bazooka filling up too fast?

[mytimetoshine]

I usually don't have a problem with a shortage of water flow. But no matter how much water I move over the top, the rocks do not self clean. In fact I have to rake MOST of them over the grizzlies by hand. Then smaller rocks are constantly getting stuck in the grizzlies which is the only thing I don't like.But it's still an awesome piece of gear. You can drop fist size rocks in there with no worries. To me it's still faster and more fun to drop half a bucket unclassified straight in there and then coax the rocks over. It really feels like a mini wash plant lol.It's not a big deal I take the opportunity to clear the the tailings at the same time which has to be done very regularly as your moving so many rocks. You couldn't just dump bucket after bucket or shovel not stop even if it was really self clearing because your tailings would back up quickly.

I wonder how the OP summer is going. If I remember right he was gonna park his trailer right next to the river and make wages.

 

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[Goldwasher]

Something I had to explain to people all weekend at the show was the trap is going to fill with pebbles. Up to the tubes. And that was how it would run.
At one point I was doing a demo and the guy was sold on the box so I turned off the recirculation set up we use for demos. It runs a super mini.
Normally I run the whole pan through and dump into another pan and show the gold recovered. We use the same dwt all day long. From -100 mesh up to a couple .2 gram pickers...its all organic as in from a snuffer from a real sniping trip...
Well when I went to do another demo I realized that I had left the trap full. so when I clamped the lead to the terminal water flowed into the trap first long enough to watch the trap start to fluidize you could see it. Like if you've ever came across a natural spring and you can see water coming up through the sand and gravel..thats exactly what the trap looks like. Before it was hidden by the laminar flow over the main deck.
Again the trap started "Full" and the amount of flow through our demo unit doesn't even put water over the grizzly set and top deck. So, in the field it would be considered less than perfect flow. Even at that flow rate, Starting with material in the trap (can't/wouldn't really do that in a stream) the trap fluidized "un-locked" if you will. I ran the rest of the demo pan dumped and panned all the demo gold was there.

Moral of the story your trap is supposed to fill (read your directions again if you have them)....and I promise that some of you that worry your trap has or is locked up are probably mistaken. This is not a criticism of your observations by all means pay attention...I just want you guys to worry a little less about it. I have seen them all run in various situations and true "LOCK UP" is a rare situation....... Even with a large amount of black sand.

 

[GoldpannerDave]

Something I had to explain to people all weekend at the show was the trap is going to fill with pebbles. Up to the tubes. And that was how it would run.
At one point I was doing a demo and the guy was sold on the box so I turned off the recirculation set up we use for demos. It runs a super mini.
Normally I run the whole pan through and dump into another pan and show the gold recovered. We use the same dwt all day long. From -100 mesh up to a couple .2 gram pickers...its all organic as in from a snuffer from a real sniping trip...
Well when I went to do another demo I realized that I had left the trap full. so when I clamped the lead to the terminal water flowed into the trap first long enough to watch the trap start to fluidize you could see it. Like if you've ever came across a natural spring and you can see water coming up through the sand and gravel..thats exactly what the trap looks like. Before it was hidden by the laminar flow over the main deck.
Again the trap started "Full" and the amount of flow through our demo unit doesn't even put water over the grizzly set and top deck. So, in the field it would be considered less than perfect flow. Even at that flow rate, Starting with material in the trap (can't/wouldn't really do that in a stream) the trap fluidized "un-locked" if you will. I ran the rest of the demo pan dumped and panned all the demo gold was there.

Moral of the story your trap is supposed to fill (read your directions again if you have them)....and I promise that some of you that worry your trap has or is locked up are probably mistaken. This is not a criticism of your observations by all means pay attention...I just want you guys to worry a little less about it. I have seen them all run in various situations and true "LOCK UP" is a rare situation....... Even with a large amount of black sand.

Yeah, worry less, shovel more.

 

[GoldpannerDave]

I'm just careful about having loose plastic in the water way....heaven forbid you pull your sluice over night and have some one come across it and they just see trash in the water.....I understand if theres very little to use for damming...I like heavy duty clear plastic...it looks more like a tool less like trash...trash bags =trash...I don't want to get caught digging with a bunch of trash even nearby..it then could be labled as my trash...another thing to use if your not going to far is 8'x 3 to 4 foot pieces of light wood...pine board or clear coated thin plywood. Its easier to build a weir that you can pull your sluice in and out of...you can hike it in once and cache it near your workings for later use.....and its wood easy to hide and doesn't look like trash...I also hate wrestling with plastic sheeting/tarp in moving water...though using it normally only comes up with lower slower flows.....But, please guys don't do like they do on the East Fork of the San Gabriel and leave the crap all over the place.

I like the clear heavy plastic idea! But I already had a blue tarp and lots of black trash bags. Still, if I can pick some clear plastic up cheaply....

 

[Goldwasher]

I like the clear heavy plastic idea! But I already had a blue tarp and lots of black trash bags. Still, if I can pick some clear plastic up cheaply....

get the thickest you can. problem is it starts to break down then you get pieces and rips...tarp is a better idea.

 

[Medina Joe]

I never worry about the trap filling up, I just hate having to bend down to clear the bars every time i shovel. The kids get board fast and we all know how that goes. so then things go south. So I started taking fishing poles to keep me out for a few extra hours

 

[GoldpannerDave]

get the thickest you can. problem is it starts to break down then you get pieces and rips...tarp is a better idea.

Makes sense! Thanks.

 

[AMP_kbell]

INDEAD - If you have that much black sand per shovel then you need something more than the Bazooka - You need the CleanGold system - It is a magnetic sluice that recovers incredibly small gold even when processing 100% black sand and gold. You charge the blue plate with magnetite then run your material. All the gold ends up between the blue plate and the magnetite. Rest of the material exits the machine. It is truly incredible.

Made out of aluminum so it is heavy but awesome. Dennis is easy to work with too. fossickers.com

 

[Goldwasher]

I find it very unlikely that anyone running anything sort of dredge cons could be running 'TOO MUCH" black sand.....Slow down your feed at most maybe some pebbles in the trap. A bazooka is a TRUE fluid bed. It is near impossible if your trap is pressurized right for material to pack the bottom so much that the water isn't fluidizing material. As long as it is fluidized it will exchange material based on density. There is a large amount that will not even settle out and go into the trap...You might have issues with a mini or super mini...though it is unlikely you would be trying to run the type of material mentioned through a sluice that small..your not gonna run the volume of material you would need to make it worth while..unless you simply were curious if you can seperate fly poop from black sand.

 

[KevinInColorado]

I find it very unlikely that anyone running anything sort of dredge cons could be running 'TOO MUCH" black sand.....Slow down your feed at most maybe some pebbles in the trap. A bazooka is a TRUE fluid bed. It is near impossible if your trap is pressurized right for material to pack the bottom so much that the water isn't fluidizing material. As long as it is fluidized it will exchange material based on density. There is a large amount that will not even settle out and go into the trap...You might have issues with a mini or super mini...though it is unlikely you would be trying to run the type of material mentioned through a sluice that small..your not gonna run the volume of material you would need to make it worth while..unless you simply were curious if you can seperate fly poop from black sand.

Goldwasher, go see my posts from last summer testing unprocessed black sand direct from the Washington beaches in the Bazooka Prospector. It actually spat out too much (bed never filled and I lost some +100 gold too) unless I preloaded it with regular gravel to form the fluid bed. Then it worked great, catching everything +100 and some -100 just like usual.

 

[Goldwasher]

I mean during regular use... for beach sand were you recirculating?...totally different dynamics vs. in a stream/river. Some pebbles run with material is a good Idea...running beach sand isn't the bazookas main utility so if you can tailor it for that great. will a fluid bed made for beach sand excel...yep!

 

[KevinInColorado]

I mean during regular use... for beach sand were you recirculating?...totally different dynamics vs. in a stream/river. Some pebbles run with material is a good Idea...running beach sand isn't the bazookas main utility so if you can tailor it for that great. will a fluid bed made for beach sand excel...yep!

My testing was done in stream.

...and I agree. The bazooka is meant to be run with typical stream gravels and is tuned for that. A different fluid bed tuned for beach sand would have less fluidization flow thru the tubes perhaps...a whole different application.

 

[Goldwasher]

I would go bigger trap first....with decent flow through the tubes... the key is keeping the material in this case sand pretty much liquid....it's the laminar flow that pushes material....away from the trap.as the density of material creates the exchange factor....that laminar flow is what would need to be the most tunable as you want the gold to have a chance to settle into the material in the trap.

 

[arizau]

I would go bigger trap first....with decent flow through the tubes... the key is keeping the material in this case sand pretty much liquid....it's the laminar flow that pushes material....away from the trap.as the density of material creates the exchange factor....that laminar flow is what would need to be the most tunable as you want the gold to have a chance to settle into the material in the trap.

"Bigger trap" meaning deeper, longer, or both? I suspect longer to allow the forward momentum of newly introduced material to slow as it meets the up currents of tube introduced water and thus allow more time to settle.

 

[Goldwasher]

longer