Deal or no Deal? Anyone familiar with this dredge? (Merced craigslist)

[Reed Lukens]

I've been planning on putting in hydraulic riffles in the first top section of my 6" dredge for fun basically. I have 16" open and it will be a good addition to all of the other styles that I have in there. But if you have a huge amount of magnetite then consider installing a drum magnet to remove it. I have a place here where there is money to be made from the black sand and it has lots of fine gold that is almost impossible to get out. First put in a slick plate with the drum magnet in the middle and then your hydraulic riffle section on a large dredge. Then run the drum tailings through a smaller recovery sluice. You can use a plate magnet for smaller dredges but you may have to clean it every hour if there's a ton of magnetite.

 

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[specksandflecks]

HJ Maybe I misunderstood, I didn't mean to imply you were overlooking fine gold even though it looks as such lol. Are you saying the majority of gold (by weight) you have mined over the years is 50 mesh?

Seems like most stuff ~1/8+ is easy enough to hold onto. 50 mesh is getting pretty small IMO. How to get that tiny stuff outa suspension while still moving 5" rocks through the box??

Think I remember you saying something about suction nozzle to help fines recovery as they don't disturb the consolidated material right before the box like powerjet?, sacrificing some suction and lift as powerjet pulls better then suction nozzle pushes??

Running 8" dredge is probably getting ahead of myself as yet to run bigger than my 4". I'll probably end up cannibalizing my 4" dredge (motor/pump/floats) and pairing it with same to power a 6" dredge. Is a 6" suction nozzle even a thing? Not sure about even trying to manage the extra pressure hose in addition to suction hose?

Hey Reed, always good to hear from.

 

[spaghettigold]

Hello Reed

Yes it`s mostly magnetite.What is meant with 16" open,classifier openings size?
I also like to have variety of recoverysystems in one box.Good plan with the magnet.I,m brainstorming for the future,if you make them it would be interesting to see.I wan`t get them done for this season probably because i`m still stuck at the basics,flotation,new riffle set thats fits more exactly in the expanded and a suction tip-elongation for deeper water-spots,cause i can,t use compressor for oxygen.For the magnetsystem,to convey the blacksands out of the box in to a to the sluice attached container would be quite a confortable system.- emilio

 

[Reed Lukens]

What is meant with 16" open,classifier openings size? I have a flat spot 16 inches or 40½ centimeters long in the top of the box that is just bare aluminum. So I can put in 50cm of hydraulic riffles or about 6 riffles and run the water from the tee in the pump.

 

[spaghettigold]

Ok Reed,now i get it. Thankyou
Emilio