Keene A52 run time...

[425jesse]

Getting familiar with this here A52...what is a suggested length of time, or any other good indicator, that it's time to clean out the sluice and start again? Gold is so small here that I don't want to miss any. I get to go out for about 5-6 hours today with my son!!

 

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[wingmaster]

I wouldn't let it set without feeding it material for sure, so if your running buckets and run out of material I wouldn't let it set there with what is in it while you get more. Someone with more experience will be along to give you more insight than I can, for me it would depend on how loaded the material is with black sand as well.

 

[Goodyguy]

Getting familiar with this here A52...what is a suggested length of time, or any other good indicator, that it's time to clean out the sluice and start again? Gold is so small here that I don't want to miss any. I get to go out for about 5-6 hours today with my son!!

Good question. There are several factors to be taken into consideration when setting up your sluice. GPM (gallons of water per minute going through sluice), angle of sluice, type of material being ran, classification size of material being ran, and volume of material being fed into the sluice per minute. And if you are running the stock setup complete with riffle tray, expanded metal, and miners moss or some other configuration.

When the gold size is consistently very small, for best results you want to classify all the material down to a minimum of 1/4" before feeding your sluice. That way larger gravels wont be knocking the fine gold loose from the mat plus you wont need as steep of an angle or as much flow to wash those larger gravels down the sluice which will in turn give the fine and flour sized gold a much better chance of staying trapped. (of course you still need enough flow and angle to keep the riffles from loading up)

With that being said you probably could run all day with only one clean up unless you notice that the mat is becoming packed with black sand. Stick a finger into the mat if it feels packed solid do a clean up. If it is still soft enough to press your finger into it you're good to keep running.

Go for the gold,
GG~

 

[Prospector70]

If you are uncertain use 4 buckets as a mark for cleaning out.
Or as GoodGuy stated above run all the material you have. I don't want to carry more than 4 buckets (And a small 2 gallon to carry out the cons) so that works pretty well for me.
I'd not let it sit while you fill up the 4 buckets though, I run 4 or 6 buckets then let it clear out a little for a couple of minutes then clean it out. I pick up the back of the sluice a little and slide a clean 5 gallon bucket over the sluice then stand it up.

I currently run an A51, however I've asked santa to bring me a Bazooka Prospector 48

 

[B H Prospector]

I run my a52 all day and do a clean up at the end of the day. I have not noticed any more loss of gold than what the river gods are going to take. I let it clear out while I get more buckets of material then it never overloads if it is set up properly. I guess I have enough confidence that I set up right that I'm not parinoid of losing very much gold. Like I said the gods will take their share reguardless.

Good Luck!

BH Prospector

 

[425jesse]

Had a great day out today with my son. The river we are on has good flow but almost no slope. There was another guy out on the island today, Prospector Pete, helluva nice guy and happy to answer my questions and BS a little while. I really like meeting other prospectors who just enjoy getting out there. Ran the sluice for a few hours, seemed ok, but couldn't get the slope quite where I wanted it as the bottom end was just below water level. Ran about 10 gallons of -1/4 classified material, and during clean out, had dozens of fly poops in the v-matting as well as lots of black in the rest of the sluice. Haven't
Panned the cons, and will update with photos when I do, but brought home another 15 gallons of classified -1/4 material play with over the next few days. Hoping for half a pennyweight out of the all of it, would be good for a smile!!

We classified twenty 5 gallon buckets down to 1/4 inch to get the 25 gallons of materials we have. Guys, I really couldn't have been more proud of my son today, it was the first time we ever got 6 hours together to just mine and ignore the world. My kiddo, who is 13 dug this hole...



All in all it was about 4 foot deep
By 4 foot wide by 3 foot wide. While I was running material thru the sluice he found an old electronic device in the river bank (old onkyo dual
Tape deck). He told me that he didn't like seeing that someone had thrown some trash in OUR river and wanted to clean it up. What a friggin rust bucket!

 

[425jesse]

The garbage we picked up today was amazing.



Hope everyone has a happy turkey day, and good luck with the gold!!

We will post pics of the recovery when we are done cleaning out!!

Cheers!

 

[Prospector70]

Sweet work! Glad you got to spend some time with the kid . Looks like some awesome cobble too!

I am paranoid haha! But I am new and am getting better each time I go out. I always stop and clean it because they always shut the water off on the big machines when no material is being ran (on tv anyway lol).
Great time, happy hunting!

 

[Goodyguy]

Sweet work! Glad you got to spend some time with the kid . Looks like some awesome cobble too!

I am paranoid haha! But I am new and am getting better each time I go out. I always stop and clean it because they always shut the water off on the big machines when no material is being ran (on tv anyway lol).
Great time, happy hunting!

No such thing as cleaning out too often other than taking time away from running more material.

It's perfectly ok to let the sluice run between loads, the problem with losing gold comes from a sudden burst of flow such as when dumping too much material in all at once or in the case of a pump powered sluice such as a highbanker, dredge, or even a large wash plant is the initial burst of water flow upon startup. Either do a cleanup once the flow has been shut down or else ease the water flow back on very slowly to prevent gold blowout.

You cant really judge how expert miners would run their equipment by what gets shown on the TV gold shows.
However, you can learn plenty from watching their mistakes

GG~

 

[Prospector70]

However, you can learn plenty from watching their mistakes

GG~

Haha! Todd Hoffman, he's like the Mr. Magoo of gold mining. I love the show though

 

[425jesse]

Hoffman cracks me up, so do the rest of them.

 

[Sample Pan Dan]

Gla you got some quality time out there, and it good to hear the next generation is disgusted with trash and litter. I make an effort to always pack my own out as well as pick up after others on my way out.