Built a gold trap sluice

[Astrobouncer]

Its almost done, I just have to seal a couple seams on the back trap, and then add some more waterproofing.

I took pictures of it next to the bazooka to help show its dimensions.

My version is narrower then the Bazooka. I did this on purpose, when you have excessive width you are wasting kinetic energy that could be better spent moving overburden up and out of the sluice. Mine starts at 10 inches wide and tapers to 6 inches at the end. It continues tapering right up until the end because the narrower width should help push the oversize out of the sluice.

The first four pics is of the bottom section and the trap.






Top part that tapers inward, plus the grizzly.




Inside the bottom half of mine.


Bottom half of the bazooka.


And then side by side photos of mine next to the bazooka.








For anyone not familiar with how these work, they use a fluidized bed principle to keep the material in the trap liquidized. As long as you keep the trap full of water, the material coming in from the top will settle the heavies in the trap and the lighter material will wash out the back. They work great in that they have a built in classifier and I can move about double as much material with a trap sluice like the Bazooka then my drop riffle sluices. Also, its about impossible to lose gold, unless you displace the gold in the trap with something both heavier and smaller (which is hard to do).

There's downsides to one of these though. They require more water then a normal sluice or a drop riffle and in fact, the more water you give them the better they run. Also they generate massive amounts of tailings which have to be shoveled from behind the sluice or the trap will not work right.

 

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[russau]

i replied to the other post on this subject. you need to turn your pvc tubes to run across the flow to prevent 'corn rows" in your fluidbed. and youll need to be able to increase the water column in these tubes to get the right fluidization of the bed. every fluidbed is different on set ups. for my FB i stated out with a 1 inch of water column to see how its fluidized the material and went from there. good work so far on your project!

 

[Gravelwasher]

I like the looks of it so far, cant really see where the materials drop from the upper level to the lower level. Keep us posted on the progress, I might have to make one too, if I can just figure out some of the details. Thanks for the pics!!! Gravelwasher

 

[Astrobouncer]

T very nice specimen and there's no doubt I got the fever. The only time I aint thinking prospecting is when I am sleeping.

Here's some improvements I made over the Bazooka.

My version has a pre-screen in the front to block leaves from clogging up both the pipes, and the grizzly which is super annoying every time you walk in front of the sluice you kick up leaves or other debris and have to bend down and keep cleaning them out on the Bazooka. But not a problem on mine. This pre-screen is easily removable at the creek in case you need to clean it out. I used some 4 mesh. I could and might go smaller if needed.



My version is also 8 inch's tall versus the bazookas 6 inch. Some of that is due to the larger wood base, but only 1/2 inch of that.

My version also has a 1 and 1/2 inch gap from the grizzly bottom to the top, versus the bazookas 1 inch gap. This lets more water in the top to help push the gravel into the trap. And that extra water flow will help clean out the trap since the trap acts like the base of a waterfall.

The grizzly on the bazooka is a mere 3 inches long, whereas the grizzly on mine, is 5 inches long. This extra length ensures the gravel is classified properly into the trap.




My version is also considerably narrower then the bazooka at the end, which should increase water velocity considerably to help push the oversize gravel out. The narrowest point on the bazooka is 9 and 1/4 inch, whereas mine tapers down to just 6 and 1/4 inches. Either will process a full shovel of bank run dirt, just mine will do it faster due to increased water velocity.

Mine cleans up into a 5 gallon bucket, same as the bazooka.

Either tomorrow, Saturday or Sunday I will try to get some testing in on this, depending on the weather.

Russau, thanks for the advice. I am sure I will have to change some things on this but I cant wait to test it out as it stands. Can you explain the cornrows further?

 

[russau]

AB, to bad the top cover over your fluid bed is wood. if it was made in lexan or plexiglass you would see the (as built) cornrows forming when material water is running. they might be hard to see once the water supply stops.inany event the fine gold your hopeing to capture will be minimal in the as built setup is! see if you can save all the cons from your initial run to check it out. i did my first FB that way and i changed it. works a lot better then.

 

[liftloop]

were does the gold end.... up I want to make one of them..I think that set up is cool...

 

[liftloop]

Aha I studied that sluice now i under stand the tubes have holes to agitate the water....then the rest runs out the back along with the stuff that went over the grizzly....what if you funneled the water to the tubes made them in to a vencherie that should build more speed better agitation or better liquefaction.

 

[tvanwho]

My 2 Bazookas work better if I classify to 1/4 inch. Hey Russ, don't I know you?
Is winter over yet down in St Louis? Sposed to hit 60 here on Friday but we still have 4 foot piles of white stufff yet.

-Tom V.

 

[russau]

yep Tom, you know me! dont be so coy!! weve shared a campfire or two there in Indiana with Chuck L. and Mike P. and i brought you to a little place in Missouri awhile back.i maybe stomping around up there this summer at one of Chucks outtings.

 

[ncclaymaker]

I am the one that has the topic "Need for speed and high volume output". Here in NC most of the high-graders have been through here for 150 years. Most of the leavings are "fines". You can read about them in the old mining journals that the state publishes from the archives. One of the interesting findings in newspapers, journals and mining publications, were that the technology at the time did not really understand fluid bed dynamics v. specific gravity. The all claimed that the fine particles were not "profitable" to spend the time or money on. That being said, here are a few questions on the trap.

My high volume/high speed ride is capable of producing sand, sediment, gravel and water in large quantities. Very large quantities. 40-50HP potential at the pump is serious movement. We've all seen ski jets.

1. Can the fluid bed trap be capable of handling copious amounts of pre-classified material? This means that only materials less than 0.25 inches will actually go onto the sluice.
2. How many yards of material without choking the trap?
3. Recommended maximum volume of water/min/hr?
4. Will it be capable of handling a 3 or 4 inch dredge more effectively, if at all?

What I am trying to do, is find out as much information as possible, get your input and honest opinions. In any event, thanks for the pictures that you have posted.

 

[russau]

i had my FB on my 4 inch dredge,but i had it on the tailend of the lower sluice.(not good)i made another FB tobe mounted in the middel of my lower sluice but never got it mounted. EVERY FB has its own dynamics when on different equipment(sizes). my lower sluice is also screened to 3/16 and the enterance to the FB choked that size down just abit.i finnaly setteled on 2 inchs of water column for my FB to keep the FB material fluid. foe my FB,as long as i kept the bed fluid, it kept on working. BUT if it were to fill up with heavies,it would be overloaded and stop working correctly.so each FB would need to be run and checked often to see what its capabilitys would be.thats about all i can tell you.

 

[ncclaymaker]

I'm in the process of building a slightly modified trap sluice. With all of the pro's and con's, lateral thinking and general outside of the box thoughts on this subject... I think that I may have solved one of the problems that I've read about here and www.gpex.ca concerning filling or blinding the trap with unwanted solids.

I noticed that the design features a parallel top and bottom. This I think may be part of the problem. If the top of the trap were to be elevated at an angle, this would cause the water to accelerate, causing a slight increase of water pressure/velocity at or near the trap exit slot. To determine the exact angle would be a variable best determined in the field by hinging the trap top. This may be somewhat of a problem, if your grizzly wires are firmly attached to the trap top.

I also figured out a simple means of having two trap boxes on the same sluice. This will, hopefully reduce the number of cleanouts/day required. As I am building my sluice over the next week, I'll upload images. Thanks to all, here and Canada for the information, critique and ideas for this simple, but evolving device.

 

[Dannzo]

Dimensions

Hi great post and thank you for doing this
Can you pleas give us dimensions of the FB ( high wight depth) and tubs how high from the bottom of the FB and size of holes you did.
Thanks again

 

[Darrenjay]

Hi great post and thank you for doing this
Can you pleas give us dimensions of the FB ( high wight depth) and tubs how high from the bottom of the FB and size of holes you did.
Thanks again

I want to build one also, step by step guide if possible

 

[CharlesP]

Nice job astro! I use my bazooka as a recirculating sluice most the time. I wish the pipes on it dud what yours do, that way when the water jets get clogged I could pop a cap and clear them.

 

[Nordin]

Nice work!

How does it look inside the trap with the PVC pipes, thinking of building one myself

Skickat från min Nexus 4 via Tapatalk 2

 

[63bkpkr]

Astro, another great project from you! Your projects and inputs are always the best. I look forward to reading about your test results and mods to the original design............................63bkpkr

 

[munkirinch]

Impressive work AstroBouncer!!