November 30, 2007 Opal Mining Update - No 79 Some of Color at Last.

Site Map Home Page Archived Pages Contact Guest Book

Well I am back in the groove at last, I have had the last week off since I broke down last Monday as I had lost interest in going mining, (don't know why) but as the machine will not fix itself I had at last to go out and pull it apart and see how much damage it had done and when I had put the new 500W light on the machine, I pulled the outside cutting plate off and with it came the oil seal, so that also needs to be fixed up so it stays in this time, then I took the box cover off and was surprised to see that there was very little damage at all in there. So where the big arrow is the chain the 2 allen key bolts had come loose through the vibration and let the chain get too much slack in it and also the small bolt that holds the right sprocket on had also come lose allowing that sprocket to come forward a bit and the chain had jumped on top of the small adjusting sprocket and jammed there. Lucky for me this caused very little damage, the chain did strip some metal off the big sprockets before becoming jammed up and the small arrows show you some metal shaving on the bottom, but all I have to do is clean it out and check it all out properly and see what has to be done to stop this happening again if I can as this sprocket on the right has come loose 5 times now, it cannot come right off as the front cover plate stops the sprocket when it touches it, but is starting to cause some wear on it, so I must stop this sprocket coming loose again. Turns out all I need is 1 flat and spring washer to replace a damaged one on the allen key bolt on the right on the small sprocket at the bottom and modify the small bolt that came loose again.

So what I have come up with is this, as the boss, that is the area that the oil seal runs on and part of the sprocket is some 3 inches deep, I am going to drill out this 1/2 inch threaded hole with a 1/2drill and put this bolt straight through the cutting head, this new bolt is 4 inches long and the small bolt has a tapered head on it that sits in a spacer that holds the bearings and sprocket in place, so I will go to Ross's tomorrow morning and machine a taper on this bolt head about half the thickness and that should do the trick as I can then tighten up this bolt with the spring washer on it and it will not come loose anymore, also the nut will be in my view and I can check it after every drive when I do the normal maintenance on the machine, so now it will never cause this problem again, if the other small adjusting sprocket comes loose again I can do this with longer bolts and put a nut on the back so it will not happen again, but for now I will leave it as it is.

So now the machine is back together again and I just have to weld a tooth on the floor cutters that got knocked off when I hit one of those rocks I blew out, must have been one on the floor I did not see and as it was the last tooth I welded on and did not do a good job with the welding I will do it again and see if I can do better this time, this should take about 1/2 hour or there about's as I have to grind a couple of areas clean so I can get an earth for the small Inverter Welder I will be using again, after that I will be starting a new drive and possible the last one in this part of the claim, then I will take the machine back to the big shaft for a couple more drives there. Thursday 8th, not having a good time of it again, boy I need to get away from here and clear the brain out with some salt air for sure, went to work this morning and needed to put some diesel in the blower before going under to start work and went to put some in the tank and found that I had nothing in the drum, could have sworn that I had 1/2 a drum left, but having the week and a half off did not improve the brain, so it was not worth my time just going just to weld the tooth on, as I had enough diesel for about 2 hours work, so I came home. Had a chat to a couple of miners at 11 mile that were getting ready to move there equipment (wish it was me) on the way back and then went and had a coffee with another miner friend of mine of was not working, then came home and showed and changed, was sitting at the computer when a sale came in from England for one of my Triplets, so went to the safe to get it, its a small safe and weighs in at 1/2 ton (500lbs) and as I shut the door did not realize my foot was in the wrong place. Yep you guessed it, the right big toe got caught by the corner of the door ripping it open right at the very end, made a mess of it and blood everywhere as I did not realize that I had cut it at the start, was only when I saw the blood on the floor near the computer I realized that I had cut it, ripped the skin back in the shape of a sharks tooth from what I can see, hard to get my head anywhere near that to have good look at it, but Pats says I made a mess of it and should have gone for stitches. ( I don't think sooooo) Friday 9th, No pain this morning and the toe did not give me any trouble during the night, but as I went and got Boro's welder yesterday morning and did not use it, not that he will want it he is in Adelaide and wont be back until Monday, so I will have today off and go out tomorrow if it stills fells good, all I am worried about is how it will go in the boot, don't know how far the end of the toe is from the cap on the inside of the boot, that may be the only problem, still can only try and if, bit pissed off again as soon as I get the machine ready for work something else happens to stop me, life is just full of disappointments, here we call it as always being in the shit only the depth varies. Sunday 11th, Did not go to work yesterday, decided to give the toe a couple more days before I put the boot back on, so I decided that I would try and finished a job outside that Pat has been on my back about and that was to finish putting up the sunshade on the car port, had done one side, the one on her side that lets in the hot afternoon sun, now I had to do my side where the mining truck is parked. So I went out today and started on the job, marked the timber and put the shade cloth on it, then it was time to Teck screw the top and bottom timbers in place and then I could leave it for finishing another day, So Pat gave me a hand to lift the 2 5.3 meter lengths of timber with the sun shade attached and carry them from under the veranda outside the car port and put them on a couple of Coke Crates, from there all I had to do was lift the top one up on the 2 clamps that I had clamped to the poles so the timber could rest on them while I Teck screwed them in place. But it was blowing a gale at that time, so I had picked a bad time to try and get them in place, the wind was from the wrong direction and was trying to blow the timbers off the clamps, the sun shade was acting like a sail, anyway I got the top one in place but could not get the first Teck screw started, so I got down as I was standing on coke crate so I could drill and I was putting the drill down when the wind blew the timber off the clamps and it hit me on the arm, just above the left wrist, lucky for me it was only a glancing blow and no broken bones. So I put the drill away and went inside, washed my hands and put ice in a bag and put it on the wrist for about 1/2 hour, that did help to keep the swelling down, but it never rains here but it pours, having a bad time of it right now for some reason, will now have to tomorrow off and see how the arm is after that, not a good month so far and the machine is ready and waiting for me.

Wednesday 14th, Talk about it never rains but it pours, well yesterday we finally got some rain, it was thunderstorm, in the beginning we had thunder and saw the storm coning in from the west about an hour and a half before we got it, first rain we have had the year so I suppose I cannot complain about it, not our usual thunderstorm we get so did not flood the front yard to much so this morning the water that was there is all gone, we had 13mm just over 1/2 inch, which is not a lot for where some people live, but enough for here in one hit, this will keep me at home for another 2 days now while the field dries out and that is we do not have anymore as there have predicated another for today, but will wait and see the outcome of that as the forecasts for here are not that accurate, I missed the best of this by about 5 minutes so I was told.

Friday 16th, At last back at work, how long for who knows, I have welded the tooth back on the floor cutter that got knocked off, I think I have done a bit better job this time, it was hard to get to being right up next to the arm that holds the bearing in and having to lie on the floor under the cutting head did not make it any easier, still I have done the best I can and it should hold under normal circumstances, I still have a small oil leak that I have tried to fix but it is still leaking a bit, so what I did was not successful, it is a pin hole in a weld on one of the 2 hydraulic oil tanks and is under the machine and not easy to get too also as a little oil is seeping out hard to get some to stick and cover it, but will try again later as it is not critical with some glue but for now on to starting the new drive at last, I am just starting off here below and will when I get in  far enough turn the machine so it runs along side of the drive on the left.

This is at the end of the first days work and there is potch in the side wall in the drive, more on the right hand side than the left, so I hope to strike color in this drive and already I have struck a bit of bluish "Houdini Potch" (now you see it and now you don't) only 4 inches in past the old drive on the right which I had to give away for being to wet and the drive on the left is 80 feet in length so I am hoping that I can get near the end of that one, but there is a good chance for opal if I can get out that far.

Wednesday 21st, So much for making plans again, the weather has not been the best this last 2 days, yesterday the temp reached 108F and Monday it was 106F, not that this stops me going out to work as it does not peak until around 2:30pm, but the weather forecast has been for Thunderstorms and as they can blow up real quick I do not like going to work when there is a chance of that type of rain or any rain for that matter when I am underground working with electric leads, no sir, better to stay at home. Also last night it was blowing a storm up, we had about 6 drops of rain and it was gone but the wind, storm wind was blowing most of the night, a dust storm again for us and to make matters worse I pealed back some skin on the bottom of my right foot on the plastic Computer Mat on the floor that I have the chair on, don't ask me how I did it, it just happened so again I find myself hobbling and limping, pretty sore and took some pain killers last night, this morning it is still sore to walk on so will stay in-doors again. I must admit I am looking forward to getting back to work after not doing much these last few weeks, but these Gremlins are still bugging me for some reason, be glad to get away on holidays and get away from them for a while, so hope I can get out tomorrow if it does not rain, and there is a weather change for today it should be lot cooler, Pat had to get up around 3 am this morning to turn the fan off and is was to cold so it had cooled right down for a change. Thursday 22nd, finally got to work at last, the foot is not as bad as I thought it would with a boot on, in fact it felt very good could have gone out yesterday if I had tried the boot on, still here I am back at it, I have gone in about 3 foot and I have got some potch in the face so this should be the start of it for a while, just hope I can get some color in front of me.

Had to level the machine off a bit as I was going up slightly till I got the level where I wanted it in front of me, now a bit of color has popped up in the face where the arrow is, not much by the look of it, but who knows what is behind it.

A little bit of green and the ground around it is soft and crumbly, dotted with small stones of potch, still I dug it out and threw it in the bag, it will all get checked out when I get home and tumble it, that is if I have enough when I get home.

Now I have struck some white potch, small pocket and still going, no color that I have seen so far, but as I have said I do not check it out down here, if I do not see color in the face as I am digging it out, I will not see any until it all gets tumbled and sorted, this material is on the ironstone above where the colored stone was in the photo above.

This is at the end of this morning shift, there is still potch in the face where the arrows are so have some work to do as soon as I start work on the next shift, quite looking forward to it for a change.

And so this is where I am at right now in this new drive as you can see I am slowly turning the machine so it will follow the drive next door and that drive is 80 feet long and has material in the side walls for most of the way, so will try to get this drive that distance if possible, but I have just dropped off the bottom elbow and it needs cleaning out, was not full but needs to clean for the start of a days work, the same when I get up top, after I stop the generator I will have to open the top elbow and let it dry out overnight then clean it in the morning, after that I have to put some diesel in the blower then I have to move some dirt from the dump with the loader, always something.

This is the opal from today's effort, nice to see some color for a change, some shell in there that I did not see as I was digging it out and some real nice Green/Blue crystal as well, but need to find a pocket of this and a good sized one at that, it still can be a good year with one good pocket, never know in this game or this claim, not over yet by the looks of it.

Friday 23rd, Not good today, was moving some dirt from the dump and this tire was down in pressure so parked it by the truck and started petrol generator and compressor and put some air in it, as you can see the tire itself has had it through old age in the sun and it seems to have got worse this last year, so after I had pumped it up I only did 2 trips and on the 3rd load it blew out, so it is now officially retired and now to take it off and take it back to town.

Use the winch again to lift the wheel on the truck, bit heavy for me to lift by myself so this is the easiest way for me and no chance of doing my back in.

As I did not have my 20 ton hydraulic jack with me on the field, I lifted the front up with the hydraulics on the loader and it was easy, first time I have done this to  take a wheel off, but then I have never had a flat tire on the front before but sometimes I get stuck in soft ground with the front wheels and do this to get out, now to go home and try to find a replacement tire and get it fixed, will not be easy as they are old tires. Saturday 24th, Job done, my friend Dave Matters the Mechanic who did the radiator repair for me and has one of these loaders as a wreck in his yard and it had a good tire on one side, I say good, it is somewhat bald but good enough for me on the field and to get me out of trouble, so I have moved quite a lot of the dump after I had put the replacement wheel on and will be tunneling again Monday.

Tuesday 28th, Some how I forgot to take the camera bad to work yesterday morning and I was on material for most of the shift, but could not take any photos, I did find some color it was supposed to be shells but they were made of concrete, first time I have seen this, but there was a bit of material and some color amongst it all. Where the arrows are is where the shells were, up top for a change, this photo I took before starting work for the morning and after I had cleaned the bottom elbow and put to all back together again, I only did 3 foot - 4 inches yesterday due to the wet ground blocking up the elbows, so will see how far I get today.

Now I have some material on 3 lines, keeping my eye on the top line where the color was yesterday, I do not stop and dig everything I see now as nearly all of it is potch so have a quick look at it and keep tunneling, when it turns a bit thicker I will stop and dig it out as I never know when it may change to color.

Here I have couple of bigger pieces of material come in the level and there is some color in one of them that I could see at that time, so had a dig but again was not much there and no pocket of color again, the ground is getting wetter and as soon as I have to stop for blocked elbows I will quit this drive and pull the machine back.

This is as far as I got in this last drive, not that far could have continued pity but have had enough of the type of ground, sick of it and so I will not pull the machine back to the big shaft and do a couple of short drives around there to finish off with where I found some opal  in fact around that area was the best for me, I am sure there is a lot more opal around this claim, but not for me, it needs a tunnel machine like my friend Peters, with elevators as they are made for wet ground, mine is designed for dry ground and to be used with a blower.

This photo was sent to me by my friend Dick Miller over in Hurricane Utah today the 30th out time, the 29th USA time, it is looking west toward Las Vegas Nevada, beautiful photo and happy to put in the newsletter, anyone who has outstanding photos and want me to include them in this newsletter please send them to me in full size along with your personal info and where it was taken I will will see what I can do for you, Thanks Dick.

Well it has been a fruitful month in a much as I found some colored trace for a change and a nice change at that, pity the ground is too wet but I will see if I am lucky in the next couple of drives, left these until I was just about to pull out, which is at last what I am about to do, have been promising this for a long time now, but as it is a big job in moving I have stayed and stayed to long, so the time has come. This last couple of days we have had the threat of thunderstorms again and on Wednesday we had a small one with not much rain from it thankfully, then on Thursday we had a small amount of rain again, both times in the evening, so I have not been back on the field as yet to continue with the moving of the equipment back to the back shaft, the tunnel machine is parked near the pipes and elbow. After I have moved the machine back, about 1/2 hour job I then have to move all of the pipes etc that I have been using, but I have also to go back up top and pull the pipes up using the hand winch and get the blower ready for moving back to the old shaft next to the ladders, I have already moved some of the dump there so I can back the blower onto the shaft and then lower the pipes back down again. The big job is me going back under with a flash light and moving the leads for the lights and the big electric cable for the tunnel machine, this I have to let down the shaft on the hand winch and pull it back to the bag shaft and when I get the blower back there I will then have to pull it up and reconnect it to the generator, then connect the lights up again and then start lowering and connecting the pipes back down after I have set up the hand winch on the shaft. So as you can see I have a lot to do when I get round to it and all for just a short time I am sure, but I have no other place to go to yet so have to look for that spot, maybe after I get back from holidays. Not been a good month for the personal injuries not that I have any bad ones, just do not normally have any to speak off and now I have another, called "Mango Poisoning" a week ago this last Thursday, Pat bought me a Mango from the supermarket and she put it in the fridge where I forgot about it until Tuesday afternoon when I saw it there so I took it out and cut it up into small pieces as I like it with Ice Cream and the next day I had an itch on my left eye, thought nothing abut it at the time and Wednesday was the same only a bit worse, then when I woke up this morning and open my eyes my left eye was puffed up and straight away I knew what the problem was. In 1990 when I was staying in Darwin for 3 months in a caravan park in tent, we lived under these mango trees and pulled Mangos off them almost every day when they got ripe, when they got out of reach I used a 7 foot boat gaff to reach up and pull them off and as I was only wearing bathers, that was all I wore if I was not going out in that humidity, and when you break the mango off the branch there is a white sap that looks like milk that comes out of the stem, it is this that causes this poisoning but I did not know this at the time. I was getting a rash then but put it down to a sweat rash at the time until one morning I work up with the left eye closed and puffed up, like someone had punched me in it, so we went into Darwin to a hospital where they told me that it was a private hospital and could not get treated there, so off we went to find the poor people's hospital which we found with directions, there they were not sure what was wrong with me and gave me some tablets to stop the rash from itching etc, well I waited a week and it never went away or got better, the eye was still swollen but not completely shut and the rash was causing me trouble. So then the manager of the caravan park suggested I go to the local GP doctor who turned out was Pom like me and he was only 1/2 mile up the road from this park, I went in and waited until I could see this doctor and as soon as I showed him the rash he said that I had Mango Poisoning and what the hospital had given me was wrong (I knew that) and he prescribed me some antibiotics that I had to take until they were used up and one week later it was all gone, Moral of the story is going to a Hospital is not always the right thing to go. So it is not worth going the Doctor for this what I have now as it is only a mild form of it, must have been a bit of dried sap on the mango when I took the small stork out of it and not realizing it have wiped my eye, now today my right eye has also got a slight itch to it, hopefully it will not get any worse than it is right now, but just shows you that you never know what can happen to you with tropical fruit, not everybody suffers from this type of mango poisoning but the mango pickers that work up there during the season get this across there stomach through carrying the cases that they are put in, so the doctor told me. Always something so now to get over this little lot, not that this stops me from going on the field, but have work to do on the web site with the jewelry and slowly changing all of the pages over top the new format like this one is in, I like this a lot better, easier on the eye with the new color don't you think. Now to look forward to the next month, nearly Xmas again and have no idea where I will be up to at the end of this next month, the machine could even be out of the claim if I get my act together and do the couple of last drives, will take about 3 days to move everything and get the machine set up and ready for tunneling again. 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. To return back to the Archived Page for more Updates click, Here!

Top

Index Page | Site Map | Opals | Black Opals | Gold Pendants | Inlay Rings | About Our Opals | Earrings Opal Rough | Triplets | Doublets | Inlaid Opal Pieces | Wire Wrapped Opals | Valuing Opals | Opal Glossary