Otterguy
Newbie
As part of my equipment list I knew I would need a concentrator to reduce the volume of crushed rock I would get. After studying many sluice setups one seemed to have good principles i.e.. compact, and a waterfall or drop type underflow as apposed to an inline. The flow would naturally follow around the curved bottom making a smooth eddy as apposed to banging against the baffle plate and then being redirecting down and around.
My first attempt was to try and make it out of plastics. Glues are difficult and particular to the type of plastic i.e. polypropoline, LD extruded etc. Torching joints to pre melt prior to gluing greatly improves the adhesion. I found I could not heat and form parts with enough consistency of curve or rigidity so I went to plan B.
I reused my plastic underflow curves and rebuild the rest of the boxes from scrap 20ga. sheet metal I hade kicking around. All the pieces were riveted together and sealed with Goop or silicone caulking. The matting is "vortex matt" glued down with contact cement. It is difficult to get things exact as in take time to make sure the horizontal plates are level and that the boxes are all in the same plane and come together equally. It actually only took me a day and a half to crack this together with about a 150 rivets and then some paint.
My first attempt was to try and make it out of plastics. Glues are difficult and particular to the type of plastic i.e. polypropoline, LD extruded etc. Torching joints to pre melt prior to gluing greatly improves the adhesion. I found I could not heat and form parts with enough consistency of curve or rigidity so I went to plan B.
I reused my plastic underflow curves and rebuild the rest of the boxes from scrap 20ga. sheet metal I hade kicking around. All the pieces were riveted together and sealed with Goop or silicone caulking. The matting is "vortex matt" glued down with contact cement. It is difficult to get things exact as in take time to make sure the horizontal plates are level and that the boxes are all in the same plane and come together equally. It actually only took me a day and a half to crack this together with about a 150 rivets and then some paint.
