Build A Do It Yourself,
Hand Operated Rock Crusher

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Building your own rock crusher really isn't that difficult, but you'll likely need a welder to do it. First, I will discuss several different types of small scale rock crushers, and how they work. One common primitive rock crusher is the arrastra, a device which has been used by miners for centuries. An arrastra is a rock lined pit that is dug out around a whim. A horse, mule or donkey is hitched to the whim and a large boulder is drug around the pit in a circle. Rich ores are added to the pit and they are crushed as the large boulder is drug over the gold ore. Water is used to wash the crushed ore out of the pit once it has been reduced to a small size. It's a very slow process, and too large, and too much work for the average prospector to consider.  

The basic concept of rock breaking is making big rock pieces into little ones. Popular hand crushing systems include the hand stamp type crusher. Usually these are fully hand operated like mortar and pestle systems, but more elaborate spring type designs can also be made.

The following sketch shows a simple and cheap means of working in a small way, a rich quartz lode, which carries coarse gold freely. It is known as a "Dolly," and two men with this device, will crush enough ore each week, to give a very satisfactory "clean up" by Sunday. This is the type of rich gold quartz ore with visible pieces of free gold that one might find while out prospecting with a metal detector.

To make a "Dolly," cut a square hole, (in a hollow basin in the top of a solid block, or section of a log firmly planted on the bank of a stream), six inches wide ; fit in wrought iron bars, six inches long, one-half inch thick, three inches deep, and firmly secured. Cut away a portion of one side, to which attach a spout leading over the higher end of a sluice-box. The sluices may be covered on the bottom, by strips of blankets, and should have cross-bars called riffles, nailed across the bottom sufficiently tight to hold fine sand. After having all as solid as may be, dump in some quartz, broken comparatively small, "swing your Dolly," and add more water at intervals, as you get "choked."

"The Dolly" - A very old and somewhat primitive design for a spring type stamp crusher with an attached sluice to capture the gold. This is a simple design for processing free gold ores.

For more information about separating gold from quartz and processing rich ores, see my:   My Rich Ore Rock Crushing Page

Making your own hand crusher can be done with a welder. You need a heavy base, a heavy large pipe that is the outer container. These two pieces form basically a container that hold the rock being crushed. You also need a heavy cylinder that forms the stamp "shoe" the piece that rises and falls, the part that actually does the breaking of the rock. Think of this piece and the hammer that pounds the rock. The last piece is the rod which is attached to the shoe, this is the part that is lifted to raise up the shoe. This piece is basically the handle used to lift the hammer up.

This hand crusher project can actually be done is a variety of sizes. The one I am showing here uses a 4 inch pipe, but you could do a 3 incher or opt to build a bigger 6 inch unit. Of course if you get too large, the thing will weigh a ton and you will have difficulty using it. At home, I use a small jaw crusher to crush my gold and silver ore samples.

Photos of the pieces for my mortar and pestle style hand stamp crusher project appear at the bottom of the page below. The stamping or hammer piece is on the left, the container pot for the ore is on the right. When I use it to crush, I'll keep a foot on the metal on each side of the pot to keep it steady. The whole hammer piece weighs around 25 pounds, so it will have a good force to crush the hard rock ore.

No matter what the size or style of crusher you choose to build, the assembly of the parts is going to need to be done by welding. Practically speaking, that is the only way to put a project like this together. I bought a little home welder to use in projects around the house years ago and I've found it extremely useful, not just in fabricating mining equipment but in repairing various things around the house as well. Now my welds aren't pretty, but they do the job - they just need to be sturdy and hold the pieces in place.  I so strongly recommend that you consider buying one of these welders that I have done up a whole web page on it. If you are seriously considering building your own rock crusher or "dolly pot", check out my page on the topic: Low Cost, Small Arc Welders For Home Use

The more tools and fabricating skills you possess, the more likely it is that your home made crusher project will be a success. I have done up a page on the hand tools needed for this type of project, you can check it out at:  Mining Project Necessary Tools

If you would like to view some more information on the geology and how to locate rich pockets and other valuable hard rock gold quartz formations, be sure to check out my webpage on finding these deposits:  How Gold Quartz deposits form

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