24V Infinity Jet submersible gold sucker.... or so I hope

Dogumentor

Tenderfoot
Feb 28, 2015
8
9
Australia
Detector(s) used
ML GPX 5000
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
You may want to question my sanity here as to why do I want to do such an infinity jet.....just get a proper gas powered dredge and be done. I will do my best reclaiming my sanity and explain, with lots of documentations ( as in Dogumentor:notworthy:) how this came about.

I kind of graduated from metal detecting (ML 5000) do river dredging/sluicing. I re located to Taiwan with an AP submersible sluice and headed to a spot where I have watched some locals sniping nuggets (diving goggles to 1m deep) from shallow water. There I tried that AP thingy, it is just not working, fills the riffle box with gravel and chucks everything right over it and out. It is also too bulky to operate in most of the places I want to use it.

In this river, there are tens of thousands of cracks and crevices, for a stretch of about 12 Km. The most natural gold trap made by nature. So I watch the guys snipping nuggets, and others do some panning the fine gold along its banks.....makes me think: The snipers miss all the fines.....

Prospecting regulations are a gray area where as long as you do not employ machinery (like gas powered dredge) they leave you alone.

So I cannibalized the battery and 24v bilge pump from the AP thingy and started to build my own. I settled on an infinity pump as this seemed more powerful. I realized the many shortcomings of such a set up and challenge my self to overcome them.

In a nut shell:
-as small a device as possible
-as unobtrusive as possible
-portability a must
-Infinity jet principle
-sub surface operated
-fluid bed gold trap( ?? )

The jet development can be followed here

Martin Zaugg

I got a good jet going, excellent suction, but my various gold traps just not work well. I suffer all the common problems. Now I had this new idea: Get rid of the material blockage with this ' fluidized bed' technology.


A few pics:

SAM_2098.JPG
All the different jets I build, they all work, some better. I tested what is minimum and maximum size for my 24v 4700 gal/hr pump.

SAM_2101.JPG
My favorite jet

SAM_2104.JPG
Jet inside

SAM_2106.JPG
Do I really need such a long jet forming tube? Need to try out again.

SAM_2121.JPG
New Idea.....

SAM_2123.JPG
...something like that?

I am playing with a few more ideas and set-ups. Please give me your thoughts on this.
Thanks mate

Cheers all

Martin aka Dogumentor
 

Last edited:

Reed Lukens

Silver Member
Jan 1, 2013
2,653
5,417
Congres, AZ/ former California Outlawed Gold Miner
Detector(s) used
Tesoro Vaquero, Whites MXT, Vsat, GMT, 5900Di Pro, Minelab GPX 5000, GPXtreme, 2200SD, Excalibur 1000!
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
For the infinity jet I would think that the angled input would put way more water to the one side. I really don't think that pump is putting out enough water for the size pipe that you're using. Just for a test, put a second pump on and tee it in to the jet as is and see if this solves the flow problem. You have a much bigger jet inlet then is needed for the small pump.
 

OP
OP
D

Dogumentor

Tenderfoot
Feb 28, 2015
8
9
Australia
Detector(s) used
ML GPX 5000
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
You may have a good point there, in fact I have the same size pump with a T inlet, you may spot them in the first picture. Both have excellent suction and move gravel through the pipe no problem. But I do meed to device and set up a way to actually measure that suction. If any one has a simple way to do that, let me know. Never done this, I guess a vacuum gauge of some sorts....

I am serious to make this thing work. A test tank is being set up, later I will post on you tube as well. Better get a water proof camera....I have got new drawings (or sketches, I no longer waste time on detailed drawings) in the works, including a whole new, flared jet design. But for now, I make do with what I have.

Cheers
 

Timberdoodle

Sr. Member
Oct 17, 2012
316
240
Kingfield, Maine
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
you can build a U-tube manometer with some clear tubing and a yardstick very inexpensively. There are also some inexpensive digital meters on ebay (pyle pdmm01 goes to 55inh20 or Pyle pdmm15 has a higher range if using a gas pump and really cranking it)
A flared exhaust works better from my experience and I think you'll like the results. This also helps keep the jet orifice restriction length short. Any length longer than 1/4" simply takes more energy and you don't have much to start with in a bilge pump.
The "jet forming tube" or exhaust length must be long enough to transfer all the energy to the water column to create the hydraulic piston. The length is dependent on the diameter of the jet, I have built them and cut off 1" at a time to see when suction starts to diminish. Basically a good rule of thumb for this type of jet is to keep this length at least 4x the diameter of the jet (so 8" long for a 2" jet) you will be good.
 

OP
OP
D

Dogumentor

Tenderfoot
Feb 28, 2015
8
9
Australia
Detector(s) used
ML GPX 5000
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Thanks Timberdoodle, this is great info. I will later put up a few sketches with my other ideas, especially the fluidized bed thing, went through airports recently and had plenty of time for sketching and may have come up with a pretty neat solution.
I need about 2 weeks to set up testing tank and get all the gauges etc. Will keep you posted.
 

OP
OP
D

Dogumentor

Tenderfoot
Feb 28, 2015
8
9
Australia
Detector(s) used
ML GPX 5000
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Hi all,

I shall be back soon. I got discouraged last year as some looser pinched my special battery charger for my Lithium batteries. Now I will get some 12V bilge pump and re do a radical new design...fluid bed underwater infinity jet gold sucker....what a mouth full. Keep you posted.
 

Subdredger

Banned
Nov 14, 2017
39
48
Detector(s) used
Goldbug 2 ,Makro gold racer,custom built Pi,
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Build them like this.

Hi all,

I shall be back soon. I got discouraged last year as some looser pinched my special battery charger for my Lithium batteries. Now I will get some 12V bilge pump and re do a radical new design...fluid bed underwater infinity jet gold sucker....what a mouth full. Keep you posted.

image.jpeg image.jpeg

2,3,4, and 6 inch sub dredges ,electric sub dredges.

out processes everything
 

SunshineMiner

Full Member
Jun 2, 2014
230
252
Someplace Sunny, California
Detector(s) used
Garrett Infinium LS
Primary Interest:
Prospecting
Have any videos of those puppies working? What do you use to run them? I cant imagine you using a generator and hooking those up to AC...... Unless all cords are still intact? I'd be super scared to splice and seal and trust. Then again, if its your own work, you tend to trust it right? :x
 

Subdredger

Banned
Nov 14, 2017
39
48
Detector(s) used
Goldbug 2 ,Makro gold racer,custom built Pi,
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
These are 12v 4700gpm pumps on each dredge.
I put 24v into each pump,which doubles the output.The pumps handle it,with no problems at all.
This gives each pump 156gpm ,so the 4 inch dredge you see there puts out 312gpm,thats more than a p180 pump.
The 4 inch for example weighs 14 pounds all up,and because i'm not wasting any energy pumping water up or down,they literally are monsters.
They run fluid bed tec ,not good pictures to make it out,basically a bazooka trap if you look close,in a pipe,No gold loss work great.

Power-google splitting the positive.
I use 6 tiny,12v batteries,hook 3 in series for 36v and the other 3 in parallel for 12volts.
treat the 36volt and 12v as two seperate units.
hook the 36v negative straight to the 12v negative .
hook the 36v positive to all pumps positive,the negative coming off the pump hook to the 12v positive battery bank.

This gives you 24v to play with.
Yes running dredges off 2 positves,Nikola tesla trick.
What happens is power goes from 36v batts to pumps into the 12v batts and CHARGERS THEM.
once the three 12v batts in parallel are charged hook them in series for 36v and the the other batts that where 36v hook the inparallel 12v and run the power the other way,
I use relays now,to do this.
All day dredging with 6 tiny, high c, rating 12v batts.
 

Subdredger

Banned
Nov 14, 2017
39
48
Detector(s) used
Goldbug 2 ,Makro gold racer,custom built Pi,
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
4700 GPH pumps not GPM
 

Goldfinger450

Sr. Member
Aug 28, 2017
418
426
Central Oregon.
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
I wish you the Best of luck getting to Perfection with the sub unit, I have extensive dredging background and have tried a half dozen sub units, they all Lost Gold into tailings, some much better than others, I Hate losing Gold that I just found.
 

Subdredger

Banned
Nov 14, 2017
39
48
Detector(s) used
Goldbug 2 ,Makro gold racer,custom built Pi,
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Your losing it because your water has a positive charge to it.
Here is a simple way to stop small gold loss.
This also works on surface dredges,and land base wash plants.
Straight after your pump in the intake before your nozzle,jet, weld a flat vein,twisted,this spins,vortexes your water anticlockwise.
It-1-increases flow and puts less load on your pumps.
2-puts a negative charge or expands the water dropping solids out .
The direction depends on which hemisphere you are so be careful.
Positive water carries gold,People mistake this for the skin effect.
 

arizau

Bronze Member
May 2, 2014
2,479
3,854
AZ
Detector(s) used
Beach High Banker, Sweep Jig, Whippet Dry Washer, Lobo ST, 1/2 width 2 tray Gold Cube, numerous pans, rocker box, and home made fluid bed and stream sluices.
Primary Interest:
Prospecting
These are 12v 4700gpm pumps on each dredge.
I put 24v into each pump,which doubles the output.The pumps handle it,with no problems at all.
This gives each pump 156gpm ,so the 4 inch dredge you see there puts out 312gpm,thats more than a p180 pump.
The 4 inch for example weighs 14 pounds all up,and because i'm not wasting any energy pumping water up or down,they literally are monsters.
They run fluid bed tec ,not good pictures to make it out,basically a bazooka trap if you look close,in a pipe,No gold loss work great.

Power-google splitting the positive.
I use 6 tiny,12v batteries,hook 3 in series for 36v and the other 3 in parallel for 12volts.
treat the 36volt and 12v as two seperate units.
hook the 36v negative straight to the 12v negative .
hook the 36v positive to all pumps positive,the negative coming off the pump hook to the 12v positive battery bank.

This gives you 24v to play with.
Yes running dredges off 2 positves,Nikola tesla trick.
What happens is power goes from 36v batts to pumps into the 12v batts and CHARGERS THEM.
once the three 12v batts in parallel are charged hook them in series for 36v and the the other batts that where 36v hook the inparallel 12v and run the power the other way,
I use relays now,to do this.
All day dredging with 6 tiny, high c, rating 12v batts.

I know hardly anything about various types of dredge nozzles, etc. and even less about electricity but your project (products?) intrigues me.

Those "tiny" batteries you use, are they ones as are used in radio control drones, copters, etc.?

"Splitting the positive" is an interesting concept that seems that it is possible to adapt to hook up high bankers, etc. No gas powered pumps equal no or little noise and light weight battery packs rather then heavy deep cycle batteries or gas motors/pumps speaks for itself.

Keep us updated and good luck.

PS: What country are you located in?
 

Last edited:

Subdredger

Banned
Nov 14, 2017
39
48
Detector(s) used
Goldbug 2 ,Makro gold racer,custom built Pi,
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Splitting the positive

Try this at home.
Get 4 AA batteries 1.5v
Hook 2 batteries up in series,you will get 3 volts .
Hook the other 2 batteries up in parallel,you will get 1.5 volts.
The series 3v batteries hook the negative up straight to the negative of the 1.5v parallel set up.
The positive 3v battery hook up to a 1.5volt load ,led light or something,the other wire on the light hook up to the positive
on the 1.5v .power will run from the higher 3volt positive to the light to the 1.5volt positive
The 3volt battery will discharge run the light and charge the 1.5v parallel batteries

Recycling energy,by not destroying the dipole.
This will only work with lead acid and one other battery type.

No luck needed,they work
 

Actionman

Full Member
Dec 21, 2013
173
176
Central Oregon
Detector(s) used
Minelab CTX3030, Minelab Excalbur 2
Primary Interest:
Prospecting
Lost me ??? Splitting positive, only lead acid?.. whohhhhh 36 -12 to get 24. Ohhh man!
 

Subdredger

Banned
Nov 14, 2017
39
48
Detector(s) used
Goldbug 2 ,Makro gold racer,custom built Pi,
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Hi Actionman,
Some good vids on youtube if you wish to learn more about it.
It's old technology that is just now being reintroduced.
Otherwise just put 24vdc into a 12volt bilge pump to double the output.
This has many applications.
The little 2 inch dredge you see in the photo has a 24vdc battery pack inside the pvc tube under the dredge.
modified bazooka trap on the back,pump is a 12vdc 4700gph running on 24v ,156gpm.
it's 50cm long, 9 pounds in weight.
I call this my sniper dredge,i can float down a river all day sniping.
 

Prospector70

Hero Member
Nov 6, 2013
832
1,256
Detector(s) used
Bazooka Gold Trap 48", Keene A51 sluices and a
Number 2 Shovel baby!
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
So what is the PSI of each pump? If you're doubling output maybe you are getting 7-14 psi from each bilge pump? When I was looking into this the 2 inch trash pump for instance gave about 40-50 PSI at 100 feet if I recall correctly. the thought of putting that much bread into 7 (3700 gph pumps at the time) stalled my project out. Where do you get the 4700's and how much?
 

Subdredger

Banned
Nov 14, 2017
39
48
Detector(s) used
Goldbug 2 ,Makro gold racer,custom built Pi,
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Hi there,
I'm not sure on the psi i'm getting as never measured it.
Alot though.
An example is 3 years ago when i tested the dredge with 2 pumps on it in the bath,inside the house.
I started it up and it flew out the bath up the wall and punched a hole in the roof,took a bit to get it out.

You can buy the pumps on ebay for US$80
Listing title is-12v 4700gph bilge pump marine submersible.

If you look at the pictures i posted you can see i have taken off the outside shell and added a 2 inch 90 degree bend to the intake,
This drops the intake lower on the dredge so i can dredge shallower rivers/creeks,and makes the intake face the river flow for added ease on pump.

I picked these pumps for the dredge as nothing comes close,not even the p90s,p180 etc etc
They are ideal for short distances but not for pumping up hill a long way.

However they will do it if you double the voltage and put a spinner,vein, twister straight after the pump in the hose and this will vortex your water stopping friction on the
inside of your hose,the water spins and the water gets a free ride down the middle of the vortex with no friction.This is also the big thing to do to gravity dredges for faster flow.

Ps what project are you working on?
 

Subdredger

Banned
Nov 14, 2017
39
48
Detector(s) used
Goldbug 2 ,Makro gold racer,custom built Pi,
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Prospector70,
If you want to use these pumps for pumping 100ft buy 2 or three and add a pump in the line every 33-50 ft.
 

Prospector70

Hero Member
Nov 6, 2013
832
1,256
Detector(s) used
Bazooka Gold Trap 48", Keene A51 sluices and a
Number 2 Shovel baby!
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Prospector70,
If you want to use these pumps for pumping 100ft buy 2 or three and add a pump in the line every 33-50 ft.

We can't dredge in the city with gas motors, so I was looking for a way to do it with electric. (economically) :occasion14:
 

Top Member Reactions

Users who are viewing this thread

Top