Mark's News

New & Improved KAC Air Compressor !!!

2011-11-09T14:46:00.000-08:00

These are some pictures of our New and improved KAC Air Compressor.

We have totally redesigend the the KAC Air compressor.

New rod and bearing assembly.

New cylinder design.

New reeds for the head.

New reed plate.

New reed high temp silicon O ring seals.

New cylinder head design.

New improved lower Crank rod and bearing support.

New improved air snorkle

The new design is much easier to service and requires no specialty tools to service.

Tools needed for service

4 millimeter allen wrench to remove head bolt and cup seals

# 2 philips head screw driver to remove the fan shroud

5/16" or 8mm socket to remove the screws on the bottom of the fan shroud.

A slotted screw driver with a 3/16 " wide tip to change our the reed screws.

Some loctite #609 green or #262 red or equivalent to securer the 4mm allen bolt that holds the cup seals in place and the reed screws.

New Motor & pump Combination 40 hp + P1500 pump

2011-11-08T14:40:00.000-08:00

Kohler 40 hp

This v-twin cylinder, air-cooled, horizontal-shaft engine is built to last. OHV, cast iron cylinder liners, and aluminum block construction make the 4-cycle, gasoline-powered Command PRO ready for the long haul.

This is one of the lightest most compact motor and pump combination that we have ever seen. The p1500 pump is an amazing compact pump that has no problem driving a 8" dredge down to 40 feet deep. Fuel consumption is about 1.5 Gallons per hour. The Price will be around $5200.00. Capable of driving a 263 air compressor as well. Approximate weight 190 lbs.

Be sure to visit the Keene Engineering Youtube Site

2011-10-19T16:57:00.000-07:00

You can find videos on many of our products such as Dredges, Dry Washer, High bankers, Sluice boxes, Rock crushers and much more.

Keene Youtube Site Click here.

Field Test on the A52P Sluice Box

2011-10-17T13:34:00.000-07:00

Once again my wife and I went up to northern California and did some mining on the Yuba River. I had a chance to really work with the A52P Sluice box for several days.

When I put the sluice box together it took me about 3 to 4 minutes however, this is not my fist time. Someone assembling the sluice box for the fist time would most likely take them about 10 – 15 minutes. With a little practice, it goes together very quickly.

Transporting the sluice box was a pleasure since it is so light and compact. Setting up the sluice box in a river was quick and easy since my buddy Paul already had a location set up. Since the sluice box is not as stiff as a traditional box, it may take a minute or so to support the sluice to keep it in position. Personally, the flex in the sluice it did not hinder me at all. I found the the riffle works very well and it is very forgiving.

Once we had the sluice set up and running, I found it very easy to make the final adjustments. Adjusting the sluice box was easy, I used a few simple rules for adjustment. I would take a small shovel load of unclassified material, small marble size to golf ball size rocks and drop them into the flare. If the rocks tumbled through the sluice box at a slow pace, I new that I had the box working correctly. If the rocks just sat there, I would add some additional water by changing the location or funneling some additional water into the sluice. If the small rocks blew through the sluice with out tumbling I new I had the water to fast or the angle was to steep. I typically ran my sluice box at about 1/2 inch to 1 inch per foot drop. Since the sluice is about 3 feet long a 1.5 inch to to a 3 inch drop is a good starting point. If the water is i running through the sluice too fast, simply reduce the tilt. If the water is slower you can run the sluice at a steeper angle. I found that the depth of the water is not that critical.

We first processed a few 5 gallon buckets of 1/2" classified material. The sluice worked flawlessly. In fact the rubber mat in the flare caught most of the gold. We used a gold bottle snifter to suck the larger pieces that were trapped in the flare. We where able to run the a five gallon bucket of unclassified material very quickly. I was extremely impressed by the performance of our new rubber riffle. We were finding a good amount of gold, both course gold, "Pickers" and some very fine gold, little pin head size pieces. I checked the tailing of the sluice box for any loss and we found nothing.

In this particular area "Paul's hole", we wear digging in wet material and found it very difficult to classify the clayish material. So we fed the damp clayish material directly into the sluice box. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the sluice box had no problem handling the unclassified material. It was much more effective not to classify due to being wet and clay bound. We did have to run the material slower due to the high clay concentration. So we fed the sluice with a hand trowel and worked the material by hand, breaking up the clay. We where able process more material and found more gold by eliminating the classifying.

Paul is an experienced prospector and he is more patient than I. It was difficult to watch him work the material so slowly. I found that when running the sluice box alone, I could run the least twice a much material as shown in the video. However, I am just running in overdrive most of the time. My wife keeps telling me to slow down, slow down.

The only thing that is did not care for was taking the sluice box apart. Once the sand gets packed into all the joints, it was a little tricky disassembling the sluice. I had to first clean the sluice box thoroughly. Remove the rubber riffle and place the sluice underwater and wiggle the side rails to work the sand out that had impacted the joints. Rather than tear the sluice down completely after each use, I just pulled the 2 center pins our and just folded it in half.

Overall I loved the sluice box and I will be using it again on my next adventure. The recovery is amazing. The clean up was quick and easy. The riffles had no problem handling unclassified material. I have many customers tell me how they love the sluice box and tell of their experiences. I have even had some customers tell me of their dissatisfaction due to the lighter construction, but I still think it is worth considering due to its portability and its superior recovery. So keep all these factors in mind when choosing your next sluice box. We will be using its riffle material in our be Industrial 10" dredge we currently are building for the African market.

Mark Keene

To See the Video Click Here.

New Product: New Clean up Power Sluice.

2011-10-14T15:11:00.000-07:00

These are few pictures of the new clean up sluice box we tested on my vacation. My wife and I took a trip up to the north fork of the Yuba river. We stopped at a little RV park called Yuba camp. Yuba Camp has both RV parking and cabins. We were fortunate enough to park only 10 feet from the waters edge. We met a nice couple name Paul and Sandy that were already doing some mining in the campground area. Paul was already producing some nice gold working between to large boulders. He was kind enough to join us, while testing our new mini power sluice. This machine is set up mainly for cleaning the concentrate of larger dredges as seen in a previous blogs. I chose to take this power sluice, since it is light and folds into very compact little package. When staying in a RV, space is critical. Both Paul and I really enjoyed working this little machine since it was easy to transport and had amazing recovery. The sluice box is lined with our new KSCRM "Miracle Mat". The Miracle mat works great and is easy to adjust leaving very little material to pan out. The spray bar was very effective with the stainless steel mesh on the hopper. This was a good test as we had a lot clay in the material. In fact. most of the gold was located the clay layer. The whole machine worked beyond my expectations. We powered it with one of our (P90G) a 2.5 hp Honda engine and and combination pump. This is the ideal set up for powering this machine, in fact we never had to turn the engine 40% throttle of its capacity. When using the power sluice to clean up larger dredges we power it from the main dredge pump blaster assembly. This is currently just a prototype and should be available by spring time 2012. I would estimate the price to be around $495.00.

Video coming Soon!!!!

2011-07-27T11:23:00.000-07:00

Coming Soon

These are a few pictures of a 6" dredge running up in Nome Alaska.

We used a blaster nozzle set-up connected directly to the Unit for the water flow. At a slow idle it was enough water to effectively drive the Unit. By using the valve on either the blaster nozzle or the Unit we could cut the water flow enough to run the Unit while we had a diver in the water. After a clean-up of the dredge we would restart dredging and run the cons through the Unit in a fraction of the time it used to take. All of the minus 3/16" gold was in the mat and we would then pan the rocks for nuggets. The sluice is lined with the Miracle Matting. The fine gold recovery is simply unsurpassed. The matting is around 11 inches wide and 35 inches long.

Nessie 8DX Cutter Head Dredge Available for Rent

2011-02-10T16:15:00.000-08:00

Keene Engineering now offers rental service of its Nessie 8DX!

The 8DX Nessie Dredge can move up to 200 yards per hour and

transport material over 4000 feet. Greater distance can be achieved

with the use of a booster pump. We will travel anywhere in the continental USA

We can Transport the dredge in one load. No heavy equipment need for unloading and loading. We can launch the dredge in poor launch ramp conditions

Nessie 8DX dredge working in Martha,s Vineyard Ma.

8DX dredge being launched into Malibu lake Ca.

Dredge traveling across lake to get to dredge site.

Typical dredge discharge about 2500 Gallons Per Minute running around 30% solids 175 yards per hours plus.

New Mini 8" cutter head built to work in tight areas and under docks. Can work at deeper depths and reach further distances.

This is a clay cutter head cage designed to work in heavy clay conditions.

Some Recent Pictures dredging in Africa

2011-01-27T17:52:00.001-08:00

Working the new (KSR1) Super Concentrator in Mali, West Africa

Working the new (GW25) in Mali, West Africa

This Keene Boys next big adventure. Auric Explorer

2011-01-12T16:50:00.000-08:00

This is the new 165 hp engine and the new nose float for the dredge.

This is the new p1500 pump with a special marine grade aluminum. The Pedestal and impeller have been hard anodized. The housing is equipped with a 5" quick release and the 4" stainless steel discharge nipple. The shaft is stainless steal as well. We have even upgraded the bearing to the best available.

These are some pictures of the floats with a bottom design that should allow the dredge to come up on plane.

This picture shows how the 3 by rectangular float drops into the float and the cap bolts onto the top of the float.

This is bottom view of the float

This is a model of a new 10" or 12" dredge that we are going to build hopefully before May of this year 2011. This beast is 45 feet long by 14 feet wide. Driven by twin 225 H.P. Honda outboard engines and can reach speeds up to 30 Knots to outrun the Nome storms and get further out in the ocean. This system will have a dual level sluice and only 3/16 minus will hit the 48" x 20' long super sluice using the new rubber riffles and custom vacuum cleaning system when running. This dredge will be the "state of art" commercial super dredge with a 160 H.P. Duetz turbo engine. The cabin will be 10' x 10' to accommodate 3 sleepers and some basic amenities. One of the unique things about this dredge is it can be broken down to fit into a 40 foot ocean freight container. This will be a very serious challenge to get this built and on a barge by may.

My brother Patrick and I are not getting any younger and we figure lets give it one last big push to find some serious gold. You now the stuff we all dream about!!! Typically we go up to Yuba Rive in northern Ca. and go mining for about 3 weeks. Due to the moratorium this becomes much tougher. For year we have been listening to stories of our customers. They do very well in Alaska, Africa and many other parts over the world. This is our time!!!

My Brother Patrick spent a few months up in Nome Ak. last summer. Patrick learned a tremendous amount of information from the local mining community. He spent a lot of time with the ocean dredges and some of the crew from the GPAA camp including Tom Massie. Patrick even helped with the Sarah Palin's Alaska show. We also leaned this place is like no other place we have ever experienced and requires a different type of equipment.

We will also be able to perfect the ultimate dredge platform for a 10" 12" and even a 14" dredge. This barge will have many other applications as well. We are spending a lot of time and money doing everything to incorporate the latest technology, building molds and tooling. Can you tell that we are excited? This is sounds like it will great fun and a challenge. We are lucky we have had some help from design engineers like Dave Knowlen and many others helping us with engineering and design.

You can get this 'bad boy" dredge next year. Regarding price, we have no idea new especially with all the stainless steel and marine grade aluminum components.. We should have a better idea of pricing after we complete our test model.

Wish us luck!!!

Mark

Getting Gold With Keene’s Model 6218 Six " Dredge

2010-11-12T16:56:00.000-08:00

Product Report:

Getting Gold With Keene’s Model 6218 Six-Inch Dredge

By David Knowlen

I’ve long held a personal fondness for a particular six-inch gold dredge.

I have my reasons.

Truth be told, if I still owned that old Keene “six-shooter” I’d likely mount it on my shop’s wall, if not for anything else but to have it around for the memories it still produces.

As for my past dredging experiences you should first know that in my thirty-plus years of gold dredging and prospecting, I’ve worked with literally all sizes of suction dredges, from eight-inch commercial rigs all the way down to a two-inch backpacker model. I found that all did produce a high amount of recovery when dredging in a gold bearing area.

One old-time dredger, who went by the nickname of “Old Ed”, told me long ago, “Give me a gold-paying location and I’ll make ANY size of gold dredge perform well.” Ed’s sage wisdom indeed proved to be valid.

Especially true was another of his philosophies, that when dredging on larger rivers and especially in white water areas, dredge size does matter. In more challenging locations having the shear power of a larger gold dredge can determine either finding some good fortune, or just another day of exercising in a lot of effort only to get skunked. With one of Keene’s larger gold dredges from that era, a well-used six-inch unit, Terry, my dredging partner, and I, had particularly good fortune.

So my fondness for my old Keene ‘six-shooter’, is that I honestly had my best ever gold recovery with that size of suction dredge.

It was more than two decades ago, on a mining claim located in California’s historic Yuba River, where we worked a bedrock outcropping in mid-stream and, after moving a couple of huge boulders along with several tons of overburden, we found gold. In fact we recovered an abundance of gold. Call it coincidence but that old Keene dredge combined with this great gold bearing location and some good fortune proved that the right combination that would deliver many dozens of ounces of beautiful California gold to two dedicated and hard working gold dredgers. I smile every time when I think about that event.

Back in those days, this model of Keene dredge featured a 16 horsepower Vanguard engine and an air compressor adequate for two divers. It also came equipped with a good performing sluice box, all floating on those old familiar yellow Keene pontoons from that era. We worked in a deep canyon where it was one heck of an effort to locate our dredge on the claim, but once launched the dredge performed well and enabled us to find our small fortune. We did not hit the preverbal "mother lode", but in our evaluation, we did do exceptionally well.

Now that I am in my senior years, my personal memories of those special days, dredging on that highly productive claim with that old ‘six’, remains especially clear. I also have kept some of the nuggets we recovered just to recall that exciting experience.

Page One

Page Two, “Getting Gold”, continued.

Today, I still enjoy some light duty dredging but my preference now is with a smaller and lighter Keene dredge models. My favorite is called an "Ultra-4". I feel that I still do pretty well in recovering gold. But what does this have to do with Keene’s latest version of their latest six-inch dredge model, the Model 6218? Well, here’s why.

Recently I had the opportunity to join several other gold dredgers, to mine and dredge on a well-known Southwest Oregon river claim where gold has been historically plentiful. Lauren, a mining friend, who also has the nickname “Star Wars”, that is another story, recently had purchased a new Keene Model 6218 six-inch gold dredge. He showed up with his new dredge along with several other dredgers who brought along their three and four-inch units.

When compared to the earlier versions of this dredge size this new model has a lot of impressive features that were just not included on my old Keene ‘six-shooter’, like twin 9-horsepower Hondas and the new Keene PHP500 high-output pumps. It also had Keene’s popular three-stage sluice box and, best of all; it came equipped with Keene’s new “Miracle Matting”, strategically located at the upper end of the sluice. This mat has pre-formed, molded rubber riffles that amazingly traps particles of fine gold like no other material. I’m told that this stuff has a high co-efficient of contact friction which simply is a technical term for just being exceptionally “sticky”. And frankly, I wish I had some of that matting many years ago.

This new dredge is also more balanced that my older model and the many added features it has are too long to describe in this article. It looked like it could perform well just sitting in the water near the shoreline.

Several of the group helped Lauren locate his dredge into what we hoped would be a promising location. It took more than a little muscle to move this larger dredge upriver where a long stretch of rapids terminates into a broad and curving back pressure area. Miner’s logic might tell you that this could be a good place to sample and with two divers working underwater and a top man keeping the operation going, Lauren and team began tearing into the river’s deeper overburden (See Photo #1). Those operating the dredge nozzle dredge noted that this dredge really offers high power performance and more than ample suction capability for quickly removing larger cobbles and composite overburden, and the sluice proved to be easy to check for any accumulated values. Best of all the new rubber matting makes any recovered gold, quite easy to see.

This particular river is famous for the generous amount of black sand that dredgers can quickly recover and we noted an important fact, that when setting the sluice at a shallow angle in fast moving water, the amount of retained material can quickly weigh down the dredge’s standard pontoon floatation. After discussing this later with Mark Keene we both agree that six-inch dredge customers should strongly consider purchasing the available outrigger accessory unit, especially when dredging in white water locations. The added floatation dramatically improves this dredge’s stability.

Lauren and team operated his six-inch dredge for several weeks, and in a variety of river locations including some deepwater dredge holes. Best of all they found some gold for their efforts, on this river and also on another famous gold bearing Oregon river located several miles north.

Page Two

Page Two, “Getting Gold”, continued.

All said they concur that this unit performed very well and that the gold retention was excellent. I had to return home so I did not get to remain with the group during their later operations but I can easily tell you from my experiences that Keene got this design right. The 6218 is a great gold dredge.

Just wish I had one of these units back some twenty plus years ago on the Yuba.

End,

A52P Sluice Box are now in Stock

2010-10-11T15:15:00.000-07:00

The New A52P Sluice Box's are currently available. They are going fast, so get your order in now!

Prospecting on the Beaches of Nome Alaska

2010-08-26T13:06:00.000-07:00

Patrick Keene working our new "Nome Sluice Box" on the beach of Nome, Alaska. This unit was so successful that the Gold Prospectors Association order a large quantity of them and incorporated them on their annual beach prospecting adventure.

Reports have acclaimed that our new sluice is processing greater amounts than ever before and all are getting generous amounts of gold.

This pan is a clean up from one of the ocean dredges dredging off the coast of Nome Alaska. Your looking at 67 ounces of pure gold all in one day's take.

The following picture is Pat Keene again working his Power Sluice on one of Alaska's small streams in the gold country. Although he looks serious he is getting good catch of gold. He reported 2 ounces for his efforts that day.

GW25 are in and available $439.95

2010-08-02T12:48:00.000-07:00

Update 10/5/10

We are now filling new wheel orders. We have filled all our back orders as of today.

Update 9/15/10

We are shipping the GW25 wheels out every day. We have about 12 backorders left to out by the early part of next week. Newer order will be shipped later part of next week.

Update 8/27/10

The spray bars are in. They look good and work great. We doing some testing right now and everything appears to be perfect. We had to use the 2 small auxiliary ports to add a little additional water to the outside of the bowl.

We hope to be shipping Tuesday Wednesday of next week.

Update 8/26/10

Unfortunately the spray is on hold until Monday. We want to make sure everything fits correctly.

This picture illustrates what comes with the GW25 package.

We do not supply a 12 volt battery or a standard 5 gallon bucket. It would cost more to ship the 5 gallon bucket than what it is worth.

Update 8/24/10

We are waiting for the updated spray bars. It will be a few more days before we can test the wheels for final testing with the new spray bars. We just want the everything to be perfect the first time. Once again sorry for the delays. The wait will be worth it.

Update 8/20/10 We are currently waiting for the new spray bar It has been delayed until Wednesday of next week. These are the latest spray bars however we have to make a few more minor changes. Nothing is every easy.

Update 8/16/10

We are currently waiting for the new updated spray bars with the additional water spray nozzles . The updated spray bars should be ready for testing around Aug 19th. If everything works as expected we will should be shipping a few days later.

This new unit has proven to be one of the most sought after gold recovery devices we have ever experienced.

Due to the many changes that we have made we are experiencing delays in shipments. Today (February 28, 2011), we received a dozen units and these will only fill a small portion of our back orders. We expect to have them in very soon and should be able to fill all of our back orders, We thank all of our loyal customers for their patience. We are doing our best to satisfy all of our customers. I suggest that you get your orders in as soon as possible to avoid expected delays in the near future.

New 8142 Gold & Diamond Dredge Kubota Diesel Powered

2010-06-11T13:07:00.000-07:00

This is our newest portable 8 inch commercial dredge that is designed for the recovery of both gold and gem recovery.

Powered by a lightweight 4 cylinder turbo charged 42 hp Kubota Diesel Engine that provides extremely high performance, reliability and economy.

The new Kubota diesel engine drives our bullet Proof P1500 pump that produces 1500 Gallons per minute providing ample suction for depths to 45 feet. This is the world’s lightest, quietest and id the most compact commercial dredge.

The sluice box contains our world famous "3 stage sluice recovery design". The first eight foot portion of the recovery box is designed to capture all the fine gold. The last 8 foot of sluice box is great on gold recovery and excels in diamond and gem recovery.

This new dredge can be dissasembled into small lightweight components for transporting by hand. This dredge can be easily transported in the back of a truck and a medium size trailer. The engine, pump, compressor combination weighs only 500 lbs. this is several hundred pounds lighter than our other diesel engines powered 8" dredges.

The dredge deck 24 feet in length providing a spacious deck in front of the engine 8 feet wide by 6 feet in length. It is also equipped with a secondary dredge system that vacuums the concentrates from the sluice box while the dredge is in full operation. The concentrates can then be delivered to another clean-up device or into storage containers. The concentrates can then be transported to shore and processed through other concentrating methods. The ability to clean the riffles and operate continuously, greatly enhances both recovery and productivity.

Subject

Customer upgrading a older 8236e dredge to single diesel engine Model 8142DE for the Congo DRC Africa.

Dear Vlad,

Check out my blog. We ran the 42 hp Kubota diesel engine and wow it did it do great job. It was very smooth and quite. The power was scary, You could not get your hand with with 16 inches or so or it would simply suck you in.

I am going to make a slight change in the pulley ratio. by speeding the pump up slightly. We can run the engine at lower speed and get the fuel economy down around a 1 to 1.1/4 gallons per hour. This slight pulley change will also increase our power by at least 15% over the monster suction power already present.

We are also going to add another "A" frame cross member to support the end of the frame to keep the deck in a more flat position.

We added one float in length in front of the engine which also made a great working platform.

The muffler and belt guard worked great. It was very easy to adjust the belts and service the pump.

Mounting the Kubota on your dredges should be an easy task. Just weld some angle iron rails to the inside top corners of the frame. The Kubota is at least 250 lbs lighter than the Deutz diesel engine package.

Kubota technicians where present at our test and they verified the application and everything went well. If fact the engine was working only at a load of approximately 75 % at full throttle. The Kubota technicians only fell into the water once!

Mark Keene

http://markkeeneeng.blogspot.com/

First Feed Back on a 52P Sluice Box

2010-06-07T13:33:00.000-07:00

This is the first field report that we have received on the new A52P sluice box
I just got back to a computer with over 300 posts and its raining like crazy today so I'll get caught up on what's happening. That new Keene sluice box (A52P) is INCREDIBLE for picking up fine gold! I've been going through some of the fines from the sluice and I'm getting gold that is so fine I can hardly see it! I have a hard time not washing it down in the pan trying to seperate it. It's not just one or two specs either. I can't believe the sluice picked it up! I don't have a camera here but I'll try to get a picture of some of it. How small can you still see... 150 to 250 mesh? I wouldn't be suprised if you couldn't run silt through it and get the gold out of it! I had water running slow and I had it running fast because the river was surging and it didn't seem to matter. Alot of the bigger gold would stick on the Y tray leading into the sluice... this thing is amazing! If you are running a dredge you are crazy not to get this blue mat and put it down... that's when they start selling it.
I've got a couple of buckets of the classified stuff that I didn't run throught the sluice that I'm going to take back and run it over the Keene ST-1 magnetic table and see which one picks up the most fine stuff. I can't believe I'm losing any on the sluice because of how fine the stuff I have is!
OH... the reason I didn't run the 2 buckets through the sluice... it had been raining and when I got back to my sluice maybe 10 minutes later it had washed down the river! That caused a severe case of "urinary discomfort" to say the least. I was just getting started to get serious in running material over the sluice because I knew what it was doing and... bye bye. Denis

Mark... here are some pictures of the super fine gold that I got using the new a52p sluice box. when I dried it to get some of the silica and black sand away from the gold and then poured it back into the vile you can see the gold that was floating on top of the water! this is unreal that the sluice can get gold that actually floats on top of the water!
Have you sent my new sluice box out yet to replace the one I had wash down the river?

Denis Perron

The New A52 Folding Sluice box is in Stock.

2010-05-12T15:02:00.000-07:00

These are some possibilities of different ways to set up the box.

In Stock ready to sell.

The new Amazing A52P Sluice boxes are in Stock.

Introductory Price $99.95

Top picture shows the sluice box assembled.

The Second Picture shows the sluice in its bag

The Third pictures shows the sluice Disassembled

See video at bottom of page.

2010-03-12T16:48:00.000-08:00

Welcome Mark’s Blog. See the latest innovations, new products and tests as they are performed. Also see some of the most recent pictures of operations in Africa and other countries throughout the world. See the latest features & instructing videos

http://www.youtube.com/user/keeneengineering

This is link to our youtube site, check out both downloads and favorites.

New Keene Nome High Banker

2010-03-11T15:28:00.000-08:00

This is a new sluice box that is specifically built to handle the difficult conditions up in Nome Alaska. The entire Sluice box is lined with the Keene Supper Rubber Riffle matting. It is approximately 22 inches wide by 6 feet long.

The sluice box and lower frame breaks into 2 section for easy transportation.

The hopper folds down reducing the volume of the hopper.

All 6 legs are independent so that it can be set up easily and quickly even in rough terrain.

The top hopper is set up with a 1/4" woven wire mesh.

This high banker has already been tested and very successfully used on the beaches of Nome last year.

Keene Engineering,s New Youtube Videos

2010-03-04T16:30:00.001-08:00

Check out our latest instructional Videos on YouTube

Rock Crusher and Shaker Table

New Instructional video on 151 dry washer. Cover Assembly Operation and Clean up.

Instruction on the New Keene A52P Fold up Sluice Box

Keene Air Compresor Assembly.

YouTube - keeneengineering's Channel

2010-03-03T19:25:00.000-08:00

The Custom Clean up Sluice Box was built as a back up system for large shaker table system. This makes a great redundant recovery system. This will also be used to clean up a larger Commercial Dredge Sluice box.

There are three different types of riffles.

1. The standard A52 sluice box riffle

2. The new polyurethane riffle from of our new A52P fold up sluice box.

3. Riffle is the new Keene supper concentrator rubber riffle.

The combination of riffles work great in any type of condition, especially for large dredge concentrates.

New HP500 Pumps 13 hp Honda KAC1 Comp. Installed

2010-02-16T17:08:00.000-08:00

A52P Sluice Box Folding Sluice Box

2010-02-04T21:19:00.000-08:00

Keene Engineering has developed a new Folding Sluice Box. It folds into a small bag as shown and has an amazing new rubber riffle design that works fantastic in both fast and slow water conditions. The flare is equipped with its own mini riffle design for early reading. We have tested the riffle design for several years and are amazed at its high capacity and perfection in fine gold recovery. This new design cleans up quickly and easily. We have run concentrates from a large commercial dredge through the sluice box and it quickly processed all the heavy black sand and concentrates. This new sluice has exceeded our expectations in performance and we are confident that this will change the way sluice boxes are built in the future. The sluice box is 10 inches wide with an 18-inches wide flare. The two recovery sections are 20 inches in length, totaling 51 inches in overall length. It weighs only 9 pounds and is designed to hold up and endure harsh field conditions. Another great feature is that you can shorten or lengthen by adding or subtracting sections that takes only a minute or so. All this for under $100.00

New Product Magic Fingers Part Number MF1 $19.95

2010-02-01T15:33:00.000-08:00

Originally developed for Metal detectors and it worked so well that is now used in a variety of other applications. Ideal for Metal detectors,
crevassing, dry washing high banking, dredging and much more. The individual fingers contour to the irregular surface conditions. The independent fingers maximize the digging capacities in all conditions. The fingers can be spaced by simply sliding the hard Anodized aluminum spreader to different widths to meet the needs of different applications. Magic fingers are simply a tough tool and can really handle heavy usage. Constructed out of indestructible polyurethane handle with tempered steal fingers with. The handle is set up with a loop for use for hanging use with lanyard etc. Rips through hard pack and scoops loose sand effortlessly. Diggs quickly through a variety of conditions to include weed and root embedded material. Comes in a verity of colors. Orange, Green, Yellow, Blue Pink, Red and black . Part of the proceeds go to the PLP public lands for the people.

Keene's updated Machine Shop

2010-01-21T16:11:00.000-08:00

These are a few pictures of our machine shop. We use both old and new school methods of manufacturing.

One of the great features of our new CNC Mill is we can make pump with greater precision and custom little tricks that would not be cost effective by hand.

We are one of the last family owned and operated manufactures around since 1955. We build about 99% of all our products in our factory in Chatsworth Ca.

Made In the USA with pride!

Show below is our machinist Ron H.
Ron has been with us for over 41 years. He is doing some of the final touches on our P1500 pump.

Shown here is our new HP500 pump coming off of the CNC Mill.

This is just a quick video of the Mill doing it job.

New Concentrator for 8040 Clean up Series dredge

2009-11-25T12:52:00.000-08:00

Keene “ULTRA-2.5” 2-1/2 Inch Dredge Tests

2009-10-01T14:14:00.000-07:00

Product Operational Test Results and Report by Dave Knowlen

Test Date: September 30, 2009

Test Location: Washington State’s Peshastin Creek off State Highway 97 near Blewitt Pass and located within historic Blewitt gold mining district and Mineral Springs in Washington’s north central Cascade Mountains. Tests were conducted on the North American Miner’s Association mining claim. Participants included the author and two other experienced dredgers. Full product report will be submitted with author’s photographs of the test operations.

Test Conditions: Depth of creek in all test locations was shallow due to low creek flow. All locations selected were too shallow to permit underwater diving. Dredge operators included Dave Knowlen, Bob Cleveland and Mike Tilden who concurred on the overall evaluation and the results of this test.

General Test Description and Results: Dredge was operated in different creek locations and in varying depths of water and volume/rate of flow. Standard Keene intake nozzle was used. Settings of sluice varied from four inches to twenty inches from upper stop. Optimum sluice settings appeared to be at approx. 12-14 inches downward with engine throttle operating at 60-70%.

New dredge sluice size was 12 inch in width and 40 inches in length. This configuration functioned very well with excellent gold recovery and retention with majority (over 90%) of fine gold, flakes and small nuggets located on Keene’s new riffle rubber matting. Some small modifications were made prior to the tests including trimming to the rubber mat plate to improve sluice disassembly for ease of dredge clean-up. A .180 inch shim was installed under the joggled aluminum mat retainer in the upper jet flare to permit easier assembly.

Engine/pump during tests was operated from idle to full throttle and we strived in all set-ups for determining an optimum speed for water volume, suction and flow to compliment the sluice angle settings to allow maximum recovery. Pump performed exceptionally well and nozzle suction was noted as strong and consistent throughout all power ranges and settings. Pump provided excellent volume for this sluice size. No loading of the sluice box with rocks/cobbles was noted and sluice cleaned itself well even at lower engine settings. Only one mid-hose plug-up was encountered.

Overall Observations/Recommendations:

Dredge sluice size (40” X 12”) is excellent for this setup and riffle placement is good. This design needs no additional modifications or configuration changes.
Operators noted no problem with the existing floatation which is generally adequate for the overall dredge weight even under considerable loading conditions.
New rubber matting did retain virtually all recovered gold (approx. 95%) below and within the formed rubber riffles. We had to remove the larger pieces of gold with a tweezers or sweep the mat with a utility brush to remove the fine gold as the matting provides strong adhesion to retain the values.
While the altered sluice design was used with a stock 2-1/2 inch jet flare it appears the dredge might perform more effectively with a wider 12 inch wide jet flare over the supplied ten inch unit which will make the removal of the rubber matting/plate easier for the operator during dredge cleanup.
In an earlier test this unit was operated with a smaller Honda 2.5 hp engine and P-95 pump and we noted the water volume appeared to be inadequate for this new and larger sluice size; however the smaller Honda engine works well with the current 10 inch sluice.
We highly recommend that Keene design and manufacture a 2.5 inch swivel nozzle to compliment this new dredge model which will improve operation.

New Keene Pump HP160

2009-09-29T13:12:00.000-07:00

This is the latest Keene pump the New HP160. This new pump has a 2" intake and 1.5" threaded discharge. The new HP160 is constructed out of a heat treated T6 aluminum alloy. This is the highest performance pump on the market today. The pump produces over 200 GPM and can produce over 185 foot of head. This is simply the best pump available. Our goal was produce the a high performance pump that will power a 2.5 and a 3" dredge with no problem. We also wanted a pump with a high head pressure or higher PSI rating. The higher head pressure makes this pump ideal for high bankers especially when you have to pump water hundreds of feet away. The pump can be powered by a 3.5 to 6 hp engine depending the impeller diameter.

New Mini 6" dredge with the new HP500 pump

2009-09-25T17:49:00.000-07:00

New Model 6113E

This is a new mini 6" dredge we are working on. Powered by a 13 hp Honda engine with electric start and 12 volt auto priming. We tested it earlier this year on the Yuba and our friends loved it.

Great power, Easy to use, Electric start and priming made the whole experience a dream. He ran the engine at 70% throttle with tons of power to spare. The new compressor had no problem running 2 divers working hard.

The new HP500 pump is stile under some development however we are selling them currently. The pump can be mounted on a key way shaft or a 1" threaded shaft. The hp500 can run on as little as a 9 hp up to a 25 hp engine depending on the impeller cut. It can develop over 200 foot of head pressure.

You will notice one other unique thing about the new pump. We have come up with a new pump housing design that pulls both pressure and velocity off to the side of the pump. This makes the perfect location to attach a blaster assembly. The blaster hose helps blow out cracks and crevices underwater when dredging. Also the pump is constructed out of a high grade T6 heat treated aluminum, ensuring decades of top performance.

New improved 8" with 2 x 23 hp Vanguards

2009-09-11T17:46:00.000-07:00

This is the latest 8246 standard mini 8" dredge with 23 hp Vanguard gasoline engines.

Very portable easy to transport.

Fuel consumption is around

1.5 to 2 Gallons per hour.

New Improved 6" and 8" gold and diamond dredge

2009-09-10T16:29:00.000-07:00

These are a few pictures of the latest 8" Mini Gold Diamond Dredge. This model is set up with dual 23 hp Vanguard engines.

We can set up this dredge with 2 smaller engines 10 hp Yanmar diesel engines for a 6" Dredge. 2 x lombardini 19 hp diesel engines for a 8".

We just upgraded the dredge with a new improved jet support system and some frame improvements and a better hose clamping system.

This is a lot of dredge for under 18,000.00. Very Professional and portable can be broken down in to small section to be transported in by hand.

The Sluice box shown is our combo sluice box built for both gold and gem stones. The first half of the sluice box is set up for gold and gemstones the second half is set up for mainly gemstone recovery.

Keene's New Super Power Sluice

2009-09-03T10:52:00.000-07:00

Click here to see the Youtube video

This is a new Power Sluice that is 20 inches wide 8 feet long. This is a very serious piece of equipment that should produce several tons an hour. The 8 foot long sluice box is one of the longest we have ever built as a stock machine. We have designed it so that it can accommodate additional lengths as well.

Patrick Keene is leaving on a mining vacation for the next 2 weeks starting 9/5/09

Pat is going to be testing and making refinements to the Power Sluice for the next few weeks.

I will be posting updates as I get them from Patrick

Mark

THE NEW SUPER CONCENTRATOR

2009-08-21T16:48:00.000-07:00

These are a few pictures that one of our customers sent us.

I would estimate about 5 ounces. How would you like to have a clean up like that every day. I get all warm and fuzzy thinking about it.

Nessie 8DX 8 inch Cutter Head Dredge Rental

2009-08-20T10:23:00.000-07:00

Keene Engineering now offers rental service of its Nessie 8DX!

The 8DX Nessie Dredge can move up to 200 yards per hour and

transport material over 3000 feet. Greater distance can be achieved

with the use of a available booster pump. We will travel anywhere in

the continental USA

We can Transport the dredge in one load. No heavy equipment need for unloading and loading. We can launch the dredge in poor launch ramp conditions

The last 2 pictures are of our latest dredge cabin. This is the most user friendly

cabin we have ever had. You have full proportional electronic joy sticks

plus you have the reliability of a redundant mechanical overrides right in

front of you.

For information or a rental application, please contact:

Mark Keene
Keene Engineering Incorporated
20201 Bahama Street, Chatsworth, California 91311
Tel. (818)-993-0411 Fax. (818)-993-0447
E-mail: mark@keeneeng.com Web site www.keeneeng.com