Cool AC 5 Stamp Mill

And just as neat were the upright timbers supporting it all. Those things were massive. Probably close to 3 feet at the wide part.

Now that's a neat find. I sure would like to know more about that, like mostly, what is a five stamp mill? Darrel

 Stamp mills were used to reduce the size of material usually rock formations mined so that precious minerals and metals could be removed by weight and amalgamation ( sheets of copper coated with mercury). The weights were lifted and turned by the cams you see at the top of the mill, now the weights are not necessarily the large round ends you see at the bottom of the vertical shafts, those are the replaceable ends that wear away, the weight comes from the shafts themselves, I have see them 4 inches in diameter and close to 20 feet long weighing in close to a ton I would guess in a five stamp mill and when lifted and dropped almost a foot 60 times a minute x 5, there is not much can stand up to that. The cams were timed so that there was a wave called the California wave of water ( on the wet mills) that went back and forth in the cast iron hopper at the bottom to keep the crushed ore moving and the fines spilling over the top and then down to riffles , amalgam plates or cyanide leach pit, never drink any running water below a mine site because so much cyanide was used to separate gold . Bodie, CA still has a complete set of stamp mills I think that there was seven mills of five in the Standard Mine Co mill. Bigcreek was there any evidence left that you could tell what ran this mill?  steam, water power, or engine, could you tell what they were going for ?   great stuff more pictures please     Tad



Edited by Tad Wicks - 05 Aug 2018 at 4:33pm

I do know outside that building laying on the ground was a fly wheel at least 6' tall on a 20' long shaft with two other smaller fly wheels. I have pictures of every thing but cant load them due to size and cant figure out how to reduce size. There was a  caterpillar engine with a alternator that looks like it ran it at one time as of semi-late but that was not how it was originally ran. Outside the building was a boiler so I am assuming that was the original power. There was a cat crawler down in the timber with a scoop bucket, looked like it would probably run. There was also a set of crawler tracks attached to a frame, not sure what that was for but the tracks had wood bolted to them. What would be the purpose of bolting wood boards (pads) to the tracks?  As for the AC name plate it would be cool to have but Id rather leave it there to be seen in the future.

How far off the road is the mine where you found it?????