Ordered a Bazooka gold trap sluice

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Originally Posted by Joel1316

The river I go to has pretty good water flow, especially during the Summer run off. I can always build a wing dam too.

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I had been playing around with the idea of a portable wing dam for use with my homemade fluid bed sluice for some time and decided to go ahead and test my idea.

It's very easy to do, so easy in fact that I am surprised no one has thought of it before.........(if they have I've never seen or heard of it)
All it takes is two 6" x 48" strips of 1/16" aluminum. (same gauge as an A52 sluice is made from).

Fasten a strip to each side of the sluice and voila.... instant wing dam!
I'll have to post photos next time out (my camera batteries were dead at the time)

Anyway it worked great, I had to build it out of 1/8" aluminum as that was all I had at the time but I'm pretty sure that 1/16" will be fine. I used a 4 foot broom handle screwed through the bottom end of each of the two strips for the mouth of the dam. I had planned to later swap the broom handle for something adjustable so the mouth opening can easily be adjusted according to need.

GG~

GG - Another great project! Your right, by now, I would have thought someone would have marketed a portable wing dam by now??? Hmmmmm (gears turning :icon_scratch:)

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Originally Posted by replicaprops

I used it 2 times last season, and this season I am going to modify the stand I built for it to be more sturdy. The Llano river is really fast and it knocks over the stand, so I am planning on mounting pontoons to the stand and that should keep the bazooka submerged at the proper depth no matter what depth of water Im working in.
This is what my stand looks like now, Ill post photos when Im done modifying it.

Attachment 704185Attachment 704186

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I love your stand, and had a crazy idea that if you are in fast moving water, you could use small deflection plates attached to the legs to help pin it to the bed. Like upside down hydrofoils. :-D

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Originally Posted by Goodyguy

I had been playing around with the idea of a portable wing dam for use with my homemade fluid bed sluice for some time and decided to go ahead and test my idea.

It's very easy to do, so easy in fact that I am surprised no one has thought of it before.........(if they have I've never seen or heard of it)
All it takes is two 6" x 48" strips of 1/16" aluminum. (same gauge as an A52 sluice is made from).

Fasten a strip to each side of the sluice and voila.... instant wing dam!
I'll have to post photos next time out (my camera batteries were dead at the time)

Anyway it worked great, I had to build it out of 1/8" aluminum as that was all I had at the time but I'm pretty sure that 1/16" will be fine. I used a 4 foot broom handle screwed through the bottom end of each of the two strips for the mouth of the dam. I had planned to later swap the broom handle for something adjustable so the mouth opening can easily be adjusted according to need.

GG~

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GG, I had a thought about this. What if you used a thick canvas or other material, maybe old inflatable boat rubber, to make these wings? I envision a spring tensioned spool on each side of the sluice with the rolled up material, and a stake on the end of the "ribbon". In use, you just pull the material out away from the sluice only as much as you need to, then stake it into the bed. If rocks happen to hit the bottom, they just deform the fabric a little, no biggie. You control how much head you develop with how much you pull off the spool, and you can have different angles and pullout on each side as is warranted to control overall flow rates. And for a simpler implementation, you could just attach the fabric wing directly to the sluice with no spool at all.

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Originally Posted by UncleMatt

GG, I had a thought about this. What if you used a thick canvas or other material, maybe old inflatable boat rubber, to make these wings? I envision a spring tensioned spool on each side of the sluice with the rolled up material, and a stake on the end of the "ribbon". In use, you just pull the material out away from the sluice only as much as you need to, then stake it into the bed. If rocks happen to hit the bottom, they just deform the fabric a little, no biggie. You control how much head you develop with how much you pull off the spool, and you can have different angles and pullout on each side as is warranted to control overall flow rates. And for a simpler implementation, you could just attach the fabric wing directly to the sluice with no spool at all.

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That's thinking outside the box Matt :icon_thumleft:

Speaking of outside the box I just mounted my wings to the outside of my box using piano hinges. That way when not in use they just fold back alongside the length of the sluice. Then when needed I just swing them around to form whatever size V necessary.

Also had to make the hinges able to pivit a little to allow for the sluice drop.

GG~

I just got my New Mini Super Bazooka and tried it out yesterday. Works great unbelievable the amount of material you can run through it with no classification, And it does catch the fines. Smallest gold we found could fit on the end of a needle. I highly recommend this tool.