Fluid Bed Twist Experiment

[hunter_46356]

Don’t know if anyone has tried this twist on a fluid bedsluice but I came up with the idea from having an under gravel filter years agofor a twenty gal. aquarium. The filter fit the entire aquarium bottom and hadsmall holes or slits in it that drew the water through the gravel in the tankto create a sort of bio filter. Now I know this isn’t the same due to the factin this case the water will be forced up from the bottom creating little spoutsabove each hole. My hope is having enough water volume and pressure it willfluidize the catch box and clear the lighter material. My experience in thepast with several home made fluid bed sluices I’ve made is I always seem tohave what I feel is to much classified material to pan out. If I haveenough flow I’m guessing this may work. Going to take it out Thur. and get itwet. I haven’t painted or sealed the wood cause I didn’t want to spend the timeand money if it doesn’t “pan out” LOL. I'm a cheap skate right now I have about $8 in it. Thanksgoes out to Goodguy and Astrobouncer for making my brain work overtime thinkingof a better (fluid bed) mouse trap. Let you know how it goes. Comments or Criticism Welcome.





Bottom water section tapers from 3" inlet down to 1" under the bed


Combination 3/16" diamond screen and 1/4" hardware cloth classifier


Bottom of catch box 3/16" holes 1" x 1" offset


From the slick plate to the front edge of the lower box is a 3"x1/2" taper droping into the box under the first part of the classifier.

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[Gravelwasher]

Looks like good work!! You may want to build a flair into the design to increase velocity. Let us all know how it does. Good luck.

[hunter_46356]

I agree but simplicity and time made me try straight first. Previoushome brew FB that I've made have been flaired design. Total length is shorterthan I'd like (giving less time formaterial to naturally separate on the slick plate) but scrap material dictatedsize. I also need to screen the water inlet to keep out debris that will clogthe whole thing up. A lot of these things are ideas I’ve learned from GG andAB. I can change a few things if I need more velocity in the water channel likecreating a funnel/flair in the water channel itself or lowering the hieght ofthe space under the bed itself add more holes to the bed pattern if it’s notseparating enough material. That’s why I made the sides from wood, I can takethe whole thing apart easily and adjust things. I’ll probably have to play with theoutlet hieght as well if the box doesn’t want to clear. I’m not an engineerjust a worn out old capenter that likes to tinker. I’m guessing there’s areason this design hasn’t been seen or tried (it probably won’t work) but what the heck. If this has any merit I havea friend that can bend up everything in aluminum then I can patten it and experiencethe American Dream then pay the friggin Feds most of my profits. LOL

[Goodyguy]

I hope it works as good as it looks
My concern would be that micro gold would filter down through the holes and get washed away from underneath, hopefully constant water pressure would prevent that.

A short flange across the bottom near the opening of the water intake to the trap would stop any gold from washing back out if it did filter down. Kind of a safety trap under the trap.

GG~

[hunter_46356]

GG I do think this could be one of many problems as well but if the water velocity is constant nothing should get below the hole deck until you clean up and water stops flowing. If it did it should stay trapped in the lower water section which is all sealed. During clean up I would have to backwash the lower section as well. I think the biggest problem will be getting the right water velocity and the amount of coverage on the hole plate to keep material fluid and transferring properly. May need more holes who knows. GG thanks for your comments I repect your opinion, have you ever experimented with this type of design.

[Goodyguy]

GG I do think this could be one of many problems as well but if the water velocity is constant nothing should get below the hole deck until you clean up and water stops flowing. If it did it should stay trapped in the lower water section which is all sealed. During clean up I would have to backwash the lower section as well. I think the biggest problem will be getting the right water velocity and the amount of coverage on the hole plate to keep material fluid and transferring properly. May need more holes who knows. GG thanks for your comments I respect your opinion, have you ever experimented with this type of design.

No I haven't experimented with that design but It looks promising. Keep us posted on your results.

GG~

[hunter_46356]

Hit the creek today and ran some material thru this thing. It didn't work any better than the first two I've made. It definately needs way more velocity than the creek was willing to give me today. Don't get me wrong all the fluid bed sluices I've made get the gold they just leave way to much cons to work out. My trusty Angus Mackirk Recon came thru and saved the day. In fact the Recon works so well I really don't know why I spend time trying to make these FB's work. I ran 25 gal.of material today and brought home maybe a cup of cons to pan out and for my area it was a good day maybe a half a gram of flakes n fines. If I would have used the FB I would have had two+ gallons of material to pan. I really think I'm going buy a Mackirk Foreman Stream sluice and let Goodguy and Astrobouncer perfect these FB sluices (if you could possibly improve on GG design). The time I spent messing with my FB today I could have ran another 10 to 15 gal. of material thru the Recon.