goldenIrishman
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- Feb 28, 2013
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Well it finally happened. Robi has put in a request for a sluice of her own! After giving it a lot of thought, I've come up with what I think is going to be the best design not only for the materials we/she usually runs but to make it as easy as possible for her to operate. Let me run my thinking on this past everyone and see what you think....
The materials we have been running have been run through a long tom style, a highbanker as well as a drop riffle style of sluice. Each of them has done a pretty good job on catching the gold but all of them still miss some of it. I have been re-running tailings and I want to make it so Robi won't have to do that also. She doesn't want to have to deal with a lot of carpet sections and a single piece of carpet would be rather unwieldy for her to work with.
I've decided that a combination sluice that starts with a slick plate and goes into a drop riffle section followed by a single section of carpet at the end would be effective as well as be easy for her to do clean outs on. The majority of the gold would be caught in the drop riffle section and any of the fines that get washed out of the riffles would be caught by the carpet section at the end. The last of the bars that form the riffles would be undercut so the carpet would fit under it, thus allowing the materials and water to flow from one section to the next with little to no problems. It should be able to handle materials only classified to 1/2 inch.
I've drawn up plans for this experimental design on paper and if I get some time this weekend I'll re-do them on the computer so I can post them here. Overall size of the actual bed will be 48" length and 7-3/4 wide. The narrower width will allow for a smaller pump but I'm planning on setting it up with a 2000gph unit. Stand for it will be fabricated out of PVC pipe.
So if you have any thoughts or ideas let me know! I've never tried a combo design so this could get interesting to say the least.
The materials we have been running have been run through a long tom style, a highbanker as well as a drop riffle style of sluice. Each of them has done a pretty good job on catching the gold but all of them still miss some of it. I have been re-running tailings and I want to make it so Robi won't have to do that also. She doesn't want to have to deal with a lot of carpet sections and a single piece of carpet would be rather unwieldy for her to work with.
I've decided that a combination sluice that starts with a slick plate and goes into a drop riffle section followed by a single section of carpet at the end would be effective as well as be easy for her to do clean outs on. The majority of the gold would be caught in the drop riffle section and any of the fines that get washed out of the riffles would be caught by the carpet section at the end. The last of the bars that form the riffles would be undercut so the carpet would fit under it, thus allowing the materials and water to flow from one section to the next with little to no problems. It should be able to handle materials only classified to 1/2 inch.
I've drawn up plans for this experimental design on paper and if I get some time this weekend I'll re-do them on the computer so I can post them here. Overall size of the actual bed will be 48" length and 7-3/4 wide. The narrower width will allow for a smaller pump but I'm planning on setting it up with a 2000gph unit. Stand for it will be fabricated out of PVC pipe.
So if you have any thoughts or ideas let me know! I've never tried a combo design so this could get interesting to say the least.
Keep the slick plate at the same level or a little above the highest point in the first riffle section. Probably some ¾" to 1" T bar would be high enough or maybe start out with a few ½" T bars. Here is one of Indy's links on the Dahlke that goes into the riffles they use. 
