Tips for sluice build

[GodsEarth]

Hey everyone I’m looking for some tips on a cheaper high bank sluice build I’m putting together. My thoughts as of right now (Keep in mind I’m keeping it very budget friendly), is going 10” wide 36”-48” long with Gold Owl matting. I’m making everything out of wood and I’ll have a little 72cc gas powered water pump and 3/4” pvc piping for water delivery. I’ll have the jet holes in pvc shooting up as well as in from the sides.

I’m looking for tips on how much water flow I should aim to have. The pump does about 2300 GPH.

roughly what angle should I have it at? I’ve heard 1” drop per foot.

Is 10” too wide?

I’m building it all out of wood to save some money.

ALL TIPS APPRECIATED! I plan on building it tonight.

Thanks,

Adam

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Cry Of The Eagle: History And Legends Of The Cherokee Indians And Their Buried Treasure - Grab it through Amazon!

[Johnnybravo300]

Build it for the gold you are trying to catch. More variations will give you a wider range of recovery. You can make it however you want.
Carrying it around and building your settling ponds will be more work than anything.
Where are you mining?

 

[GodsEarth]

Another thing, I’m in Ohio so the gold is very small some pickers. Will that much water flow make me lose the flakes?

 

[Johnnybravo300]

As long as its compatible with the system and all works together should be fine.

 

[GodsEarth]

Should I just use the ribbed matting or should I mix it up with partial miners moss? If so, should miners moss be upstream or at the end of the sluice?

 

[Jason in Enid]

Youre going to get as many answers as there are people who reply. There are lots of theories of how to best capture fine gold. The thing is, most of them work just fine. Some are worse, some are better but theres not really a "wrong" idea as long as its not a completely slick box. Testing has shown you can put sticks and rocks in it and still catch gold. Most of us are just quibbling over recovery percentages. Like Johnny said above, have some variation. large mat, small mat, riffles, moss... build it how you want it.

Box angle and GPM are interrelated. Slower water makes it easier to trap smaller gold. Water should be fast enough to keep the cobble rolling out of the box and the concentrates fluid ( aka "dancing" ). Every change affects several other things so you are going to have to play with it. Periodically stop and pan some of your tailings to check for loss. A few colors isnt bad. A lot of colors or any flakes means to need to rethink something.

 

[IMAUDIGGER]

Should I just use the ribbed matting or should I mix it up with partial miners moss? If so, should miners moss be upstream or at the end of the sluice?

No matter what you do...you will be changing it to meet your liking.
You can always narrow a box...easy with wood.

 

[mike(swWash)]

Like many above say, you'll get different answers from everyone, including me. But one truth is universal, the longer the better. It gives the fine gold more time to settle and places to get caught. The big stuff will take care of itself.
My disposable opinion is to use more than one type mat or capture media and you'll have to try different angles and flows until you see your best results.
Watch Gold Hogs videos and you'll learn much for setting up angles and flows.
Start here.




Good luck and let the fun begin.

 

[IMAUDIGGER]

Too much water is a good problem to have...easy to restrict or idle the pump down.

Just remember to make a spot for the bigger pieces to get trapped at the head of the box...and that if the box doesn't flare out..the velocity is going to increase as it gets longer making it more difficult to catch the fine gold at the tail end.

The popular new style of rubber matting...I have my opinions which I will keep to myself. Adding it into a sluice box means slope changes WILL be required which may not be compatible with the other more traditional gold trap styles. You almost need a dedicated sluice run for that style matting so you can tune it.

The thumbnail for the video is amusing...looks like someone is getting a garden ready.

 

[IMAUDIGGER]

I'm a big fan of having some grate like this suspended above your box at the beginning to catch the pickers. Cover it with floating rubber mat that has been slit every 1/4" to keep the water smooth. It should catch almost all of them before your riffles or expanded steel.
Then you need to concentrate on the fine gold.
It's crazy but the amount of box shown in this picture catches at least 80% of the gold that we find. The next 3 feet not so much.


EDIT: This type of trap will be unnecessary if your after flour gold. Great for trapping pickers and nuggets.

 

[N-Lionberger]

3/4" pvc is probably too small for a 10" sluice, what is the outlet size of your pump?

 

[IMAUDIGGER]

3/4" pvc is probably too small for a 10" sluice, what is the outlet size of your pump?

I was just thinking about that..2300 gallons per HOUR...38 gallons per minute is not enough to run a 10" wide box if I'm not missing something?

 

[N-Lionberger]

I think it should be enough, my buddy has an electric highbanker with a keene a52 box that runs pretty good on what I thought was a 2300 gph but I could be wrong. His spraybars were 1.25" pvc. I could be all wrong. My highbanker hopper on my 10" wide sluice has 1.5" pvc manifold with 1" spray bars. If you can locate a Honda WX15 pump I highly recommend it works great with a 10" wide sluice, I found mine at a pawn shop.

 

[IMAUDIGGER]

For reference the WX15 pump is rated for 74 gallons per minute.

 

[GodsEarth]

Tons of excellent information guys. It’s highly appreciated. I was wondering about the 3/4” pvc too. The outlet side of the pump is 1”. I’ll replace the pipe and fittings with 1” then. So 2300 GPH would Possibly be too slow for a 10”? I don’t want to have to rebuild the sluice around the water pump engine so maybe I’ll just go smaller. Is an 8” wide a decent size? I will probably go 6”-8” and just make it longer.

 

[Goodyguy]

Hey everyone I’m looking for some tips on a cheaper high bank sluice build I’m putting together. My thoughts as of right now (Keep in mind I’m keeping it very budget friendly), is going 10” wide 36”-48” long with Gold Owl matting. I’m making everything out of wood and I’ll have a little 72cc gas powered water pump and 3/4” pvc piping for water delivery. I’ll have the jet holes in pvc shooting up as well as in from the sides.

I’m looking for tips on how much water flow I should aim to have. The pump does about 2300 GPH.

roughly what angle should I have it at? I’ve heard 1” drop per foot.

Is 10” too wide?

I’m building it all out of wood to save some money.

ALL TIPS APPRECIATED! I plan on building it tonight.

Thanks,

Adam

Hi Adam,

Welcome from a fellow do-it-yourselfer
I spent many years highbanking/sluicing the glacial drift gold in Indiana so I am familiar with your situation.

Here are my thoughts for setting up and running your highbanker for the Glacial gold found in Ohio/Indiana:

With the pump size you mentioned...
10" wide sluice should be fine, not necessary to be longer than 48" if your outfit is fine tuned.
3/4" pvc for the spray bar/water delivery should be fine.

I recommend pre classifying all paydirt to be fed into the hopper down to no larger than 1/4" (larger gravels could dislodge fine gold as well as necessitating too much of an increase in sluice angle and water flow which would be detrimental to capturing fine, fly poop, and flour gold)

Do not add riffles! That is unless they are drop riffles.

I would recommend that the spray bar be mounted around the top of the hopper with the holes spraying down onto the grizzly.
As has been stated in above posts you may want to vary the mat types to promote capture variables.

As far as angle of drop goes... start at 1" per foot and adjust as necessary, keeping in mind that the angle used is to clear the gravels off the sluice in combination with the water flow.

As far as water flow goes.... too fast and you could wash away the fine gold, due to it not having enough time to settle out of the flow into the capture zones (low pressure areas), too slow and your mats wont be active enough to exchange the lights from the heavies. The mats will load up and the fine gold will just wash over the top of the compacted material and off the end of the sluice.

Next issue is feed rate. I know that in Ohio/Indiana it's important to capture every speck of gold possible so be careful not to overfeed your sluice.
Overwhelming your mats capacity to properly exchange lights from heavies will also cause some loss of those precious specks of gold. Allow just enough time between shovelfuls for the material to process.

Always a good idea to place a tub at the end of your sluice for test panning of tailings especially when trying out a new setup or process. This will tell you exactly how efficient your setup/process is working.
Hope this helps.


Go for the Gold
GG~

 

[GodsEarth]

Hi Adam,

Welcome from a fellow do-it-yourselfer
I spent many years highbanking/sluicing the glacial drift gold in Indiana so I am familiar with your situation.

Here are my thoughts:

10" wide is fine. Not necessary to be longer than 40" as your gold (if your unit is fine tuned) should all be captured within the top 20"
3/4" pvc for the spray bar/water delivery is fine.

I recommend pre classifying all paydirt to be fed into the hopper down to no larger than 1/4" (larger gravels could dislodge fine gold as well as necessitating too much of an increase in sluice angle and water flow which would be detrimental to capturing fine, fly poop, and flour gold)

No riffles over 3/8" tall, should you decide to add riffles.

I would recommend that the spray bar be mounted around the top of the hopper with the holes spraying down onto the grizzly.
As has been stated in above posts you may want to vary the mat types to promote capture variables.

As far as angle of drop goes... start at 1" per foot and adjust as necessary, keeping in mind that the angle used is to clear the gravels off the sluice in combination with the water flow.

As far as water flow goes.... too much and you could wash away the fine gold, too little and your mats wont be active enough to exchange the lights from the heavies.

Next issue is feed rate. I know that in Ohio/Indiana it's important to capture every speck of gold possible so be careful not to overfeed your sluice.
Overwhelming your mats capacity to properly exchange lights from heavies will cause some loss of those precious specks of gold.

Always a good idea to place a tub at the end of your sluice for test panning of tailings especially when trying out a new setup.
Hope this helps.


Go for the Gold
GG~

Hey GoodGuy,

Thanks for the welcome. I’m glad to be here and I’m sure I’ll be learning a LOT! I’m new to prospecting as a whole so also everything that goes along with it. I’ve been learning panning techniques, how gold travels and deposits, signs of gold (pyrite, black sand, etc.), sluicing, made a Henry poop tube. I’ve also done quite a bit of research into the glacial maps. I believe there to be some possible significant gold right where I live in Richland county Ohio. They found gold back in the 1800s and tried some small mining and sluicing operations but never had luck and since then there’s just been small hobby prospecting. I feel like there has to be gold somewhere in all these hills and valleys. Maybe I caught gold fever early (Very) who knows!

Great tips and advice on my sluice build. I’ll be very active here and keep updates. Turns out I’ll stick with the 10” wide sluice and 3/4” pvc. Is there any way around having to classify before filling the hopper? I like the idea of just shoveling directly into the hopper. Gold seems scarce in the streams so far so anything to speed up some time would be great so I can explore more areas quicker! What about a smaller angle from the hopper and the jets aimed higher to be more of a direct hit on what I load in the hopper. Would this separate the lights and heavies good enough?

Thanks again,

Adam

 

[Goodyguy]

Hey GoodGuy,

Thanks for the welcome. I’m glad to be here and I’m sure I’ll be learning a LOT! I’m new to prospecting as a whole so also everything that goes along with it. I’ve been learning panning techniques, how gold travels and deposits, signs of gold (pyrite, black sand, etc.), sluicing, made a Henry poop tube. I’ve also done quite a bit of research into the glacial maps. I believe there to be some possible significant gold right where I live in Richland county Ohio. They found gold back in the 1800s and tried some small mining and sluicing operations but never had luck and since then there’s just been small hobby prospecting. I feel like there has to be gold somewhere in all these hills and valleys. Maybe I caught gold fever early (Very) who knows!

Great tips and advice on my sluice build. I’ll be very active here and keep updates. Turns out I’ll stick with the 10” wide sluice and 3/4” pvc. Is there any way around having to classify before filling the hopper? I like the idea of just shoveling directly into the hopper. Gold seems scarce in the streams so far so anything to speed up some time would be great so I can explore more areas quicker! What about a smaller angle from the hopper and the jets aimed higher to be more of a direct hit on what I load in the hopper. Would this separate the lights and heavies good enough?

Thanks again,

Adam

No one likes to hand classify even though it's a proven way to be more productive when it comes to recovering fine gold when the average size being processed is mostly small flakes, fines, fly poop size, and flour gold.

If you insist on shoveling unclassified material then at least use a 1/4" hardware cloth over your grizzly bars.
Without the hardware cloth a much longer sluice may help minimize your losses.

I know from experience and testing that larger gravels traveling/bouncing/rolling down your mats can dislodge fine gold and cause it to become lifted back up into the laminar flow and be lost. Also a larger piece of gravel or rock just sitting on your mat will cause an increased flow around it and lift adjacent gold back up into the flow. Easy test is to stick your finger down onto a mat during operation and observe the material around it being swept away.

Gold is really scarce in the mid-west and most of it is fly poop size, pickers are rare, that's why every speck counts.
Test panning is the fastest way to get on a pay streak. Then you can set up your highbanker to go into production mode.

Using a highbanker to test for gold would be very time consuming. The pan is your best friend, get to know it well
Good luck and please post some photos of the highbanker you build and of the gold you recover.

Here are examples of the size gold that I typically recovered in Indiana............


*NOTE...
Adam you may want to review my post #16 above, I made some changes after further consideration.



Go for the Gold
GG~

 

[Gambrinus]

Adam[/QUOTE]

Is there any way around having to classify before filling the hopper?

You could classify when it goes down the sluice box by using punch plate suspended over the riffles . Many years ago I built a steel sluice box that was loaded with a slusher bucket being pulled by a three drum winch which worked well enough for me. I drilled the holes myself in the plate and I also drilled a countersink on the underside of the holes so that rocks would be less likely to get stuck in the hole. I don't know if this is necessary or not.

This shows and tells a little of what I am talking about but I see that they use a section of screen, which I think would be problematic but maybe it works fine.
https://www.keeneeng.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=A52S

 

[Goldwasher]

40 gpm min. for a 10" box unless you classify to 1/4 inch.

Punch plate is a great idea an "undercurrent' is good for your situation.

Wood sucks. You will put more money in your cursing jar over time. Versus buying a cheap bending brake and a sheet of aluminum.

Gold hog/ owl matting has weight with +plus wood (SUCKS) = curse jar.

There are companies that make sluice blanks https://www.goldfeverprospecting.com/customsluice.html