Gold trap gate sluice box

[ncclaymaker]

I saw an animation of a unique gate trap on youtube.com . I had previously viewed a live video test of the same trap. With a few small variations and add-ons, this may well be an idea to test and develop. The earlier trap designs are probably very well suited for stream use and a shovel.

The problem was when the trap was on a 4" dredge, it was just overwhelmed. Cleanouts were too frequent or if you increased the water volume to the fluid box to suspend and eject slurry, you shot yourself in the foot. Too much attention required. I found that it was a delicate balance act of too little or too much water volume/pressure. Too little and the trap was loaded up, too much and out the fines went.

Check out the link below... we need some out of the box thoughts on how to impliment this idea for us gravel suckers or let's deep six the idea.

 

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[russau]

gold trap gate sluice box

this video is exactly how the Gold Cube is designed. your right,the water pressure from a dredge is way to much and will blow out everything. it works on the water column principle. when setup/run correctly, itll save the finest of gold. and if you screen it ,itll work even better!

 

[ncclaymaker]

Question to my original problem, almost like Zen... I just could not find my balance. Too much of one thing, not enough of the other created a labor intensive hell for me. Would you suggest trying a variety of "scaled up" versions of the gated sluice trap? Or is it going to give similar results that I experienced with the gold trap on a high volume setup. This is coming off of a 4" dredge that provides a fairly high volume of water and slurry. The sluice is 12" wide MacKirk Eureka. The material that goes onto the sluice is classified sand ==> pea size gravel, the rest is jetissoned as waste. The captured material is the NC slate belt fine to flour gold.

I would like some ideas as to -
1. What diameter pipe or cylinder I should start at.
2. What is the gate opening at the bottom of the cylinder.
3. Should the gate be adjustable or fixed. (Uh -oh, the one size fits all conundrum )
4. Should I make the trap gate sluice the same width as the sluice?
5. Will one trap assembly be sufficient or is this type of trap inefficient, thus requiring multiple units to do the job.
6. Could they be set up serially, like a steps in a cascade, instead of vertically as the Gold Cube, which I doubt could be used on a dredge.
7. Will this be suitable for dredges or is this good only for low volume applications?

Advice would be appreciated.

 

[Gramps43]

It is also similar to the Aussie Beachbox, attached is an image of one page of a treaties written by Trevor Alty.


Gramps

 

[russau]

Gramps your exactly right! Trevs posting of this design was on his website(www.goldminers@yahoogroups) years back and was a design that was used before that. Trev used this to build his device and did pretty good with it on the beachs of New Zealand. Mike Pung and Red studied this design and came up with the rounded tibe with the gate for the Gold Cube which worked even better.i dont know if it would work as intended behind a dredge. it needs some testing to find out. with all the turbulance of the stream it may cause problems using this design?but i hope it dont!controlling the water column for the gate would be another challeng.the surge of starting/stopping the dredge would affect the saving of fine gold.

 

[Gramps43]

It would seem to me that the curved bottom of the trench would allow the gold to follow the water flow right out, where if there are sharp corners the gold would hide in those corners. But the Gold Cube works so who am I to argue with success.

Gramps

 

[shoot]

Just a thought to help control flow and maybe catch more but I am sure it would pack up fast.


and maybe if too much pressure or flow is the issue have a overflow that jumps to the next collection area...

 

[russau]

the rounded section, rather than the sq. section helps to keep everything in a fluid state and the gate is adjustable to create a water column.a consistant engine speed is needed to keep this puppy working at its prescribed proccedure. Trev Alty even complimented Mike Pung on his different design.

 

[Goodyguy]

The "Gold Cube" Design......




For dredging I would just go with an over under sluice design.
The lower sluice should be wide enough to insure slow water speed and use a vortex mat to catch all the fine and flour gold.

GG~

 

[PROSPECTORMIKEL]

I REMEMBER SEEING A VIDEO A FEW YEARS AGO ( I DON'T REMEMBER WHO OR WHERE,) THAT HAD A
LARGE WATER TRAP AT THE TOP OF THE SLUICE BOX. IT WAS AN EXPERIMENT AND I DON'T KNOW IF IT
WORKED OR NOT, BUT IT DOES MAKE ME WONDER IF WE HAVE THE CART BEFORE THE HORSE.

I'LL TRY TO FIND THAT CLIP AND FIND OUT HOW IT PANNED OUT.
IF ANYONE ELSE HAS SEEN THIS ONE, POST ABOUT IT.... ME TRYING TO REMEMBER ANYTHING IS JUST
ME, WORKING WITHOUT TOOLS.

MIKEL

 

[azman67]

Hi All,
I came across a youtube video by xgrumpyprospector
he has a home made sluice that traps and cleans all your microscopic gold, while blowing out 1.25 inch rocks at the same time all whilst keeping the microgold safe in the trap...amazing I have never seen anything like it!!!!! the guys name is Mike and he calls it his UnderFlow or UnderTow sluice box historically there was something similar called a "boil box"
I am thinking of building one of them myself!!!!

 

[forhorsmn]

Looks like he took some of the design ideas from the Gold Cube and used it in a different piece of equipment. I'd like to see a test run of it out on a river to see how it works in the field.

 

[MRBeyer]

My 2 cents.
What about pickers and small nuggets? Looks like it classifies them out.
Looks like alot is diverted during classifying. Might mean a good percentage is lost then.

I am thinking it would work as a flair out at the end of a sluice/dredge combination. Allows you to get the pickers and nuggets in the main riffles. Take out the riffles used to get the fines and replace it with this design. Adjust the diverters to compensate for flow speed. Use either a known weight/resistance needle indicator on both sides of the output to indicate it is dialed in or use water column pipes in a similar manner. The more perpendicular the diverters are the slower the diverted output and the faster/greater this designs output. Finally, for cleanout, shut down dredge, clean riffles of pickers/nuggets, start back up dredge running clear water, then wash out carpet in sluice so small stuff goes into this trap.

 

[TheHarleyMan2]

Pretty darn cool!!!!!!!! I like it!

 

[PROSPECTORMIKEL]

I THINK THAT I REMEMBER WHERE I SAW THE EXPERIMENTAL WATER TRAP AT THE HEAD OF THE SLUICE,(FIRST THING AFTER THE GRIZZLY).
I THINK IT WAS TOM MASSEY ON ALASKAN, OR ONE OF THEIR OTHER SHOWS. LIKE I SAID, I DIDN'T SEE HOW OR HOW WELL IT WORKED.
I HATE IT WHEN I CAN'T REMEMBER SIMPLE STUFF LIKE THAT. MAYBE I CAN TRACK DOWN THE ACTUAL EPISODE, AND AGAIN I'M WORKIN' WITHOUT TOOLS.

WELL, MORE TO FOLLOW...

HH AND GOD BLESS. KEEP DIGGIN'.

MIKEL

 

[russau]

yep this is cool but it works MUCH better if you screen your material and run each screening seperatly! this is just a copy of someone elses work!but i do like it!