Opal Mining Newsletter December-31, 2006 on Mining Underground for Opals in Coober Pedy

Not a good way to start the month, first time I have got up and went to work early this year and I only got a bout 6 kilometers out from town and the truck broke down, lucky for me I managed to get it turned around and facing back to town and there was drill coming off a field and coming back into town with his offsider right behind him with the mining vehicle so I flagged it down and managed to get the offsider to tow me back into town and down to a mechanical workshop.

They did not open until 8:30am and I was there at 8:10, so I had to wait until he came, I thought it was the points that had closed up or burnt out, but it turns out the that fuel pump had packed it in, so he then towed me home s there is no room to put my truck overnight inside the workshop and if cannot be left outside there or it would be stripped by morning.

So one has been ordered up from Adelaide by Bus and will be here in the morning 05/12/06, I have rang the mechanic and it is here so now waiting for him to come and replace it this morning.

Here is the new fuel pump, could have had a electric pump fitted, but as I was told that this would cost $78.00 and the genuine one below would cost $90.00.I went for the genuine one and then when it came and I had to pay for it I was billed $120.00 and that really pissed me off, don't like being lied to, I could have had the electric one fitted that day, would have coast a bit more for the fitting as I would have had to buy some new fuel hose and one wire to be wired in the ignition, but $42.00 more, never and I lost a day waiting for it, just shows you cannot trust anyone here in this town anymore, just because we are Opal Miners even some here think we are fair game for overcharging, even if you do have your backside hanging out of your pants, no wonder my wife has to work at age 64.

This is the cove, you can see on the left side where the chain has been rubbing against the dirt, this chain must act like a vacuum when working to suck this dust in like this, and it has been sucked in, this amount could not get in any other way in such a short time, as this has happened since I started going up at the 20% angle and more dust or fine dirt has been falling on the back of the cutting plate instead of straight down to the floor, now I have to bring this up top as well to get the seal replaced.

I also have to bring up the sprocket that this cutting plate bolts onto and fix it as when I did the machine up there was groove in the sprocket that I had a very expensive Speedy Sleeve put on over it, but that did not last long at all, and now the seal has really gone as well but I now have to fix this groove up on the sprocket which is caused by the dust and the seal and see if I can do a modification to make the seal last longer, may be a trail and error thing again till I get it as right as I can, which will be done over time.

Here is the box without the dirt, took me an hour and quarter to get it out it was packed that tight, now to get the chain out, which I did with a lot of effort, the dust had packed itself tight and built itself up on the teeth on the sprockets, keeping the chain tight and offering me no slack to get the joining link out, so I had to take the sprockets off at the same time to get the chain off, took a little longer but I finally got everything out, now next week I will have to come back down and clean this box out with petrol so it is perfectly clean.

I have the chain now soaking in diesel where it will stay for the next 3 days and will take it out on Monday, Friday I have to go down to Port Augusta and get a cruse control fitted to my Landcruser and will not be back until sometime late Saturday afternoon, Monday I will get the new seal, I have ordered 2 of them so I will have one as a spare and I will start on the repairing of the main sprocket on Monday or Tuesday and then I will have to come up with a modification of some kind to stop the dust from getting to this seal like it is now and wearing it out so quick, I have an idea and will have to run it past Ross on Monday an see what he recons.

Here you can get a good view of the wear on the teeth and the wear also on the boss where the rubber oil seal sits, the shiny part is the old so called speedy sleeve that cost over $120.00 I had put on when I did the machine up after I got it, this sleeve did not last long at all before the seal wore through it although the seal at that time still kept the oil in, but I would not waste my money on another one, waste of time and money in my book for this application anyway, so I will repair it another and cheaper way.

This wear on the teeth was caused by the chains rollers that has seized due to getting dust under them and as the rollers did not roll they wore into the teeth, that is why chains have rollers on them to stop this type of damage, also the dirt packed up in these teeth so much I could not get the tension of the chain until I have cleaned some of these teeth off, took a while, but finally got it off as you can see.

Here Ross has cut the old teeth off and has ordered a new sprocket plate, he will then machine this part in the lathe and then machine the other out in the middle to fit on this boss, this part cannot be bought as you see it above, it consists of 2 parts, it is the sprocket plate that has just been ordered and then the boss part with the holes drilled and tapped and machined out for the bearings is a part that has to be made for it and then the 2 are welded together, so that is why we are fixing it like this, the cheapest way, maybe in a couple of years time from now I may have to get another boss made and if I do I will get it case hardened to help stop this wear in the seal area.

Now the Sprocket plate has been machined and welded on and I have brought the part home after I had cleaned up the seal area in the lathe with a flat and round file, now I have filled in the area with liquid metal, which is a 2 part material that you mix together, it has had time to dry and cure overnight, now I will go back down to Ross's and put it back in the lathe and clean it up, be interesting to see how long it lasts before it gets the wear groove back in it, but I have to do a experimental modification to the cutting plate that bolts on this boss to try and keep the bulk of the dirt and dust away from this seal area, then it may last a lot longer before it wars out again.

And here it is all ready for taking back underground, I have put 2 new bearings in, one bearing was not turning and the other had the red seal area you can see here worn through a bit, so I have replaced both of them, on inspection to the old bearings after I had put the new ones in it turns out that no dust had got into them and were full of clean grease and the one that would not turn was only because this red seal cover that was pressing against the bearings so is alright and so is the other one as well so I have kept them as spares for another time if they are needed, I have also bought a new length of chain and 2 seals for the cover keeping one as a spare.

It is all back together now with new gear oil in it and ready for action, now I have to bring the cutting plate home and down to Ross' for this modification I want to try out on it.

This is the modification I have done to the cutting plate, I have put 6 reverse blades on the back, this will throw the dirt away for the seal area as it tries to get behind the plate when it is cutting, so hope fully the seal will last longer and the area on the Sprocket where it sits on will also last longer as the dirt will not be there to help wear it out quickly, cannot stop wear and cannot stop the fine dust getting to it but hopefully it will slow it all down so everything lasts longer, but only time will tell now.

Took a while for me to make these small blades as I measured the distance between the plate and the chain box to be 10mm wide, so I had to make them 10mm high, but the nearest steel was 20mm wide x 5mm thick so I had to cut 6 lengths of this to around 92mm long, then put them in a milling machine and mill the length to 90mm, them mill them to 10mm high, then they were ready for welding on.

But first I had to divide the plate into 6 equal sections, then draw an inside ring that was 3 1/4 inches from the outside edge of the plate as I had 3 1/2 inches from the outside of the plate to the area that held the seal in place behind it, so I could go within 1/4 inch of this with safety, this then gave me the angle to put the blades at, then all I had to do was spot weld them in place and was finished.

Or so I thought, when I took the plate down I had to come back up for the small grinder, as I had to grind down the heads on a few bolts that were in the chain box cover, there was 8 of them and it was time consuming as I had to keep putting the plate on with 2 bolts and seeing where the blades were catching and removing the plate to grind a bit more off the bolt/s or a bit off a blade, finally I got it right and now the machine is in action.

The tunnel machine is now back up the drive as you can see below and I have done another 4 and a half feet with it as a test run and all is well, just the ground is very hard and the machine is struggling a bit on this 20% angle, it keeps climbing up slowly and I have to bring it back about 3 feet and adjust the cutting angle which takes time and slows me down.

Not hard for the machine wanting to go up all the time it is cutting, because the cutting teeth are revolving clockwise and the cutting head is doing the same, this action naturally in hard ground wants to lift the machine at the front, tiny as it is every cut it takes it is enough to alter the machine by 5% in about 18 inches, so it is then I have to bring it back and correct it, could even be in 12 inches so it is slow work for me, softer ground would have been good, but all the ground around me where I have drilled so far is hard so will have to live with it until I finish the claim.

Now I am about 32 feet in this drive so I still have a way to go yet as the shaft is about 93 foot away, but will be up on the level way before that and then the going will be some what easier for the machine, about another 20 feet to go and then I will start leveling the machine off, this also takes a lot of messing around, but once it is done the job becomes a lot easier, so I hope I have the machine pointed in the right direction so I do not miss the shaft, so long as I hit part of it to let me know where I am.

But if not all is not lost so long as I know the measurement I will now when I am about level with it, I still have to open up around it anyway so its no big problem f I miss it by a foot or so, just a matter of pride in getting the direction right underground and finding the target, but as the shaft is about 3 foot in diameter and the drive is 6 foot in diameter I would have to be out by more than 4 and a half feet to miss the shaft and I cannot see that happing in 93 feet, so we will see next year, seems a long way off saying like that, but its only a day away.

Again it has not been a good month for me, too many things happing at this time of the year, lots of people go a way for a short holiday, not that I blame them, soon be my turn to get away from here for a spell, we all need a break from Coober Pedy, then we can return full of vigor and enthusiasm, ha must have read that in a book somewhere.

But it has been bad year for Pat and I, to many breakdowns with the equipment again and around the house, all takes money which my poor wife is working hard for, she does not have much time left in her for working, just about wore out she is, lucky for me she is the one who has earned this holiday for us this year, so I hope she catches a few big ones, me I don't mind watching and pulling them in the boat for her and taking the photos.

This year we have had to replace the 4x4 with the help of a bank loan if you all remember when we was on holidays, plus all of the extras that were required on it, then we have replaced the hot water system, a new Fridge/Freezer, new TV, I paid for that New Fan Housing but found that money last December, had a Breakdown on the Tunnel Machine Gearbox not costly but took time, Oil Leak on the Tunnel Machine in April just down time, Bought new 12volt Electric Fuel Pump for diesel drum $550.00, Hydraulic Motor Shaft $690.00, Mining Truck Breakdown fuel pump packed in, New Spare Fan for Blower (soon to be used) had to have a electric power connection point moved by the council that cost $550.00, new Printer for the computer, this breakdown with the Tunnel Machine, plus bits and pieces.

So as I have not found much opal ay all this year, it has been a bad for the expensive's lucky for me the web site has been carrying me, so I hope that 2007 will be a better year, must admit I have had a lot of time off this year and will have to try to do better in 2007 and I am also going to build up the web site more, I have picked up another 2 opal shops that are going to let me sell there items on the site, so I am going to be busy one way or the other for sure.

Again I 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, but only time will tell, 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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