Critique my homemade wooden sluice.

[ohiochris]

Here is a sluice I am working on. I dont know a lot about them and never used one , but I came up with plans based on what Ive seen on the internet. The sides are 1X4 , the bottom 1X11 , 48 inches long , and the riffles are hardwood square dowels roughly 1 inch. I am trying to think of a way to hold the carpet in so its removable. Thinking of painting it dark green or black and maybe coat it with polyurethane. Riffles are about 4 inches apart. I have the whole thing held together with liquid nails and screws.

This is my first attempt , so I could really use some advice in this. What would you change on it or do differently ?

 

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[ohiochris]

Updated pictures. I rounded the front top edge of the square dowels to allow lighter sand to flow over better , and slightly under cut the trailing bottom edge to make somewhat of a small pocket. I found a way to secure the carpet at the end with a piece of flimsy expanded metal from the paint department at Lowes , its not ideal and I will come up with something else later. I got looking at paint rollers , how they are fuzzy and would stick out a little through the expanded metal , wondering if that might actually work better than carpet , but it may trap more sand too. I know this one is gonna be a bear at cleanup time , but there is only so much you can do with wood.

Any ideas ?

 

[Hefty1]

Looks like you are doing just fine.

Hefty

 

[prospectordamon]

go out to the creeks and let us know how it does! I learn to critique myself this way. helps out with designing a lot! goodluck

 

[Astrobouncer]

Looks fine to me for a first sluice. I am sure it will catch some gold. The riffles might be a bit tall though, for conventional sluices, riffle size is directly proportional to feed material. So if you are feeding the sluice 1/2 inch material you want 1/2 inch riffles. 1/4 inch material, 1/4 inch riffles. For drop riffles its a bit different, you can feed 1/2 inch material into them when they have only 1/4 inch riffles because the recessed drops coupled with the current behind them keeps lighter big material out of the smaller riffles.

If you material is backing up and not moving, then you need more flow or drop or both. If your material is blowing out too fast then you need less flow or drop or both. You want the sluice to roll out the average size rocks you are feeding it, but not too quickly .

 

[ohiochris]

I tried out the sluice yesterday and it seemed to work fine but looks like it could use a few more riffles , I read somewhere that the more the better anyway. Either that or I just had too much flow. But it was nice to see it work like it was supposed to. Considering the size of the riffles I am glad I rounded the front top edge and undercut the pocket behind them , the larger material rolled over them pretty well and there was plenty of black sand left trapped in the pocket. Since I have not coated it with anything yet it did get pretty waterlogged and heavy and warped as it dried out but I used some metal hanging tape and forced it back into shape. Now its secure enough not to warp. Its been a learning experience but I am satisfied with how its working. I wish I could afford an aluminum sluice , but for now I have already spent more than I can justify , maybe later. I looked into sheet aluminum and its not cheap , might as well buy a pre-made one since it cost as much or more to build one myself.

 

[freddy williams]

It looks great for a first sluice box and it is true the size riffles for the size of your materials I have built a couple boxs myself. Treated box with a flat oil base paint and I have variouse size riffles in mine. HH an may all the dirt in your riffles be Gold....

 

[russau]

Chris, moneys tight everywhere! go to your local street department and ask if they have any old/unuseable street signs that they can sell you. warning this alum. is a tempered alum. and is hard to bend with a hand brake. youll need to goto a shop that has a power bender and ask them to bend it for you very slowly so it wont crack on you. these make excellent sluices. the decals will come off with a razorblade, then use scotch brite to remove any old glue. or use somesort of adheasive remover. new aluminum is getting to pricey! i just bought a sheet of 1/8 5052 aluminum at $120.

 

[Lanny in AB]

The first sluice I ever used was wooden--worked fine. You may have to make a few adjustments to yours (looks good) as you test your different runs of material. But, keep at it, and you'll undoubtedly make it work.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[63bkpkr]

Chris ,
As several folks have told you "yours is looking good"! Astrobouncer was being modest as he has built more sluice's than one person is likely to use in a lifetime and he's likely to build even more as he has better ideas. Check out some of his posts in early 2011 and 2010. Usually the expanded metal (your paint strainer) is what holds the carpet down and the expanded metal is attached so it is easy to lift it out or at least to raise one end so the carpet can be removed. Also some form of ribbed rubber/plastic is placed towards the top of the input to the box as smaller gold will hold up in it. The ribs of the rubber/plastic go across the width of the box not up and down. It is amazing how the gold just stops there.

Good Luck and keep at it as it will come to you! 63bkpkr

 

[Lanny in AB]

I think what everyone is trying to help you with, and this is critical, is to get your sluice in the water and run some material through it--then you'll find out in a hurry which parts of it need to be modified. Best to take it out and play--then you'll know which way to go to raise or lower the edges of your riffles, etc. The three rules of prospecting are test, test, test. Once you run some dirt you'll catch on to what we're trying to tell you, and after you make your adjustments, you'll get some gold!

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Goodyguy]

I tried out the sluice yesterday and it seemed to work fine but looks like it could use a few more riffles , I read somewhere that the more the better anyway. Either that or I just had too much flow. But it was nice to see it work like it was supposed to. Considering the size of the riffles I am glad I rounded the front top edge and undercut the pocket behind them , the larger material rolled over them pretty well and there was plenty of black sand left trapped in the pocket. Since I have not coated it with anything yet it did get pretty waterlogged and heavy and warped as it dried out but I used some metal hanging tape and forced it back into shape. Now its secure enough not to warp. Its been a learning experience but I am satisfied with how its working. I wish I could afford an aluminum sluice , but for now I have already spent more than I can justify , maybe later. I looked into sheet aluminum and its not cheap , might as well buy a pre-made one since it cost as much or more to build one myself.

If you are in Ohio...........

Yes you definitely need more riffles.......first thing I noticed. They should be 2" apart to create the proper vortex. Too close together and they load up, too far apart and they don't create the proper vortex.

Other than that I would go with 1/2" tall and no more than 5/8" tall riffles to work best with the Glacial drift gold found in Ohio, Indiana, etc.
Also classify your material to no more than 3/8" the best would be 1/4" to get maximum results. The shorter riffles allow you to run slower water at less of an angle which helps retain the fine and flour gold.

It's all about setting up for the type gold in your area and the type material you run.


Go for the Gold
GG~