Why not make a "roll-yer-own" 2.5 dredge/power sluice/hi-banker combo rig?

[lamar]

Why not make a "roll-yer-own" 2.5 dredge/power sluice/hi-banker combo rig?

Dear group;
I decided to build my own 2.5" dredge/power sluice/hi-banker combo rig. Here are some pix of the flare, the suction nozzle and the sluice box without the riffle bar assembly. The material used for the flare is 2.5" dia. 1/6" thick exhaust pipe and the plate and flange is 1/16" cold rolled steel. The suction nozzle is the same 2.5" material with a 1.25" dia. by 1/16" thick tube material. The small pipe between the 2.5" piece and the 1.25" piece is just a brace support and it adds rigidity to the 1.25" pipe. The sluice box is 10" wide and 36" long and is constructed from 12 gauge galvanized steel. Inside of it is the green nomad matting and a piece of 1/2" rubber diamond shaped matting.

I will post more pix when I get the riffle bar assembly and flare-to-sluice junction made.
Your friend;
LAMAR

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

A History of Mining on the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska - Grab it through Amazon!

[seger98]

Re: Why not make a "roll-yer-own" 2.5 dredge/power sluice/hi-banker combo rig?

Hey you did a really nice job on making that!

 

[lamar]

Re: Why not make a "roll-yer-own" 2.5 dredge/power sluice/hi-banker combo rig?

Dear kuger;
Thank you, my friend. This was what I did today. I hope to have the riffle assembly bent and welded by tomorrow and the sluice flare constructed tomorrow.
Your friend;
LAMAR

 

[flyspekau]

Re: Why not make a "roll-yer-own" 2.5 dredge/power sluice/hi-banker combo rig?

RIGHT ON Lamar I love watching guys make this stuff wish I had the skills it will be fun watching you put this thing together keep posting results.

 

[russau]

Re: Why not make a "roll-yer-own" 2.5 dredge/power sluice/hi-banker combo rig?

i made a flair just like yours about 10 years ago. my friend said it looked to heavy untill he lifted it up. i hope you put somesort of reducer into your hipressure water supply to that nozzel. about 3/4-5/8 inch would get it going good.but im sure you did it! no go sand/grind it down and powder coat the outside of it!

 

[lamar]

Re: Why not make a "roll-yer-own" 2.5 dredge/power sluice/hi-banker combo rig?

Dear russau;
I'll install the high pressure choke at the pump outlet instead of at the nozzle. Why deal with all of that backed up water in the high pressure hose at the nozzle when you don't need to, my friend? Installing the choke at the pump outlet tends to allow the high pressure hose to be more flexible. Also, I won't bother priming and painting until I get everything completed in order to keep from having to touch up the pieces which I've already fabricated.

The diamond ribbed rubber matting is cut as is the nomad matting and the expanded metal grating. I bent the riffles and now I need to weld them to the vertical sideplates and fabricate the sluice-to-flare junction.

I didn't work on the project yesterday or today as it was raining pretty good until just a couple of hours ago. I will pick up again on Monday, weather permitting.
Your friend;
LAMAR

 

[lamar]

Re: Why not make a "roll-yer-own" 2.5 dredge/power sluice/hi-banker combo rig?

Dear flyspeckau;
You'd be surprised at the crudeness of the tools I used to get this far, my friend. To build the flare, I did this:
1) Cut a piece of 2.5" tubing 24" long
2) Placed tubing on a piece of "L" angle and scribed a mark from one end of the 2.5" tubing to a point 18 from one end of the tubing"
3) Turned tubing 180 degrees and scribed a second mark just like the first one
4) Used the jigsaw to cut along the scibe marks
5) With a hacksaw, I cut a slot perpendicular to each one of the cuts made with the jigsaw approximately 1" in length.
6) Placed a piece of 2.25" schedule 40 pipe inside of the 2.5" tubing
7) Heated one side of the 2.5" tubing with a torch where I made the 18" cut and where I also made the 1" perpendicular cut
8) When tubing was redhot I pulled one side of the tubing apart until it was exactly 5" from the centerline of the tubing
9) Repeated for other side
10) I ended up with a piece of 2.5" tubing that was flared 10" on one end
11) With the 2.5" tubing as a guide, I placed the tubing on top of a sheet of 1/16" flat steel stock and scribed the pie-shaped piece with a sharp scribe
12) I flipped over the tubing and repeated for the opposite pie wedge piece
13) Cut pie shaped flat steel pieces with jig saw
14) Fit onto now opened tubing the and tacked welded into place with an oxy/actylene torch, Repeated for other side.
15) With a 2.5" hole I drilled two holes 7.5" apart into another piece of 1/16" flat stock which was dimensioned to 6" X 12"
16) I then scribed two lines between the two 2.5" holes, one at the top of the holes and one at the bottom, thus joining the two holes together.
17) Cut along the scribe marks
18) This is now the flare flange opening
19) I scribed a 1" line around the periphery of the 6" X 12" flange opening
20) With hacksaw I cut out a 1" square from each corner of the 6 X 12 sheet
21) With two pieces of angle iron mounted in a vise, I placed the 6 X 12 sheet between the angle iron pieces along one of the 1" scribe marks
22) I then tightened the 6 X 12 sheet in the vise and with a hammer carefully bent the sheet 90 degrees.
23) I then repeated for the other 3 sides, with the upper bent being opposite from the lower bend as shown in the above photos
24) I then fit the flange opening over the mouth of the flare and welded the flange to the mouth with the torch.
25) Because the ends of the 2.5" tubing when flared out 5" each, the ends of the tubing no longer were 90 degrees flush. After welding the flange to the flare mouth I used an angel grinder to grind the 2.5" tubing flush with the flange mouth.
26) Used a powerful flashlight and checked for voids or holes in all the weld joints
27) Admired work

In all honesty, it's very crude and very effective, my friend, plus, it's inexpensive and it should last for decades.
Your friend;
LAMAR

 

[russau]

Re: Why not make a "roll-yer-own" 2.5 dredge/power sluice/hi-banker combo rig?

Dear russau;
I'll install the high pressure choke at the pump outlet instead of at the nozzle. Why deal with all of that backed up water in the high pressure hose at the nozzle when you don't need to, my friend? Installing the choke at the pump outlet tends to allow the high pressure hose to be more flexible.****** i think doing it that way will cause you to lose pressure/suction at the nozzel/flair(whichever one you chose to use. IMHO, water pressure will disapate quickly running through the hose in the way your wanting todo it! and then youll lose your suction.

 

[lamar]

Re: Why not make a "roll-yer-own" 2.5 dredge/power sluice/hi-banker combo rig?

Dear russau;
The suction should be adaquate my friend, but if I find that the suction dropoff is too great I'll just move the choke to the nozzle, if necessary.
Your friend;
LAMAR

 

[Lookin]

Re: Why not make a "roll-yer-own" 2.5 dredge/power sluice/hi-banker combo rig?

Lamar,

Great looking project! Keep us posted on all the gold you find with it!

Russau might be onto something concerning your pressure. The water travelling through the hose actually creates friction, so you might have to play with your setup a bit to "fine tune" it. It is obvious that you know that, though.

Man, I'd like to be on the creek with you when you give it the first go!

The best of luck to you!

Lookin

 

[russau]

Re: Why not make a "roll-yer-own" 2.5 dredge/power sluice/hi-banker combo rig?

although i do advocate people buying used this time of year on equipment,(low prices)but there is nothing that compares to the feeling you get from building your own equipment and it actually works good! i cant count the number of times ive rearrainged/modified my dredges,highbanker/beach boxto make it do something different.infact im currently modifing my dredge again. i hate to see a person making a peice of equipment and not know exactly how to do it. im not saying this towards anyone here!!!!!! i know how frustrating/disappointing it is for your "baby" not to work in your time of glory! if i see or can help someone that i see or beleive he can do something that will make it work better, i will.its up to them to see if that change will work for them!

 

[lamar]

Re: Why not make a "roll-yer-own" 2.5 dredge/power sluice/hi-banker combo rig?

Dear russau;
Normally I advocate buying used as well, however I live in Bolivia and shipment and import taxes on a new or used dredge would be prohibitive, therefore I am left with option #3, which is the complete fabrication of a dredge from scratch. Actually, once a dredge is broken down into it's component pieces, there's really not that much to it. The critical part to any dredge is the sluice assembly. If that is properly designed and constructed there everything else is a piece of cake.
Your friend;
LAMAR

 

[EggyOG]

Re: Why not make a "roll-yer-own" 2.5 dredge/power sluice/hi-banker combo rig?

I can very easily make the argument that the nozzle or jet are the critical part. 1x2 boards would capture some of the gold if they were used in the sluice box, but an improperly designed suction device will stop you cold. I think that is why the questions about your configuration have come up.

 

[russau]

Re: Why not make a "roll-yer-own" 2.5 dredge/power sluice/hi-banker combo rig?

Dear russau;
Normally I advocate buying used as well, however I live in Bolivia and shipment and import taxes on a new or used dredge would be prohibitive, therefore I am left with option #3, which is the complete fabrication of a dredge from scratch. Actually, once a dredge is broken down into it's component pieces, there's really not that much to it. The critical part to any dredge is the sluice assembly. If that is properly designed and constructed there everything else is a piece of cake.
Your friend;
LAMAR

i completely understand your position and id be doing the very same thing as you are doing right now! i have several friends that live outside of the USA and have the very same problem as you do. anytime that i can be any help to anyone ill do it!

 

[lamar]

Re: Why not make a "roll-yer-own" 2.5 dredge/power sluice/hi-banker combo rig?

Dear group;
The design principles are sound, in fact, they are the exact same principles which are incorporated into every modern Keene dredge. Fluid dynamics are fluid dynamics, no matter which approach is utilized to arrive at a satisfactory solution. In other words, it'll work just fine and it'll work just fine not because I say it will, rather, it will work just fine because it HAS to. It's fluid dynamics. The principles of fluid dynamics never change and that's pretty much the way things are. The flare design and construction is completely sound and adaquate for the task at hand as is the suction nozzle. This only leaves the variable of the sluice design and the setup and tuning of the assembly.

The riffle bar has been constructed and the expanded metal grating will be fit into the sluice assembly tomorrow. Hopefully I will have more photos tomorrow as well.
Your friend;
LAMAR

 

[gflores71]

Re: Why not make a "roll-yer-own" 2.5 dredge/power sluice/hi-banker combo rig?

Looks nice so far Lamar.....just have to wait for dry season. See you in April.

G

 

[kiwi jw]

Re: Why not make a "roll-yer-own" 2.5 dredge/power sluice/hi-banker combo rig?

Hi there Lamar, Nice work but I can see problems with your suction nozzle blocking at the bend. The reason being that where the pipe has been bent to form the curve, I would say you had it bent in an exhaust pipe bending machine, you will see that the bend is actualy smaller in diameter because of the stretching of the metal to curve than the rest of the inside diameter of the pipe both before the bend & after it. You will need to fit a reducer ring at the entrance of the nozzle that will reduce the size of material to be less than the smallest diameter of that bend. It would pay to cut the nozzle entrance square (90 degrees) Also where your pressure hose connection enters the nozzle it should be right at the bend & facing dead centre back down the nozzle & the suction hose towards the sluice box as in the pic below.

Happy golding

JW

 

[kiwi jw]

Re: Why not make a "roll-yer-own" 2.5 dredge/power sluice/hi-banker combo rig?

Forgot to mention that I used an old road works cone to make a flare to replace the old crasher header box on my 4" dredge. Notice the black sands behind the riffles

JW

 

[Willy]

Re: Why not make a "roll-yer-own" 2.5 dredge/power sluice/hi-banker combo rig?

If you put the reducer at the pump end of the high pressure line there will be a drop in pressure at the venturi and reduced suction. There will also be more of a possibility of hose kinks. Put any reducer right at the end of the high pressure line to get maximum suction. The jig bent suction nozzle will probably cause plug-ups, which are a real PITA.. try for a mandrell bent one. ..Willy.

 

[rmptr]

Re: Why not make a "roll-yer-own" 2.5 dredge/power sluice/hi-banker combo rig?

I'll put in my two cents!

any reduction in the output of the pump should be done at the nozzle where it shoots in to form the jet (aspirator). If I recall, a nozzle is best at 7 degrees or 1 to 7... 1 or the other.

All told, a great job you are doing, Lamar. Especially in a place without the resources we have here in Estados Unidos.

It will work!

Gold is about the easiest thing to separate from the other solids in a stream.
16 times more dense than anything else... or something like that.

IMO your biggest obstacle will be the pump, itself. and the Kanaflex hose.
Both are expensive even here.

rmptr