Tips on equipment

[lokiie1984]

I will have some extra money coming in this month so i wanted to look into getting something that i could use around the house to help clean up cons and other material. I would like to find something for around 100 dollars (price that i would have to pay for a blue bowl kit if i were to buy one.) I thought about doing the blue bowl from my local store but figured i should check into other items before i settled on that one. There's just so many different things out there that i have no clue what i would actually be looking for.

I would like to have something that works like the blue bowl, where it takes the dirt and what not and leaves the gold behind. However it would be nice if it would work on more then just -30 and smaller material. The only other item that i came across that would do something similar was an underflow sluice system by these guys : Grumpy Prospector Home but those are a bit out of my reach.

So i was curious if anyone knows of anything else that works like either of those two? The only real requirements that i would need, is that it can be hooked to either a pump or a hose and work. And cost under 100 dollars.

I did look into a bazooka sluice, even with having to pan the material after running it, it would be nice to use but their smallest sluice was 80 bucks. Just seems like kind of a waste for that price since we hardly ever go out to the mountains. So I'm kind of leaning towards the blue bowl but again i don't know what else is out there.

Thanks

 

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[lokiie1984]

I am very skeptical of your table. It shows a TON of texture. Too much texture. Without even enlarging your pic, I can see it. Honestly, with what you have, you would be better off running V-matting and panning what is left. Not trying to ruin your day, just being honest with what i see.

There will be a mat on the table. One of the ones AzViper uses. Which is why i didnt bother sand the wood anywhere.

I ran some water over it today to get an idea on how it flows, and it seems to be pretty close to that "glass" effect. The spray bar seems to work pretty good and the only issue that i think i will have is controlling the water flow. Because it has such a wide surface area it tends to take a good bit of pressure to cover the whole surface.

On the bright side it wouldn't be hard to make it more narrow. And like i said above, i have plenty of mat to work with.

 

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[Oregon Viking]

My bros have miller tables, blue bowls and the black magic.
They ran them against my fav. Same cons. My cleanup sluice did everything their equipment could do, and faster.
Prospectors Choice Clean Up Sluice

 

[lokiie1984]

My bros have miller tables, blue bowls and the black magic.
They ran them against my fav. Same cons. My cleanup sluice did everything their equipment could do, and faster.
Prospectors Choice Clean Up Sluice

If nothing else, it is at least below 100 dollars, which most equipment i have seen are well above. Free shipping is always nice too. For now, what i made should work well enough with a few modifications and maybe some scour pads to help even out the water.

 

[Oregon Viking]

Quote Originally Posted by Oregon Viking View Post
My bros have miller tables, blue bowls and the black magic.
They ran them against my fav. Same cons. My cleanup sluice did everything their equipment could do, and faster.
http://www.prospectorschoice.com/Clean-Up-Sluice.html

If nothing else, it is at least below 100 dollars, which most equipment i have seen are well above. Free shipping is always nice too. For now, what i made should work well enough with a few modifications and maybe some scour pads to help even out the water.
I like the clean up sluice, because i don't like to pan. WHAT? Yeh i said it. I know learning to pan is the first thing you should learn.
I sample at home. Bring home cons, sometimes classify in the field and bring buckets home!

 

[AzViper]

My bros have miller tables, blue bowls and the black magic.
They ran them against my fav. Same cons. My cleanup sluice did everything their equipment could do, and faster.
Prospectors Choice Clean Up Sluice

By the looks of the video I doubt that at the water speed they are catching the really small fine gold.

 

[lokiie1984]

Quote Originally Posted by Oregon Viking View Post
My bros have miller tables, blue bowls and the black magic.
They ran them against my fav. Same cons. My cleanup sluice did everything their equipment could do, and faster.
Prospectors Choice Clean Up Sluice

If nothing else, it is at least below 100 dollars, which most equipment i have seen are well above. Free shipping is always nice too. For now, what i made should work well enough with a few modifications and maybe some scour pads to help even out the water.
I like the clean up sluice, because i don't like to pan. WHAT? Yeh i said it. I know learning to pan is the first thing you should learn.
I sample at home. Bring home cons, sometimes classify in the field and bring buckets home!

I actually don't mind panning, but man does it make my hands and arms sore. So, I'm in the same boat there, i would rather haul back a few five gallon buckets then pan it all out there. Plus bringing back tons of dirt gives me something to do while I'm at home and not out there actually enjoying myself. Which is also why i like to buy paydirt.

 

[AzViper]

In the video I am not trying to capture the fine gold but just show how well the gold sticks. To catch the fine gold you need to bring the flow rate way down.​

 

[Duckwalk]

Wonder if it works on flour gold...

 

[Oregon Viking]

By the looks of the video I doubt that at the water speed they are catching the really small fine gold.

I slow mine down and it catches beach gold. Anything finer then that, I say oh well!

 

[Duckwalk]

Have you seen the pictures of my gold? Never seen beach sand but what I get is teeny tiny

 

[lokiie1984]

I picked up an order of five pounds of beach sand from Oregon a week or so ago. It was taken from the beach after a large storm had washed the lighter sand back out. It was five bucks so i figured i would try it out as a test for the blue bowl i made. I have no idea what size the grans of sand were, however it was at least 90% black sand. And it had a number of "fly ****" specs of gold in it. Some of the smallest stuff i have ever seen. I plan to rerun it once the table is set up to see if i catch any more. I'm pretty sure it has some "baby powder" gold still in there but i have no idea if the table will be able to grab that stuff. Maybe with enough classifying.

Also i was curious, how do you guys feel about fluid bed concentrators? Was thinking of trying to whip one up while i wait for deliveries tomorrow. I was thinking of trying to copy what they came up with over at Goldhog it seems to work fairly well, however i wonder how it does on really small stuff. I wonder if a little bigger would work better for small or if it really wouldn't change anything.

 

[Oregon Viking]

My black beach sand is not visible to the naked eye.
Magnifying glass is needed!
I feed my cleanup sluice until I can see it, then snuffer bottle it. After a bit the v ribbing will fill up with gold.
The new clean up sluices use a vortex type mat.
Sorry Duckwalk I keep just missing your posts!

 

[TheGoldProspector]

This is what I have. Works great. I had to go get some PVC and make a stand for it. I will be cutting a hole in it soon to push the gold to like AZVIPER has done.

I was all in, til he said the larger gold, with greater surface area, washes down more quickly...so i Still have to pan first? I woukd rather make my own table.

 

[TheGoldProspector]

My bros have miller tables, blue bowls and the black magic. They ran them against my fav. Same cons. My cleanup sluice did everything their equipment could do, and faster. Prospectors Choice Clean Up Sluice

That looks perfect

 

[AzViper]

The table I built will catch it all. Its all about the flow and the angle of the table. If its adjusted correctly the gold will stick.

Here is another video of 100 mesh with larger gold added. You can see I have slowed the water down and made a change on the angle. The small gold is sticking.

​

 

[DizzyDigger]

Wonder if it works on flour gold...

Absolutely Ducky...a well made table will catch gold down to -200 and beyond.

My table is large at 16" x 44", and it uses green chalkboard paint. When I'm
running the -100 material I always look over the table with a magnifying glass
after picking up all the visible gold. My magnifying glass has one of those little
"super magnifying" bubbles on it, and I regularly pick up gold that can only
be seen using that high magnification bubble...it can't be seen with the regular
magnifying glass.

Is that small enough for ya?

 

[Oregon Viking]

The table I built will catch it all. Its all about the flow and the angle of the table. If its adjusted correctly the gold will stick.

Here is another video of 100 mesh with larger gold added. You can see I have slowed the water down and made a change on the angle. The small gold is sticking.

​

Yeh azViper.. everything you build is dead on!!
Banner builds!

 

[AzViper]

Yeh azViper.. everything you build is dead on!!
Banner builds!

LOL... Thanks. These videos are just for demonstration cause I would be running the water much slower to catch the ultra fine gold and my camera is not going to pick up the ultra fine gold for all to see. All the super super fine gold would be saved for those rainy days when there is not much to do. Around 7:53 -7:55 and far to the left of the frame you can see light reflecting off of some small gold, but again I am not after the super fines until that rainy day.

 

[lokiie1984]

Now I'm having a new issue, i have everything glued down and sealed with silicone. However, the water is refusing to flow over that mat correctly. It's acting like the mat is covered in oil, the beads up and then flows down in thin streams rather then across the mat as it should. I hit the mat with some dish soap to clean off any oil residue, now its squeaky clean but the water still flows weird.

Was there something i was supposed to do to the mat to season it?

Edit: Looks like my issue is not enough soap/jet dry. And it would cost a a ton to keep adding it over and over so i think i will pick up a water pump. Least that will keep circulating the jet dry and not waste it. On the bright side, the mat does seem to hold the gold very well. I did have one piece roll off but it was kind of a square shape.

 

[AzViper]

Yep.. I could not understand why you were not recirculating and use Jetdry. This is why I suggested the Atwood pump at Wally World. You mentioned you had a charger so I assumed this was the direction you were going to go...