Sluice Help Please

[Bumpstick]

I have been having some problem in running my new sluice box.
Ok for reference when I classifie down a pan full of material I get about 1 table spoon of black/bronze sand.
When I run the same classified material through the sluice do my clean up and take my concentrates home I get Zipped.
Can some one set me straight on what I am doing wrong when running material through the sluice box.
To much water flow? I classified the base down to remove pee size gravel to help the sluice perform.

 

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[tulecanyon]

you are finding color with a pan, and not with the sluice?
too much water, or you are loosing the material when you clean the sluice.

 

[Bumpstick]

I am leaning towards to much water. I have it set up so about 1 1/2 " of water flow is running through the sluice about 1 1/2 to 2" drop.
Using a plastic painters cup I feed the classified material in the head pan of the sluice gradually.
I can watch the material boil up or dance behind the rifles.
Should I reduce the volume of water moving through the sluice and clean up the sluice more often?
What does drop angle have to do with recovering finies?
I was thinking that by letting the water flow clean up the sluice all the heavies are just washing out.

Any creative advice is appreciated.

I bought the sluice to improve my recovery not flush my work down the stream.

 

[tulecanyon]

i like to give the sluice a 1 inch to a foot slope. i have found i do better when i have a slower flow of water over the riffles. 1/2 inch or so deep. if i run faster, i seem to loose material.
i also have lost material when i go to clean the sluice, fussy damn gold.

 

[Bumpstick]

I have one of the smaller sluices that I can pack in and when I carefully pull it out of the stream it fits into the top half of a 5 gal. bucket.
If I run less water the sluice packs up and the material will run over the top of the rifles and out the back. Am I missing some thing here?

 

[tulecanyon]

no, i don't think you are missing anything, just keep fussing with that sluice until it performs as it should.
i had a small backpack sluice, i used to overfill, and then attempt to run fast water through it to make up for my being lazy...we know how that turned out.

practice with birdshot mixed in dirt...when you can wash all but the shot out, that's how to do the dirt.

sorry if i am not helping here.

 

[Bumpstick]

no, i don't think you are missing anything, just keep fussing with that sluice until it performs as it should.
i had a small backpack sluice, i used to overfill, and then attempt to run fast water through it to make up for my being lazy...we know how that turned out.

practice with birdshot mixed in dirt...when you can wash all but the shot out, that's how to do the dirt.

sorry if i am not helping here.

Tell me what was the result of running fast water through it?

I am looking on another forum and this is what some one else said.

" When I first got mine, I set it up and using a shovel, not a scoop, no classification. Just shoveling gravel right into the wolf , waiting 30 -40 seconds between shovels ( enough to clear the top of the ripples) Did this for a hour. clean-up"

Am I messing up allowing the rifles to clean up to the point that I can see the Rib-Mat? Is it washing my heavies right out?

 

[tulecanyon]

too much water and the material goes out the chute.
i believe from the description, you are over washing the material.
slow the water down, and shut off the water while you still have material in the sluice.

 

[Bumpstick]

I will give that a try 1 more time before the snow starts flying.

I was wanting the sluice to increase my production not reduce my take home.

 

[Eu_citzen]

I am not sure what your problem is? Try to put it in a different way.

The black sand it about 4 times lighter then gold, so it is not effective to use it for reference.

What the other bloke said, buck shot works, but hammer it flat like a gold flake.

Some even use pen balls, since they are made of tungsten, Wc, with a specific densitiy of 19.1 or so; gold has 19.3

What matting do you have? I think Miner's moss is great!

 

[Bumpstick]

It came with the Rib-Mat-Carpet material.

I am dealing with flower gold here in WI so if I loose the black sand out of the sluice the fines go with it.

I do OK with a pan, take my concentrates home and run them through my desert fox.

 

[Eu_citzen]

A desert fox is not good for flour gold which I think you are referring to?
A blue bowl is much more efficient but slower.. I have recovered -100 mesh with mine.

I think the Miners moss is much better then ribbed carpet..

Anyways I have to tip you on to "google" Popandson sluice a good sluice for fine gold.

Dang you have to have FINE gold if it moves just as easily as the black sand (if the black sand is not heavier then the stuff I have here)

I'm thinking 1 1/2" of water is ok, if you're worried make sure you don't have so much slope on the sluice.
About a scoop full should take around 10 to 15 sec to clear out of the sluice, for around 30 mesh sized gold.

And about how fine is the gold?
I have some experience of fine gold...See link:
http://eucitzen.bilddagboken.se/p/show.html?id=270710900&directlink=1

There are some tiny "dots" there, see them? Thats the gold.

 

[Bumpstick]

I was thinking hard about getting A blue bowl to try out and check the performance.

I am dealing with glacial till and the flower gold is micron fine. I do not get flakes just talc.

It is a time and effort factor X = recovery amount.

I was thinking of some large rocker box design might work; that I can set up out back.

I am trying to reduce the amount of classified material in the field with the sluice; since I have to back pack it home .
5 gal bucket X 3 clicks = 1 sore back

 

[Eu_citzen]

Yes i have also worked with glacial gold. I do highly recommend the D.A.M. (Blue bowl)

I do mainly get -30 mesh gold, bigger is rare.

I think it is common that rocker boxes are considered to not have to great recovery.

I'd rather build my own P&S sluice in a small format so it can easily be backpacked.

If you empty the sluice 3 times why don't you slowly re-run the cons?
That way you would get fewer cons to travel with.

If I where you I'd also look at some other sluices:
LeTrap is known to be good for fine gold.
DFS has good reputation for getting the fine gold (DFS=Damn fine sluice)
Popandson sluice is a DIY sluice more or less.

Hope it helps.
Eu

 

[XT18000]

After reading your post I think your problem and the answer to it is you are trying to recover
micron size gold and not flakes. You need to use a Nome Beach Sluice in order to recover
gold this fine. You can get plans to build one from G.P.A.A. (Gold Prospectors Association of America). Google them to get there web site or there Ph. no. You can build one of these out of 2x4s, plywood, a few chunks of PVC
and some rubber matting. It has NO riffles only the mat ( the riffles are kicking out you sub-fine
gold). You will have to have a gas powered water pump and hoses to supply water to it but if will
recover ANY size fine gold. If you need more information on this send me a PM and I'll try to help you.

 

[Eu_citzen]

XT are you referring to a beach box like used at nome beach?

A clean gold sluice, Le trap and DFS (d*mn fine sluice) might also work well for that fine gold.

 

[XT18000]

Yes ;a Nome Beach box is what should be used for gold this fine. Would work better that some
kind of mod. to reg, equipment. It would not be that hard to build nor expensive.

 

[Lookin]

Or just rig your sluice box up with deep V ribbed matting and expaned metal. There is some Canadian study that you can find on the Internet that goes in depth on this for fine gold recovery. It also recommends a couple of riffles at the end of the box as nugget traps...in the event that you'd encounter any.

Or, slow your water flow down and feed your materail a bit slower. Gold should still trap in your sluicebox.

Much color to you!

Lookin

 

[EggyOG]

Bumpstick,
The spiral wheel will work, but you have to classify down to about 100 mesh to be effective in Wisconsin. Classify with 4 or 5 different screen sizes and run the material separately. As far as using the sluice goes, forget about the 1 inch drop per foot stuff. For most areas in Wisconsin, start with about a half inch of water going into the header and send some material thru, then adjust so that your material rolls down the sluice and you see BOTH blond and black sand dancing under the riffles. As long as your sluice keeps moving material down the box, the gold will displace the blond sand and eventually the black sand. I know the gold you are after, we have a whole club full of people up here by Sheboygan chasing the same flour. If you need any other help with equipment or areas, e-mail me or come to the Greenbush Prospectors meeting. Our meeting is this Saturday afternoon.

 

[Bumpstick]

I will try this sluice 1 more time and slow the water flow down with my pan set up at the end. Weather is waning up here so I have limited time left this season.

EggyOG "1" drop per foot" How do you set Up? Level?

XT18000 I will look into a Nome Beach box; I am a member over there Also. Unless some one could sell me one!

I was doing a clean up on my spiral wheel set up and found the flower gold shimmering at the bottom of spill over tray and in the bottom of the box. I am glad I listened to that old timer and didn't dump my old concentrates.
I will try rerunning my concentrates with one of those Blue Bowl set up's

Any one have a used blue bowl they would like to part with?