Opal Mining Newsletter September-30, 2004 on Mining Underground for Opals in Coober Pedy

September 30, 2004

Opal Mining Update - No 41

Almost Ready for Mining Again.

Pat and I have decided that we don't want to part of the movie after all as extras, we don't like the idea of waiting around all day and perhaps they will only want us for a 4 hour minimum a day, Pat gets paid more per hour than they are offering and me, well I would just as son go back underground with the tunnel machine when it is finished and try to find some opal.

Still I have been asked to hire the blower for the movie again for another 3 days for the 13th, 14th and 16th of this month, they want the blower at the local cemetery on the first day making some dust again and it will be there on the second day a prop in the background, then they want me to use and drive my 4x4 Nissan Patrol in the movie on the second day, they are shooting a funeral procession which is in the movie, after that I have no idea where they are going to put the blower, so as I still have a couple of things to do on the tunnel machine yet this is still a good chance to make a few more dollars before I take the blower out on the field and leave it there.

I was informed by someone who was looking at my plugs on the cable that one them was starting to burn on a electrode as it was missing some C-clips, this is how it came to me as it was new plug and I did not know that it had to have any and the electrician I thought should have known about these, so I had to take the plug apart to fix it, I did not have to remove the wires but just take it apart so I could force the electrodes out so I could get a clip into the groove as you can see below, but when I removed the bottom half of the porcelain the wires fell out from 2 of the electrodes, the electrician had never tightened up the screws on them, not even put a screwdriver on the screws, just goes to show that you cannot trust anyone at all, no matter what they charge, so in this instance I was lucky.

Now this matter has been fixed and the burned electrode has been cleaned so everything is as it should be and ready for action, had I not found out about this the plug would have got burned out and had to be replaced, probably even the one that it was plugged into.

Here are the handles that I have made or altered for the controls, look like little gear sticks don't they, they have worked out perfect for me, cant wait to try them out for real.

What the handles are on is my so called "Dickie Seat" this seat can be moved up and down the side of the machine, it can also be put on the other side on the machine, now I can sit closer to the face if needed or I can sit at the rear or stand up if I wish, but this is mainly for someone else that I may take down with me or if I take a partner on as he will need somewhere to sit and watch the action and look for opal of course.

Here you can see where the handles are and what they do when operated, at the moment they are in the neutral position.

Here is cradle again, I had to put 2 stops on the bottom end of it so it would not go over center when the machine reaches the floor, as when it is put down the shaft it lands on its nose, then the back of the machine where this is bolted is gradually lowered to the floor, so while I was welding the stops on I thought I would make the welding stronger by adding more to the top of it and make it look a bit better at the same time.

Here is the job finished, looks better too, I did not like the red undercoat paint, now when the machine reaches the floor as the rear is being lowered the cradle cannot go over center, if it had it would have caught on the electric control box, not by much but enough to cause some damage, did not think of this when I made it, but woke up to this when I did that test lift with the crane, it became evident when he was lowering back on the ground, it did not happen then but would have when the cable was restricted by the shaft, then it would have forced the cradle over center, not it cannot do that.

Here is a close up view of the stop on one side, you can also just see the electrical fitting that I have moved to the rear of the machine where I can reach it a lot easier and out of the way of that pump just in case it does leak again in the future.

Here I am about to remove the outside cutting head, I want to take that plate off the box behind it as there is a chain in there that must have grease on it and as I do not know when it was last looked at or if it has been maintained at all since it was built, judging by the way the rest of machine has been looked after where any grease was supposed to be and was not this will need some attention for sure.

Well I am glad that I checked this out, but I must admit I did not expect to find what I did, again very badly set up, there was no way that anyone could have put anymore grease in there as they had never drilled and tapped to put a grease nipple in, now I have to take it all apart and clean all of this old grease out, the main problem was that the seal that is in the cover was completely worn out.

This has happened because of the machine being left out in the weather and not working for the most part, there has been some water in there over the years and the seal has virtually fallen apart from drying out, then when it has done a little bit of work the dust and some dirt has been able to get inside very easily, what you see here is not grease but like a grinding paste, as what is in there, little as it is, has dirt all thought it as I said it is a grinding paste, which causes premature wear.

This is the cover, it was sealed with a silicone rubber around the edges when bolted on, but you can see where the most dirt and dust was, as you see it here it is upside down and this box is supposed to be full of grease so that this does not happen, but as I said there was no grease nipple, not that it would have made any difference as they never put any grease nipples in any of the other places that required them like the floor cutters, or the big bearings on the shaft that turns the entire cutting head, but I will fix all of these problems so that everything can be greased every week, there are also 7 broken bolts in the housing that I will have to fix or re-drill and tap news ones.

Here is a side view of the chain sprocket that has the cutting head bolted to it and drives it, as you can see it is very, very rusty and has a groove worn in it, this cannot be used again like this, it has to be repaired and the easiest and cheapest way is to put a sleeve on here after we have cleaned it up of the rust and filled in the groove with a special material and then press the sleeve on, is made from stainless steel so it will never rust again, cost $134.00 just for the sleeve, pity some people do not like doing maintenance to there machine's as this problem could have been avoided in the first place, but when I am finished it will be a better job than when it was first built and I will maintain it in future.

Here is the box cleaned out, I still have to pull the sprocket that you see here off, so I can clean behind it properly, I have drilled and tapped a hole and put a grease nipple in it from behind, but now I have changed my mind and will put some special gear and chain oil in there that is very, very thick and sticky, this will be better than grease as the chain will spread it all over everything inside the box as it is moving around in a circle and give everything a coat of oil including the rear of the seal which will keep it lubricated and when it is stood still for any length of time this oil will not run away, also there are 7 broken bolts in the casing (where the arrows are) so I will have to fix these also, more work.

Here you can see me tapping the hole for the grease nipple, but this will not be needed now as I am going to put that special oil in there, but I can just put a bolt in there to block it off, now I will have to drill another 2 x 1/2 inch hole on the top as a filler hole and one to one side as a drain hole, so when I want to change the oil or take the cover off for any reason I can drain the oil out by having the cutting head face down where it normally hangs anyway because of the weight.

You will notice the grease nipple that I have put in, which I will now remove and that I have also removed the rubber cover that was here, I had to cut it off with a grinder as it was welded on, not to good thankfully, but there was old welding underneath so I had to grind it all flat as you can see, now I can drill, tap and bolt it on, but first I have to make and weld on a eye for lifting this head off.

Now you can see where I have drilled and tapped 2 holes so I can bolt on the rubber bracket if and when I need to, it has to be off and out of the way when I want to lift, off the extendable cutting head, don't know how they did it before, if they did it at all, but now it will be a lot easier for me anyway.

Here is the job finished and painted, looks a bit better with a spay of paint and the rubber is back in place, but only to see that I had done the job right and that it fitted back in place as there is also a screw that goes in from underneath, the job was a good one, now it is off again and will not go back on till it goes underground and is ready for working, but I may try cutting in the face without it to see if it is needed, it has been put on the stop some of the dirt being thrown back at the operator, but Bruno did not have or need one of these on his machine, but this has different cutters on it and may need it.

Well here is the chain sprocket with the new sleeve on it and I have also put 2 new bearings in it as well, as they had been cleaned with petrol (gas) one was noisy and the other did not feel right when rotated, so it was not worth me taking the risk of putting them back in, that dirty grease had done a good job on wearing things out that's for sure, there is some wear on the sprocket teeth, but not enough to worry about right now and I should get some years wear out of it before it needs to be replaced, which will cost a few hundred dollars to make it like this, although I would save a lot of money on it as I can do a lot of the work myself, so we will cross out fingers for a while.

Well here we are back at the movie again, they are setting up to film inside and outside one of our opal shops down at the bottom end of the town, this shop Star Opal is one of the shops that I sell items for on the web site, the sign you see in front of the van has been put there for the movie they don't do that, but anything else you see is real.

This is a shop across the road for Star Opal, the name you see here has been changed as you will see in the photo below, I bought my blower from the original owner of this shop some 11 years ago, it one of our more unusual looking shops and well done, worth a photo.

This is what it is called now, Dreamtime Gems, this is a Lizard that was hand made here out of concrete but for another shop that is also across the road from here but down a bit, the re used to be a small Dinosaur as well but due to vandalism was wrecked and the x-owner was murdered here at the shop across the road, they never convict the murderers.

Back at the movies again, now we are out at our local Cemetery, there is a funeral scene in the movie, I think it is about a night shifter or as they call them "a ratter" a person who goes down your claim at night when you are home and if there is any opal in the wall they will steal it and this still goes on today, one reason why we never try to leave any opal in the wall when we are lucky enough to find it, but they have to know that you are on opal and that there is a chance they will get some if they go down.

This is where they have placed my blower, as you can see I am the only one around, so I feel privileged that it will be in one of the shots anyway and it will be here for 3 days.

This is a shot from the general direction where they will be shooting but a little further to the right of this photo, so you can see the blower, I was not asked to make any dust with it, so it just sat there and I was not asked to move it as I was told I would be, seems that it was put in the right spot first time, the dumps you see around it have been put there for the movie and there are no shafts around that area and never will be as we are not allowed to mine within the town area.

This is the most unusual grave in the Cemetery, I do not know the history on this chap, but it looks like he was a bit of a character, for you that do not know what this is, it is a "Beer Keg" with tap or spear as we call it and the wording says "Have a beer on me".

Here they are just starting to set up the rails for the camera to run on, as I said earlier from this angle the blower will be in the background, maybe, as they will be a lot of the towns people as extras posing as the friends of the person who is being buried, you don't get to see this part as they is no actual burial of a casket, that I saw anyway.

Here they are setting up a some cover for the cast that have to wait until they are needed, also to keep some equipment of the sun.

This is the main actor so I have been told and is his first major roll according to his mother, as I said last week this story is about what is seen through the eyes of a boy and this is him, nice for me to see a bit of what goes on to make a movie up close, during shots they have umbrellas over the actors this is so that when they put the scenes together as they shoot they one or two days apart the actor must look exactly the same in color, continuity they call it I think, they take instant photos of every shot so they know what the actor looked like and what they wore the day before.

Now they are on the other side setting up for a different shot, these guys never stop all day except for a meal break.

That shot is finished and now they are going to move the camera again a bit further along for the next one, here they are taking the camera off whatever it is called, but it is on wheels and is pushed along by one of the crew.

Here they just pick up this piece of equipment and move it out of the way then they will pull up the tracks it runs on and move them and make sure they are level again.

Here is the man, nearly ready for the next shoot, just in the left background of the camera is what is supposed to be the gravesite for the funeral.

This is the entrance to the Cemetery (just to the left) there have done it up a bit for the movie and 2 of the women actors are in the moving putting these flowers up.

There was a lot more going on but I cannot take photos of everything, all the above was on day one and the next 2 days was the shooting of the funeral itself, I was also asked to have my 4x4 as part of the funeral as what they called a dress vehicle and it was parked on fence along with all of the other vehicles that were part of and belong to the mourners (extras) as mine was parked right on the far right of the fence I do not know if they got it in a shot or not as I was not there.

I was not required to be there after I had brought the vehicle there, so I was supposed to have breakfast as I had to have it there for 6:45 am, park it and catch the bus and go have breakfast and then they would give me a lift home when they could, so I did not take my camera with me for the next 2 days, not much to take photos of anyway just a bunch of people standing around and I could not see the actors doing there stuff as they were surrounded by the mourners from my angle anyway.

But Patricia and I was supposed to be part of this Cemetery shot as extras, we were as I mentioned at the top of this letter and we were to play the part of a couple of American Tourists that were visiting and were at the funeral standing in the background, we would have been in the scene because the camera was on a actor carrying a child into the funeral and he had to walk right past them and then they closed in behind him as he walked in, but I am glad that we changed our minds and did not do it.

The standing around and waiting for the rehearsals in the sun and fly's was not for us, some of the extras were complaining after the first day, like most people they did not understand what goes on in the movie game, they do now, 2 days of rehearsing and shooting just to get what will probably be a 5 minuet scene in the movie, it would have killed my bad knee and legs standing around for hours, they did have a break every now and again, but from 7 am in the morning until 5:30 pm is a long day for anyone.

I had the one of the best parts, hiring the vehicles and get paid for them and I did nothing at all, came along at the right time so I can pay some of this bill on the tunnel machine, now I need to get finished and get back to doing a bit of mining and trying to find some opal to make my fortune.

Jobs still to do........

On the Blower and Generator................
1) Re-grease the fan bearings before we go back on the field.

On the Tunnel Machine..............
1) Put the extendable cutting head box back together. [Monday]
2) Put the oil in it the next day after the Silicone Rubber has cured. [Tuesday]
3) Have to drill and tap 1/4 hole, moving the front small spotlight. [Monday]
4) Take the extendable head off the machine ready for going mining.
5) Make a small cover for part of the machine, (photo next update)
6) Remove a oil temp gauge and plug the hole, last job before it is put on the trailer.

And again I will have to just sit down and look at the machine to see if I have missed anything or if I can think of anything else that I can do to it before I take it out of Ross's yard and on the filed, may be some small thing I have missed better to find out now rather than later.

The best photos to come will be in the next update, the ones of the machine going down the shaft, so see you back here then.

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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