tap water jet?

spaghettigold

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Oct 14, 2013
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western sahara
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hi everybody
2017 was a bad year,i'll spare you the details
enyway.., i was wondering if its possible to get a 8 inch power jet going with the tap water supply.
As i read water network has 7 to 10 bar pressure. A keene twin power jet has two 3 inch injectors.,several hundred feets of cheap flat firehose.Thoughts?
Thanks
 

SunshineMiner

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Jun 2, 2014
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The tap water supply? Im assuming you mean any supply of water that comes out of the tap, i.e. faucet, sink, hose that is supplied to us through either city or well water? First of all.. Those are municipal water supplies for cities, which is used for drinking, which is metered, and you are charged for use. If its supplied by a well... Well, now you have some freedom. But most well pumps, are not enough to supply you volume AND pressure needed to run a dredge... let alone an 8" dredge. You cant even use a garden hose to run a 2" dredge. I dont see how you're going to get a "tap" supply to power your idea.

If you live somewhere where you can actually tap into a water main without anyone saying "HEY YOU CANT DO THAT!!", id be VERY SURPRISED! But then again, you're from the Western Sahara? So Africa. So that 7-10bar pressure... Is also, more than likely, part of a bigger system with pumps somewhere, which will me monitored in case of leaks(pressure drops) or unchecked pipes. Again, if you can tap into a main, and people dont bat an eye... Then sure.. You might have a chance... But again.. those pipes are probably a LONG way from where you need to get the water to. Water running through pipes creates friction, which equates to loss of pressure over the amount of hose you put down. Quoting "several hundred feet" I went with a nice even number of 500ft of hose. Out of a 3" hose, running 200GPM, your friction loss will be 13.5 PSI of friction loss. at 250gpm at @3"in hose, your friciton loss will be 21psi. So keep even that small equation in mind. Now you're going AT depth, say 15ft DOWN, PLUS now pushing that water through that 8" hose....

I think you need to just bite the bullet and buy an 8" dredge...

But then again... I'm following along to see where this goes :O
 

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spaghettigold

spaghettigold

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Oct 14, 2013
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western sahara is not my correct location,i'm in europe.
last year i saw the farmers near the river that irrigated the fields with several watercannons .Seemed like a 3 or 4 inch waterjet reaching 90 feet wide but maybe they can regulate the power by valves.
Lets say you can make a agreement with the farmer...
It 's probably more the price of water maybe that makes it a bad idea,
Do you know how many psi and gpm are required for a 8 inch jet?
 

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Actionman

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Dec 21, 2013
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It could be done, about 10HP pump would work. That is how it works here for irrigation anyway, the farmer has a pond and pumps water out for sprinklers at about 60PSI. Not sure about volume but flow looks about the same as my 4" dredge. Depends if the pump is close enough to where you are working. If you have enough water. If the farmer dosn't need to water his field while you use his pump. If you pay his electric bill for use of pump.
 

SunshineMiner

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Gotcha spaghetti! That sounds MUCH more reasonable! I was picturing something along the lines of either irrigation ditches with connected plumbing that basically makes it gravity fed, although theres probably a booster pump in there somewhere... But yea... from the sounds of it.. you have something to possibly work with... But it is a huge volume of water being diverted from its current use, to basically being wasted unless significant amount of gold is recovered to cover the cost of that lost water, or possibly, just the electric bill :)

And yeaaaa... I know what happens when I('m an) ass-(u)me:icon_silent:
 

winners58

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Apr 4, 2013
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might be like a Berkley pump set up by a river and pumped to their fields.
Berkley pump type B
.
pump.jpg . .
PTO version run off a Tractor
29br.jpg
 

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lbd

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Oct 4, 2017
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I have already told you once....:dontknow:

Of course it would be fine... but... one question ... do you have a water meter and pay excess water rates?

I imagine a fire hydrant would work...
 

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spaghettigold

spaghettigold

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Oct 14, 2013
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western sahara
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hey LBD,your everywhere! (for t-net members info ,i asked the same question at the same time on a nz forum) Some vids of your triple 8 inch box running ,reminding us how free men dredge shure would be apreciated.

Since it would be a agreement with a farmer he would have to tell me the costs.
I looked up tap water price there ,its around 1 euro for the cubicmeter,not profitable.:BangHead:
 

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spaghettigold

spaghettigold

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Oct 14, 2013
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western sahara
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Actionman,Winner and sunshineminer, thanks.
Problem is if there,s a pump involved i become bustable because of the motor involved.
I hoped for the tap water because they often use a reservoir up in the hills to create pressure.
oh men...that leaves only miles of tubing to bring in water from the mountains:icon_scratch:.. or change the continent for dredgefriendly regs..or continuing building 5 feet high 120feet long rockdams..
Greets,stay healthy guys and merry christmas
 

lbd

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Oct 4, 2017
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NZ and Laos
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Free men?... there is nothing free about it... Claim fees, LINZ access agreement, RMA consent, Public liability insurance, Council fee for..."The non consumptive take and discharge of water" = $5000 per year... before I start dredging.

I posted this image of the 8inch here under Jon boat dredge but there was no interest so dropped the subject.
 

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spaghettigold

spaghettigold

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Oct 14, 2013
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western sahara
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huh ,i forgott the u.n sustainable blue print octopus is almost everywhere now. Sad thing is in most civilized countries dredgers would be happy because at least it's still possible to run a 8 inch(so far)
Make no mistake about the interest of dredging vids and pics,individual set ups ,clean ups. etc. Maybe there are not much comments but we all click on the pics and vids.(i assume)

made a quick little vid yesterday from this summers footage.

cheers
 

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