Doubts about sluice box!

Von Mises · Oct 19, 2017

Hello everyone, I am new here, and new in the theme of gold capture,
I've been studying a possibility of building my own sluice box,
but I still have a doubt about the space between riffles,
I saw some people saying are a correct distance are 2 inches, but
I thought that this leaves very close, another doubt and about how
make a measurement of the angle of the upper lip of the riffle, they said 15 degrees
From the base, I do not understand how it works, can anyone help me?

Sorry for the bad English.

N-Lionberger · Oct 19, 2017

http://www.hecklerfabrication.com/files/Clarkson_Riffle_Test.pdf

http://www.hecklerfabrication.com/files/sluice-build-partIII-2.pdf

There is some good reading on the subject. The clarkson study was on commercial size boxes but it is useful all the same. As far as home made riffles I am a big huge fan of expanded metal, especially the bigger 4# stuff. Really cant screw up with expanded.

Von Mises · Oct 19, 2017

Thanks for the material, although my English is horrible I'll try to eliminate my doubts.

utah mason · Oct 19, 2017

I agree with n-lionberger no riffles. I would go expanded metal with moss under, and v-matting under the moss. Or goldhog mats

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Oregon Viking · Oct 19, 2017

Gold Hog mats.
No classifying. Mats for specific conditions. No carpet. No expanded metal.
Gold Prospecting Equipment - Sluice Mat

N-Lionberger · Oct 19, 2017

Miners moss is interesting, I have found the cheap chinese miners moss you find at gold shows is bad, really really bad, it compacts almost instantly with in some cases zero transfer of material through the moss into your ribbed mat. The genuine 3M Nomad product is the way to go but only in a stream sluice. I have found in motorized sluices with starting and stopping due to having to deal with an engine that the moss will compact without the water flow and upon restart there isn't any exchange. I tried using an unbacked veranda style carpet like Hoser John suggested, The stuff really works but it is tricky to find. As to no classifying 4# expanded on nomad mat in a stream sluice seems bombproof, not knocking docs mats I would like to get some to play with when I can afford to.

utah mason · Oct 19, 2017

N-Lionberger said:
Miners moss is interesting, I have found the cheap chinese miners moss you find at gold shows is bad, really really bad, it compacts almost instantly with in some cases zero transfer of material through the moss into your ribbed mat. The genuine 3M Nomad product is the way to go but only in a stream sluice. I have found in motorized sluices with starting and stopping due to having to deal with an engine that the moss will compact without the water flow and upon restart there isn't any exchange. I tried using an unbacked veranda style carpet like Hoser John suggested, The stuff really works but it is tricky to find. As to no classifying 4# expanded on nomad mat in a stream sluice seems bombproof, not knocking docs mats I would like to get some to play with when I can afford to.

I like the goldhog moss. Good height, nice and stiff doesn't compact like a lot of other brands.

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winners58 · Oct 20, 2017

I like alternating sizes of expanded over the thick soft springy 3M miners moss, I don't like the hard spaghetti stuff
my thinking is when the small rock hits it, it's bouncy and makes the gold dig in deeper like a fluid bed.
I like the popandson sluice hard to find photos since photobucket has decided to wipeout 15 years of posts linking photos
49'er Mike web archive of the popandson testing http://web.archive.org/web/20060630...topic_id=62871&mesg_id=&page=&mode=full#62871
and compiled from posts So you want to build Popandson sluices
.

Bandmenter · Oct 20, 2017

The first question that should be asked is, what size of gold are you going after? With that question answered you can then narrow down what you need to capture it. Super fine gold, I would recommend vortex matting, with no ruffles or expanded. Nice sized pickers and very fines, you will want a combination. Gold hog matting allows for easy combination gold sluicing. Good luck, dig deep and keep the color.

Bill

Bejay · Oct 20, 2017

The old timers new nothing like we know today. They made extremely simple sluice set ups. My very first sluice (50 years ago) was extremely simple. I bent some aluminum to form the sluice box and took some 3/4 x 3/4 oak slats across a side frame of the same material, and put some outdoor carpet in it. That is when I really came to understand how gold is so heavy and hides behind riffles. Back then it was all about water flow...depth of the flow....and the size of the material going into the sluice; as well as not overloading the sluice too fast.....one wants to see the sluice cleaning out the fluff and lighter material and seeing material gather and hold behind the riffle. My experience of watching many miners today run a sluice is that they may have the right hi tech stuff but they really fail to know how to use it.

Today things are much more hi tech. So in the end it is all about how much effort and money you want to put into your sluice system. As a geology student in college my funds were very limited; but my simple system found me gold....and I captured lots of fine gold and flakes. Back in the 60s we had no computer and you tube vids to gain info....it was all about hands on/figure it out...and it did not take very long to figure it out.

Good luck finding gold....it is a worthy adventure!

Bejay

IMAUDIGGER · Oct 20, 2017

Copy other designs which are purported to work in your area.

Just tack weld any riffles in place, then take it out are give it a trial run.

That way you can easily modify and try again.

Laz7777 · Oct 20, 2017

I run the carpet that came with my A52. watched others using moss and it don't clear very easily.
I run my tailings if I'm in the same spot for more than a few days just to test, and I've found very little loss, so little I could care less.
I've gotten past the greenhorn jitters about what I'm doing and the need to get every last little crumb.
most of the gold on the south fork is small flake/flour/amalgam.

Von Mises · Oct 21, 2017

IMAUDIGGER said:
Copy other designs which are purported to work in your area.

Just tack weld any riffles in place, then take it out are give it a trial run.

That way you can easily modify and try again.

The problem is that my English is not very good, so all material I can get is not very easy to understand, in my case I would need some reference with images if possible.

johnedoe · Oct 21, 2017

Watch some gold hog videos.....
Here is a couple to get you started.
So no matter what you decide to do, should it be to go with gold hog mats or design your own equipment, these videos will give you some real good understanding of what is and needs to be happening in your sluice.

And this one

spaghettigold · Oct 22, 2017

fortunately gold is heavy and many things will work more or less.Whats your mother tongue?

Von Mises · Oct 22, 2017

spaghettigold said:
fortunately gold is heavy and many things will work more or less.Whats your mother tongue?

I am Brazilian, I do not find much material with technical specifications that help objectively here, and since the parameters of measurements and the names in english are different I usually confuse myself, I think I need images with objective measurements in each region of the sluice box, seems unanimous in distance from the riffles between the manufacturers, 2 inches, but still seems to be very close to each other and accumulate much material and clog very fast. :icon_scratch:

arizau · Oct 22, 2017

Von Mises said:
I am Brazilian, I do not find much material with technical specifications that help objectively here, and since the parameters of measurements and the names in english are different I usually confuse myself, I think I need images with objective measurements in each region of the sluice box, seems unanimous in distance from the riffles between the manufacturers, 2 inches, but still seems to be very close to each other and accumulate much material and clog very fast.

If you are saying that your sluice clogs very fast then it could be any combination of these; sluice angle, and depth and speed of the water flow not counting what style and size of riffle you are using. If you have videos and/or pictures you can post of your setup then the forum members may be able to better help you. You may gain some additional knowledge by opening some of these links. https://www.google.com/search?q=clarkson+sluice+testing&enablesearch=true

Good luck.

johnedoe · Oct 22, 2017

What kind of gold are you dealing with? Is it nuggets or mostly fine gold? less than 1 mm in diameter.
If it is fine gold those riffle you mention will NOT work. Watch the Gold Hog videos again.... It will start making sense to you.
By the way your writing is very good for english not being your native language, and too good for a translator.

Von Mises · Oct 23, 2017

johnedoe said:
What kind of gold are you dealing with? Is it nuggets or mostly fine gold? less than 1 mm in diameter.
If it is fine gold those riffle you mention will NOT work. Watch the Gold Hog videos again.... It will start making sense to you.
By the way your writing is very good for english not being your native language, and too good for a translator.

At first it would be fine gold, but I will process land from a waterfall fund, i have not yet built my sluice box, i said that 2 inches of distance seemed to me very close and it would probably clogged up really fast, but it was just a guess, the place i'm going to start is on the banks of a river and some small streams.