Stamp is working
by Charlie Connell

     We ran the stamp mill, with exception of engaging "setting" the stamps for the first time on June 13, 2005. This is the first time that the mill had operated since about 1910.
     The mill is run through a 15 HP, 3 phase, 1180-RPM motor. The mill was originally run by a 60 HP, Western States, single cylinder engine, which is alive and well at Robsons World west of Wickenburg. 
     A jack shaft was utilized to bring the speed of the mill down to about 50 RPM or 100 stamps per minute with an 8" lift for each of the five 1000 pound stamps. A four-foot friction clutch is installed on a jack shaft to activate the operation of the stamps after the motor has come up to speed. The jackshaft is needed to bring the motor speed from 1180 RPM down to 147.5 RPM at the jackshaft then down to 52.68 RPM at the stamps.
     The stamp mill will be placed in service once the platform is installed. The platform will be about 12 feet off the ground and will allow the millmen to engage and disengage the stamps. There is also a
feeder device that is being restored to allow auto feeding of the stamps. These projects should start in the fall when temperatures are milder.

Conservation of Fossil, Mineral and Rock Collections Workshop
By Ray Grant

     Interested in long-term preservation of your mineral or fossil collections? Do you want to know how you can improve your field techniques, documentation, mounting and storage for now and the future?
      There's a two-day workshop coming up soon on the Conservation of Fossil, Mineral and Rock Collections, to be held at the Mesa Southwest Museum. The dates are October 17 & 18, immediately preceding the national Society of Vertebrate Paleontology (SVP) annual meeting, also to be held in Mesa.
     Expert presenters for the workshop are coming from Canada and England: Dr. Robert Waller Chief, Conservation, and Gerald Fitzgerald, Collection Associate, both from the Canadian Museum of
Nature, and Chris Collins, Head, Paleontology Conservation Unit, from the Natural History Museum of London. The format will be lecture,
discussion and hands-on.
     Thanks to a generous donation by the Arizona Mineral and Mining Museum Foundation, the workshop fee has been reduced to $170. Two complimentary registrations have been extended in return, one for a museum staff member and one for an AMMMF member. The Foundation has also offered to partially subsidize the registrations of other members; please contact Phil Richardson for further information for Foundation members.
      To register, go to the SVP website at HYPERLINK "http://www.vertpaleo.org" www.vertpaleo.org, look at 65th Annual Meeting, NEW, and click on Learn more. Registrations can be completed
on-line, or call (847) 480-9095. If you have any questions about the workshop, you are welcome to call Paula Liken at (480) 644-3422.

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