What do You Want on your 'Zooka?

[Caconym]

I think you are on the right track to lower the exit port. From the photo it appears that there may be a little too much room from the top of the tubes to the bottom of the exit port. Anything over 1-1/2" is too much. I prefer 1-1/4"

How far are the bottom of the tubes off the bottom of the trap? 1/2" is the norm.
You also want to make sure the exit port is large enough to handle the throughput without hindering the flow.

...

You can not put a price on the feeling of satisfaction, pride of workmanship, feeling of accomplishment, learning from hands on experience, enjoyment of the ride, etc. from building your own........ It's a "tinkering thing"

Darn tootin! I'm sure everyone remembers the feeling when they found their first gold. To find it in something I designed and built myself adds another layer of pride and excitement.

The tubes are 1/2" off the bottom, but I think I accidentally made the exit port 10mm/0.4" too tall. I made it to be the same area as the inlet port, but being wider, that made it narrower and therefore higher. I've cut it down to 60mm/2.4" exit port height and I'm reducing the number of holes. I'll post an update when I've had a chance to take it out again.

Thanks for the encouragement. I'm a DIY tinkerer and hiker first; fossicking is just a way to encourage me to get out to new and distant places and an excuse to build new and interesting contraptions.

 

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[Goldwasher]

the output should be 3x the size of the space between the grizz bars

 

[G-bone]

Back to the original post...."What do I want on my Zooka?"

I added legs to front of my BGT and it really helped a lot, allowing me to keep my trap area as level as possible even in uneven stream beds.
Big Help and highly recommend!

cheers

G

 

[goldog]

Legs, wings... these things take on a life of their own.

 

[KevinInColorado]

Back to the original post...."What do I want on my Zooka?"

I added legs to front of my BGT and it really helped a lot, allowing me to keep my trap area as level as possible even in uneven stream beds.
Big Help and highly recommend!

cheers

G

Snake River Products sells a sluice stand that works very well for a fluid bed sluice. The front legs on it are at an angle so pressure from river flow pushed them against the river bed. Smart because the lower plenum on a fluid bed catches the current leading to the sluice and stand wanting to flip over. Their leg design solves this issue. Highly recommended.

 

[SRP_KBell]

KinC - thank you for your recommendation! We are currently in redesign so the website shows out of stock. We are doing major upgrades to the stand that will make it even better! I am finalizing with the aluminum welders now...

 

[goldog]

This is cool if you are having fun. Understand you are reinventing the wheel. It will take a lot of experimentation to get it working well...meanwhile you will be producing less gold. In the end you will most likely spend just as much on materials as you would have on a commercial sluice. But hey, enjoy the ride!

Kevin, Kevin, Kevin,

Why be a party pooper? You’re the one who got us all hooked. Fabrication is in our blood.

Bazooka caused a vacuum in the fluid-bed niche. Though there are a few options currently out there the urge overtakes us.

 

[KevinInColorado]

Kevin, Kevin, Kevin,

Why be a party pooper? You’re the one who got us all hooked. Fabrication is in our blood.

Bazooka caused a vacuum in the fluid-bed niche. Though there are a few options currently out there the urge overtakes us.

www.grizzlygoldtrap.com the next generation of Goldtrap fluid bed sluices. Better and shipping now!

Oh and no i don’t get anything for recommending them. Even better than the Bazookas.

 

[goldog]

Oh okay. To put it in the proper terms for this thread,

You’re saying you’d prefer your Zooka ,er gold trap style sluice, with an angle to improve both setup and operation., some riffles on the deck for observation, etc...

Oh and that you’d rather skip the tinkering and find gold.

Is that what I’m hearing? To each his own I guess. :P.

 

[KevinInColorado]

Oh okay. To put it in the proper terms for this thread,

You’re saying you’d prefer your Zooka ,er gold trap style sluice, with an angle to improve both setup and operation., some riffles on the deck for observation, etc...

Oh and that you’d rather skip the tinkering and find gold.

Is that what I’m hearing? To each his own I guess. :P.

Exactly sir!

Although Dennis at Grizzly has shown you CAN improve on a good thing so I’m not opposed to people experimenting!

PS he’s a supporting vendor here so i can mention his website: www.grizzlygoldtrap.com

 

[russau]

I sent them a email asking "if" the big sluice would be able to handle being fed with a 2 inch suction nozzle and NOT be over fed with material. I'm wondering if that sluice would be good for a sub-dredge. Might take some tinkering with the water sources to the sluice to make it work correctly!

 

[goldog]

Again, for the purpose of this thread, leave the tinkering to the (non) professionals. 🤪

A dredge box? Hmm?? What would that entail? There were some impressive highbanker mods back in the day. I would imagine a custom built dredge box might have a larger trap area in order to handle more/ powered flow. The “manifold” would need to have a way to attach and distribute the flow where it is needed.

I would guess any deck observation would be pointless.

Thanks for the idea!

 

[russau]

Years back I made a fluidbed on the rear of my 4 inch over under dredge. It worked good EXCEPT for the black sand building up & the fine gold it captured and weighed heavy if I didn't clean out OFTEN! Then my dredge would do a sort of tail stand until it cleaned up... NO GOOD situation!!! I thought I should have made / installed it in the middle of the sluice and got everything made to re-do it BUT never got around to it! Now I'm to old (F.O.G.) to move a bigger dredge around so I sold them! Now I'm down to a 2 inch Keene dredge and I like making options for it to work in different creek conditions. Maybe I'll make a new ABS sluice and add a fluid bed in the middle of it to see how it works. I may be going to Wyoming or Colorado this year to see if this F.O.G. can do it still!

 

[SRP_KBell]

Russau -
One of my customers was using a small nozzle to clean around boulders - he used a crash box to absorb the velocity and force of the nozzle and drop it down onto an Expedition. He would setup the sluice then pounded in two stakes to hold the crash box in position above the sluice. He knew how long he could run before cleaning and resetting the sluice. Said it worked pretty slick:

Hope this helps. I never got to dredge (CA moratorium was in effect).

 

[russau]

SRP KBELL come on out to St. Louis Misery and I'll take you out dredging and a couple of cold one's to boot! We don't need no stinkin permits (yet)

 

[SRP_KBell]

Yeah CA is leading the charge in taking away mining...
Thanks for the invite!

It would be cool for someone to create a crash box system for the bazooka sluice

 

[KevinInColorado]

Yeah CA is leading the charge in taking away mining...
Thanks for the invite!

It would be cool for someone to create a crash box system for the bazooka sluice

Hmm, maybe you and SRP could make one that would fit the Expedition and a Similar sized Grizzly Goldtrap. Could be good!

 

[russau]

Yep that would be nice!! Problem I see is the water source and the water for the material source need to be separate. Otherwise it'll plug up QUICK! Maybe "Y" to split the water. One side to create the suction and one to the fluid bed. Kinda like balancing the water flow for a over / under sluice! I have both sluices (crash box and a flared jet sluice . Maybe I could just make a fluid bed to install under the sluice since I don't have the bigger Bazooka sluice . It's getting hard for me to get out (F.O.G. and all) but I do like making things work! O.K. I guess I'm re-inventing the wheel , BUT I still like doing something other than watching soap opera's!

 

[SRP_KBell]

Russau - the guy set it up pretty slick. The sluice was setup first running normally, able to be fed material. The crash box was mounted on the stakes about 6 or 7 inches above the sluice - he could pull the sluice out from under the CB, clean the trap then slide it back under the CB without modifying his setup.

A small nozzle would feed material at about the same rate as dumping from a bucket, which both the Expedition and the Bazooka can easily handle.

 

[russau]

I can potentially see this in a 2 inch dredge setup as you described. using some quick release clamps to hold the Expedition sluice in place and still allow it's removal without disrupting your set up. Hogging the material is always a bad thing and especially in this case!