw the chair seat onto it, take it outside, slide it in the bracket on the back of the tunnel machine and try it out for height etc, if I have done a good job it will be finished, if not I will have to make a couple of adjustments, this tube with the nut in could be too short, thankfully the nut is only pressed in and I can knock it back out if I have to cut a longer piece of tube, all will be reveled tomorrow at last.

This is the cutters that I have put together to make the center cutter for the tunnel machine, as you can see there are 3 separate cutters here, making one cutter all together, the idea is that the center cutter, cuts out of round therefore cutting a circular hole in the middle, the next cutter on the left, cuts a bigger circle and in between the 2 gets broken off and the 3rd cutter which looks like it is upside down.

Here is the side view of the cutters and as the 3rd cutter it is on the other side of center the cutter is actually cutting in the right direction even though it looks to be upside down, I have copied this design from another round tunnel machine, the operator of this machine has 30 years experience on this type of machine and this cutter has proven itself, so if it is good enough for him it should be good enough for me.

Here I am about to make some foot rests for when I am sat on the seat as my feet will not reach the floor so I must put them somewhere, you can see the piece of 3 inch wide x 5mm steel that I have already rolled into a U shape, to this I will add the foot rests and it will be bolted onto the circle below where the seat goes, it has a rubber on it right now and I have used the 2 bricks as a template for the height off the ground.

And this is where it was, now it is out of the way, as you can see it was very badly designed and no room for a seat or getting your legs anywhere near the machine or making it easy to operate, don't know how they did it before, but it will be easier to operate now, some miners do walk behind the machine but as the machine is crawling along 10 to 12 foot an hour in good ground it is a long time to stand up doing nothing and my legs will not take that, hence the seat.

Well I finally got the blower in, I managed to get a very big and I mean big front end loader, it was as big as the blower in size but as I was at home waiting for a phone call, when it came I rushed out and I forgot to take the camera with me, I missed out on a real good photo, as I got it to push me from behind.

Anyway I went out on Tuesday with a friend of mine to bring it in and every went fine until I was seven kilometers from town, a front tire on the truck blew out and so I did not make it again, I had already a flat tire on the back but as the truck has duel wheels it did not matter just to bring it into town and as there is no spare for the truck, so I had to leave the truck where it was, off road as luck would have it and come home.

Now its Wednesday morning and I went out to the truck again with another friend and a couple of different sized jacks, we first had to blow up 2 of the tires on the same side as the blow out but at the rear, it would seem that I also have a bad tire there as well, but as the truck was leaning over again just like it was when it was bogged, I did not want to jack up the other side of the blower without the full support of these 2 tires.

Then we had to jack up the 2 duels on the rear where the flat tire was and remove it and just put one tire back on, them bring the flat tire back into town and get it fixed, then go back out to the truck and jack up the blown out tire on the front and change it with the fixed one, put the blown out tire in the back of the truck (photo below) and drive the blower into Ross's yard where I will start on it tomorrow, Thursday.

Here you can see the truck sitting on one wheel, as there is no great weight on the truck this is alright for a while, but the tire on the right hand side on the outside is also no good as the sun has finally perished it and it is falling apart, had this tire been alright I could have used the inside one but I did not think it would have carried the weight of the truck by it self, so I have now ordered 2 new tires for it, as these tires are very old types we cannot get hold of 2nd hand ones, there is a demand for these here as a lot of the old trucks on the field have these tires on them, there are 2 of them on the tunnel machine trailer.

I am showing you some of what I have to get rid off to get ready for putting the generator on the truck, first I have to remove the old fuel tank and hoses, then I have to unbolt the old diesel generator (small 1-3/4 KVA) ready for removal and then I have to oxy cut the base that the fuel tank was sitting on as they welded them on and then oxy cut part of that C section the radiator is sitting on to give me more clearance for walking through, then I have to oxy cut off the 2 large gussets (1 on each side) that is the item just in front of the fuel tank, when I have done all that I will have to clean them up with a grinder, then there are a couple of small jobs to do before I will remove part of the roof so the crane can lower the generator in place.

Before I had cut off all you see above I had to start the truck and move it backwards so Ross could get in with his old forklift to lift off the diesel generator you see here on the right, but I had trouble starting the old girl, have for the last 2 times even though I had charged the batteries before I brought the blower in, but as I only just got it going after I had changed the flat tire the batteries where not up to it today, so I pulled them out and looked at the date when I bought them and it was 3 years and 4 months ago (yellow ones), so I went and bought a new one, the other new one came with the generator.

Who said the life of an opal miner was easy al I have done for the past 3 months is pay out with nothing coming in and if it wasn't for my wife Patricia things would be very difficult for me, but the end is in sight, still have a bit of work to do on the blower, but things are coming along nicely.

The next update you should see everything just about ready to go underground, George the driller should be back and I will get him to open up the shaft for the tunnel machine as soon as he can, them we will be ready for action when everything is ready.

Hope you have enjoyed this issue and look forward to the next one, hopefully I will have some more good photos to show you in the next issue and maybe some of Good Looking Opal and lots of it, I am still hoping that this will be a good year for us in mining, so stay with us over the next few months and find out what goes on in our part of the world as far as Opal Mining goes.

Stay Tuned for the next Issue, who knows what I will have to report.

Until the next issue.........

and wish me lots of LUCK.

Cya Later, Stuart Bird.

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