CalSluice #2B Setup
Skiddum,
Disclosure, I know the gentleman that builds these, so I'm not exactly un-biased, but I've had a CalSluice since 09, and it is a big part of my gold catching. Every sluice has its purpose; the CalSluice is really a production sluice and not meant for sampling or lazy afternoons sipping brew and spooning pre-screened buckets.
It needs a lot of water to run properly. The biggest complaint I've heard is people not putting enough water through it and saying they have to clear it manually or the underflow packs. There are a couple of videos on their web site, etc. that might help in setting it up, but here are a few hints:
Water level on the entry about 1/2 the way over (or down) the little side flares,
Water level at exit covering the latch rivets up to about halfway to the bottom of the riffle tray support,
About 2-2.5 inches of drop along the length,
Look for the "V" in the sluice's water, forming on top of the grizzly, coming to a point just between the first and second riffles in the riffle tray,
Keep the front restrictor to the underflow clear of debis,
Gravel will clear in about 4-5 seconds per shovel,
Shovel until you can't move any more.
For best results, build a little low current "pond" in front of it and basically use the sluice as a spillway. This gives you much better control over the water. If you think it is running too fast, flatten the angle a little, don't cut the water to it.
People who are used to spooning material into other sluices get nervous that they are blowing out everything. I've done several tests with re-running tailings, panning tailings, or adding extensions to the back. The most I ever found was a couple smallish, ~20 thousands across, specks out of a 1-1.5 gram take in a 6-7 hours of running and no intermediate clean-up.
No sluice will catch everything, but it will catch gold you can barely recognize as gold with 10x magnification, and, anyway, would you rather catch 90% of two yards or 95% of a 15 half buckets?
Here's a picture of some goodies caught with a CalSluice. Notice some of the tiny ones next to the dime!
or this day of mostly fine gold:
or the day I caught a diamond (0.48ct) lost from sombody's jewelry (loose), which is no mean feat for a river sluice set up to catch gold:
MORE DIRT! It will handle, easily, 10 heaping shovels a minute, which is maybe 60-70 full 5 gal buckets an hour, or about 2 cu yd per hour. That's a lot of material in a day's work, if you can keep up with it.
JayeLK
hehe. It's all good and thanks Rod 
