Home recirculating system for sluice box

RonnyB

Tenderfoot
Mar 30, 2015
9
6
Henderson Nevada as of June 2, 2015
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Hi All,
New to the forum but not to prospecting. When I was younger I used to poke around in California and Arizona while on camping trips mostly running material through a sluice looking for gemstones and cleaning out a little gold from the sluice at the end of the day. I moved to the east coast (PA) and for 20 years I had a rather demanding career where I did not have much time for anything other the occasional fishing trip. The last couple of years I have returned to prospecting whenever I had the opportunity mostly in NC and GA while on my way down or back from visiting my family in FL. I have refined my technique quite a bit to include pre-classification of material and post classification before panning out concentrates that has greatly increased both my gold recovery as well as finding cool gemstones. I'll be moving to northern Florida in a couple of months which is great since I will be much closer to mining sites in GA, AL, SC, NC etc. Woo Hoo! Anyway, introductions aside I have a question for everyone.

I like to classify raw material in the field to 4 mesh and then bring a few buckets home for further processing on weekends when I can't get into the field. I've made several attempts to convert one of my sluices into a home high banker but I have run into a couple of technical problems I can't seem to get past. (BTW I have a 50" Keene, a 50" Proline and a 30" Proline) I began rather simplistically by attaching a garden hose to the Keene and running material. The problem was water flow. Too much flow and the stream of water jumped over the rubber mat at the feeding end of the sluice, too little flow and I had to increase the angle to over 30 degrees to prevent build up at the bottom. I was also flooding the backyard with water which put me in the doghouse with the wife. I bought a cheap bilge pump to reduce my usage of water but that only exacerbated the water flow issue. I have seen some youtube videos where folks have customized a 5 gallon bucket where the water is delivered to the bucket and exits into the sluice by a rectangular hole on the side near the bottom but in the videos I can see that the water flow is jumping over the rubber mat as well. I'm thinking that a metal box can be constructed to attach to where the feeder triangle is usually attached to be the hopper. Then set up the bilge pump hose to deliver water to the back wall of the box at an angle such that feeding material fed from the top should slow the flow enough to be laminar by the time it hits the rubber mat. Has anyone tried the bucket or customized hopper/box method of converting your sluice? Any help would be appreciated. Ron
 

Oct 5, 2014
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Welcome to the forum!
 

DirtWarrior

Bronze Member
Jul 15, 2014
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Virginia
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Wel-come aboard ... :hello:
 

vpnavy

Super Moderator
Staff member
Jun 15, 2008
35,092
18,589
York County, PA (USA)
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metal_detector.gif
Welcome Aboard! Take a look at Sub-Forums: Florida for information (i.e., clubs, etc.) directly related to your state.
 

Mike70

Full Member
Jan 23, 2015
175
85
Gold Coast, Queensland
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Hi Ron, don't know much about dredges and such, may I suggest you move your post to the prospecting forum, where you will find heaps of people who would be able to help you with your problems. Welcome to Tnet.
 

Oregon Viking

Gold Member
Jan 6, 2014
12,144
37,262
Brookings-Harbor Oregon
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Keene A52 with Gold Hog mats
Gold-N-Sand hand dredge
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Hi All,
New to the forum but not to prospecting. When I was younger I used to poke around in California and Arizona while on camping trips mostly running material through a sluice looking for gemstones and cleaning out a little gold from the sluice at the end of the day. I moved to the east coast (PA) and for 20 years I had a rather demanding career where I did not have much time for anything other the occasional fishing trip. The last couple of years I have returned to prospecting whenever I had the opportunity mostly in NC and GA while on my way down or back from visiting my family in FL. I have refined my technique quite a bit to include pre-classification of material and post classification before panning out concentrates that has greatly increased both my gold recovery as well as finding cool gemstones. I'll be moving to northern Florida in a couple of months which is great since I will be much closer to mining sites in GA, AL, SC, NC etc. Woo Hoo! Anyway, introductions aside I have a question for everyone.

I like to classify raw material in the field to 4 mesh and then bring a few buckets home for further processing on weekends when I can't get into the field. I've made several attempts to convert one of my sluices into a home high banker but I have run into a couple of technical problems I can't seem to get past. (BTW I have a 50" Keene, a 50" Proline and a 30" Proline) I began rather simplistically by attaching a garden hose to the Keene and running material. The problem was water flow. Too much flow and the stream of water jumped over the rubber mat at the feeding end of the sluice, too little flow and I had to increase the angle to over 30 degrees to prevent build up at the bottom. I was also flooding the backyard with water which put me in the doghouse with the wife. I bought a cheap bilge pump to reduce my usage of water but that only exacerbated the water flow issue. I have seen some youtube videos where folks have customized a 5 gallon bucket where the water is delivered to the bucket and exits into the sluice by a rectangular hole on the side near the bottom but in the videos I can see that the water flow is jumping over the rubber mat as well. I'm thinking that a metal box can be constructed to attach to where the feeder triangle is usually attached to be the hopper. Then set up the bilge pump hose to deliver water to the back wall of the box at an angle such that feeding material fed from the top should slow the flow enough to be laminar by the time it hits the rubber mat. Has anyone tried the bucket or customized hopper/box method of converting your sluice? Any help would be appreciated. Ron

Home recirculating system for sluice box. I'am going to try this. I have an A52, and an A52P...so why not? Price is not bad. Scroll down to the "hopper box"
CALIFORNIA SLUICE BOX - HIGH BANKER PARTS
 

OP
OP
R

RonnyB

Tenderfoot
Mar 30, 2015
9
6
Henderson Nevada as of June 2, 2015
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Hi All Thanx for the welcome. The wife is in St. Johns right now looking for work. I hope to be back home by the end of May (I'm currently in PA; no gold, its either raining or snowing most of the time, the work is getting really old, but the money is good so what the hey… I have only found two GPAA groups in FL, Branford and Orlando. Both are a hike for me. I am wondering how many folks might be interested in starting a local chapter in Alachua, Live Oaks, Lake City, or Gainesville? I'll be back this summer and am willing to lead or follow someone else's lead to get some gold/gem bugs together.
 

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