dryland dredging

[seafox]

have tried some syplen nozels out of pvc and abs in 1.5 and 2 inch size. not most suscessfull buyt still easyer than packing buckits to the high banker but then how mych could they move an hour and what form of nozel do you like
thankyou

 

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[brianc053]

I have used the Hydroforce nozzle (3") and I've found it to be very effective. I love the thing, because it gives me the flexibility to do "normal" underwater dredging but also allows me to dig into dry areas and still move materials.
Using the Hydroforce does turn a "dry" area into a "wet" area, though, so I'm not sure if that's what you were looking for.
As an example, I posted this video from a couple years ago of using our Hydroforce up in New Hampshire. (That's my son running the nozzle). You'll notice that the area where we've punched our hole was dry to start, but as we worked our way down through the material the hole filled in with water - because of the Hydroforce and also simply because we got down to the water table/level.


And in this video (down in Virginia) you can see that we've worked our way into the dry area of the creek bed (always staying below the high-water line).

 

[seafox]

yes thankyou very much. I had watched a 5 day vidio from california where they started low and worked up think moving 9 yards tossing the rocks side ways into last times hole and pumping the fines to a highbanker and not much moving the nozzel around. I get your point about turning dry to wet but that is exactly the idea as then you can use the water to carry the materal to the processing machine feed it in steady and not kill your self packing hundereds of buckits a day. ( not to mention for a one man operation dig and process at the same time

 

[seafox]

in the virgina vidio I would guess the sluice to be about 12 inches wide maybe 10. do you think the water running in the sluice may be to deep? I hope that is not poercived as rude am not the best comunicator but learning from doc the one thing I have not got figered out yet is how water depth affects things

 

[N-Lionberger]

you mean somthing like this?

 

[brianc053]

in the virgina vidio I would guess the sluice to be about 12 inches wide maybe 10. do you think the water running in the sluice may be to deep? I hope that is not poercived as rude am not the best comunicator but learning from doc the one thing I have not got figered out yet is how water depth affects things

Seafox, the sluice is 10" wide and the crashbox is 12" wide going down to 10". It's not as fancy as one of Doc's, but it gets the job done! Your question about the water is not rude - it's a good question. I always have to carefully adjust the pitch (the angle) of the sluice to have enough water flowing to clear rocks off of the punch plate, and that sometimes means there's a lot of water flowing across the sluice. I do test the tailings to see if there's any gold, and I rarely/never find any (but there's not a lot of gold where we are dredging anyway...this is all just for fun for me and my son).

Good luck!
- Brian

 

[seafox]

you mean somthing like this?

yes sir that of a very similar vidio inspired me. I tried to reply last night but lost the log end and away in the vapor alas such eloquence but ah well

 

[winners58]

Might be able to use the Vortxrex 4" plans scaled down to a 3" or 2"

 

[N-Lionberger]

I built the a set of 4" jets from Vortxrexs plans and ran them for a weekend a couple years ago, I discovered I needed a better classifier screen/hopper and a lot more pump power. It's a thing to behold. A similar operation can be run utilizing a suction nozzle coupled to a power jet.

 

[Hoser John]

Just make sure to use some sort of eye protection as one slip can REALLY do some damage. John

 

[seafox]

Just make sure to use some sort of eye protection as one slip can REALLY do some damage. John

my glasses have always been safty glasses as I work construction metal grinding and welding eyes been saved several times including weedeating but what is the danger in suctionan dredging, what kind of slip ? was on a steam in farmington canyon ut that was about a 45 degree slope standing still and feet went flying landed on a underwayer sports camera and broke it and spent 20 minutes srarching for my glasses this kind of slip?

 

[N-Lionberger]

Might be able to use the Vortxrex 4" plans scaled down to a 3" or 2"

yes you can the only critical part is getting the jet sizes right. according to my emails with Vortxrex he started with a 3" using a conventional single eductor jet as the booster jet, He mentioned how he thought a 2" would be super cute but a waste of time. On a side note to anyone trying to build one of these setups if you think you used enough glue triple the amount, goop it on there, on the reinforcements around the pressure connections screw them down like the rest of the assembly unlike what is recommended in the plans. The air valve on the front jet is fairly critical, the plans call for a threaded conduit pipe which I was unable to locate asking everyone I know that does plumbing or electrical gave me funny looks, I ended up making that part on my old south bend metal lathe, just a heads up there.

 

[njcommercialdiver]

Brian C,
very small world. i dredged in almost that same spot last spring with a couple guys in my club, i was toward the far bank and just upstream of the woman standing in the creek in a little cutout someone had started. we did pretty good and love that gold there is pretty because of the tanic acid in the water and makes it real bright. even if it turns all the bolts on your highbanker brown, LOL. one of the guys got a very nice nugget on the second day (see last pic). its amazing how quick that river comes up and goes back down. we got there just after it stopped raining on a thursday morning and by the end of that day (abt 5 hours playing), the water level dropped over 5 inches, the next morning i didnt have enough water depth for the intake where i used it all day and had to put it in one of the holes i dredged the day before


first day with lots of foam from the rain storm

dont know why this pic turned sideways


second day, you can see how much the water level went down

looking back across to where you were dredging in the video
i moved my pump from the bank over to a hole i started the day before to have enough water depth for the foot valve
the guest of honor

 

[vortxrex]

I built the a set of 4" jets from Vortxrexs plans and ran them for a weekend a couple years ago, I discovered I needed a better classifier screen/hopper and a lot more pump power. It's a thing to behold. A similar operation can be run utilizing a suction nozzle coupled to a power jet.

Except you can't mix the air and water together which slows everything waaaaaay down