Gold Well Vortex Sluice

[sgtfda]

Dutch Hunter Rendezvous this weekend at Dons Camp in the Superstitions. Gathering of all the famous and not so famous Lost Dutchmen Mine hunters. If your in Arizona stop by. I'm not a Dutch hunter but will be there visiting friends. I'm not just a name on a forum but a real person.
Frank Augustine
Sgtfda

 

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[sgtfda]

Here is a shot of the first gold I retrieved from the Gold Well. Photo not so hot and this is before I panned out the black sand. The gold is all the white spots you see in the black sand. The black sand was also full of flour gold. Typical Lynx Creek gold

 

[sgtfda]

Here is a shot of Lynx Creek gold after a cleanup. This was from my carpet sluice. No flour gold though. The sluice missed it or the carpet ate some. This is from the same location. There is some small gold in the batch but not as small or as much as the Gold Well recovered. When I bust my butt I want all the gold not just bigger pieces. You can get a idea why I'm wound up about this new weapon in my arsenal. Any one want to buy my carpet mini highbanker it's for sale and you will get gold. Just not as much. Good deal if your on a budget.

 

[sgtfda]

Mini

 

[wingmaster]

I have the keene A51 sluice setup as a power sluice and it catches flour gold just fine, I would say its either your sluice or you didn't have it setup right if your not catching any flour gold as you say. That being said here in Indiana this stuff is glacial gold that has been ground by the glaciers most of it being barely visible, so I can't see your flour gold being any smaller unless your needing a microscope to see it. This leads me to believe your not giving a fair comparison with other sluices, I would like to hear from others that catch plenty of flour gold with other sluices that can give a comparison as you can't compare to just one sluice that your not able to catch any flour gold in to give a fair comparison. This may just lead me to believe that the sluice your using now is more forgiving on setup which in itself is great for someone just starting out but for someone that has no problem setting up and running another sluice its just more costly.

 

[sgtfda]

Well this was my sluice set up. A double with 2 spray bars. Happy you have a good set up I still missed most of flour gold. Not now I don't miss the carpet clean out. I had no set up issues the big advantage for me is faster run time. Easy clean out. More gold with the Gold Well. Not just for me but my other club members who have one. We are not dummies out here. The GPAP is the biggest GPAA chapter in the country. There is a reason this technology is taking off. It works

 

[wingmaster]

I don't like how you have the second spray bar setup, I would have made it all run through the whole thing instead of putting one half way down your setup. I would say something wasn't right if your missing most of the flour gold as here in Indiana you just can't afford to miss most of it or your not going to get much at all if any. Some of the stuff is so small I'm not even sure its gold until I use a 10x loop, so I guess I'm more than happy with my setup and it didn't cost as much. I'm not saying its not a great sluice and I'm glad its working great for you and you seem more than happy with it which is all that really counts it just doesn't seem to be that much better as I first thought it might be with the more info you gave comparing it to your other setup as I have no problem catching the really stuff. I had first thought you was catching the flour gold fine with your other setup and you was just doubling the amount the other caught but it seems you was having trouble catching the flour gold with the other sluice.

 

[sgtfda]

Wing keep in mind I just bought the Gold Well 6 days ago. I plan on testing it against the units my other club members use. I will run their tailings at our outings and report the results good and bad. You all can trust me on that. You ever get the chance try a Gold Well and report your findings also. Good and bad. At this point I've seen no bad other than you need a good water flow. I'm sure there are units out there that do a good job. My point with this thread is testing this unit and not get distracted with other units. I'm not trying to get anyone to buy one. I'm reporting on new technology and my experience testing it. I believe you made your point that in your experience you can do it better and cheaper. That's fine. But you don't know that until you try a Gold Well. I can't say it any plainer than that. Now that's said I want to get on with my tests. This of course will take time.

 

[wingmaster]

As small of stuff as I'm catching I don't think its missing much but I'm thinking of putting an angus mackirk behind it just in case its losing a little when it starts to fill up after running a lot of material through it. That should tell for sure as the angus seems to catch the stuff you need a 10x loop just to make sure its gold as well, I'm making my own stand for it using the jobe bolt on legs and the frame will be aluminum angle and square which I'll be working on this winter and will probably post a pick in the spring when it all come together.

 

[sgtfda]

Viper try a GW you won't lose your gold if you get a call. It stays in the vortex holes until you do a clean up. You can turn the unit off then back on no problem. In a carpet unit or blue bowl you would blow out the gold doing that. Just ask Todd Hoffman. The point is you just don't know because you have not used a gold well. If your happy with your set up. That's nice. In the future I'm only reporting on my testing and questions about them. At this point your just a distraction ill ignore. I think you know why.

 

[sgtfda]

Wing I enjoy your posts and you are always welcome to post your opinions and tips. I wish you luck prospecting up your way. I know how hard it's is. I prospected Pennsylvania. Though my main focus was treasure hunting there due to the lack of gold in Pa. Good luck with your experiments. I'm the same way changing things. Try my screen bucket idea. It works keeping grass out of your tub water please post a photo when you get it together. I'm always interested in new ideas

 

[wingmaster]

I'm all for better but remember running the tailings of someone like that lady you was talking about isn't going to give a good ideal of how its doing compared to someone that doesn't have to keep messing with their sluice the whole time as I wouldn't have even gave that as a comparison in the first place. Like I said spending money for a better product doesn't bother me as I like quality, I just won't spend more and not see any improvement and as far as ease of setup I won't spend more for that I'll just learn what needs done. The angus mackirk sluices are easy to setup and catch the flour gold just fine as well but they don't cost much either, I just haven't seen many at all use the gold well and if its all that I would think they would be using them all over the place.

Wing keep in mind I just bought the Gold Well 6 days ago. I plan on testing it against the units my other club members use. I will run their tailings at our outings and report the results good and bad. You all can trust me on that. You ever get the chance try a Gold Well and report your findings also. Good and bad. At this point I've seen no bad other than you need a good water flow. I'm sure there are units out there that do a good job. My point with this thread is testing this unit and not get distracted with other units. I'm not trying to get anyone to buy one. I'm reporting on new technology and my experience testing it. I believe you made your point that in your experience you can do it better and cheaper. That's fine. But you don't know that until you try a Gold Well. I can't say it any plainer than that. Now that's said I want to get on with my tests. This of course will take time.

 

[sgtfda]

Trust me Wing I will be testing the pros setups not the butt cracks. The pros welcome this. I know what they get because I'm the club treasurer and I buy their gold for our club raffles and dirt bags we sell. We do well out this way. Lots of gold. You ever get out this way let me know and ill take you on a tour of some good spots including my claim. The GW is catching on with the big boys. Give it a little time you will see it. Some are having larger plates made with bigger vortex holes for big equipment. I hear what's going on. This is all something new takes a while. If it works in the big units they will all be using it. They are not fools. You will see some TV action with this new technology soon if your a fan of the shows.

 

[wingmaster]

Well the gold here stinks but it is what it is, I've been working on getting into some private property with better bedrock but not really expecting much better, though I'm always hopeful.

 

[sgtfda]

Wing next time I collect some dirt for my tests I can send you a bag to play with if you want. It will be similar to what you see in this photo. Just pm me your address if interested. In return you can send me a little of your true tailing and I try it in the GW. All in fun. Ill be honest. I don't find anything ill say so

 

[AzViper]

I am glad you’re happy with the Gold Well. As I have said it looks like its quality made product and I love quality made products. I choose to build my own cause I can and for the most part what I build can't be built any better. I will be very happy with my 12 inch wide 60 inch long sluice running Gold Hog Mats. Digger mention early the people behind this product ruin any chance of moving their sluice in these forums or other forums. You mention you have had it only 6 days but we have seen the BS from the designer for nearly a year. If I recalled someone with lots of knowledge in recovery gold has already done a very extensive test of the GW and he is a member of these forums. So your the second person that has posted owning a GW.

 

[Clay Diggins]

Hey Frank you getting into the dirt bag business? I thought you were retired from chasing those?

Seriously though it was a really nice offer on your part. Heck in Indiana Lynx Creek gold probably looks like boulders.

I'm sure just about any setup can be tuned to get small gold or large gold. In my world the trick is to get the best recovery on both at the same time while processing the most material possible. Keep us posted as to how that sluice does on volume. I'd like to see something that can handle 12 yards an hour classified to 1/2 inch. If that gold well can go there you may have hit my holy grail.

On a side note, the gold well is not the first sluice to use that design. I've got some 1870's wooden Chinese sluice boards in the backyard that were built on the same principle. They used that design to clean up the left over tailings from previous mining because it could catch the small stuff that was lost from the inefficient Long Toms that were common at the time.

I'm pretty sure their bigger sluices could handle 12 yards an hour and more. I'll try to make time to take a picture of them in the next few days so you can see the similarity.

 

[Clay Diggins]

If I recalled someone with lots of knowledge in recovery gold has already done a very extensive test of the GW and he is a member of these forums. So your the second person that has posted owning a GW.

Do you know where I could find those test results AzViper? I'd like to see what that person's results were and what the tests consisted of.

I didn't bother reading those threads because there was so much BS flying from both sides. Sad really, I hate to see that happen. I'd like to think our small group of prospectors will stick together when the going gets tough. Bickering gets in the way of my delusions of miners working in harmony.

 

[AzViper]

Barry I was not interested in the GW as I was not going to pay the dancing price as many others in this forum have stated including Reed Lukens so where to find this info. I can't remember.

Here is a video of Reed Lukens using a modified GW. This is the 6" GW. Reed was one of very few that got the 6" GW for $300.00 before the pricing started dancing. Long video but interesting what others will do to get their equipment into their mining area.

It’s been nearly a year from the time this sluice was introduced and very few of the sluices have mentioned in the forums, why? I doubt it’s because the GW will not catch gold because it does, it’s because of the same reason everyone has stated. Once the CNC software program has been written machining each plate takes seconds, the developer even made this comment in these forums.

So the question remains does the DW do a better job of catching gold above all others at the price it’s selling for? I found it very interesting that the Gold Well was backed up by a Keene sluice of which caught the fine gold. I would like to see the reverse of these two sluices with the Gold Well backing up a properly setup Keene sluice. I suspect the outcome to be much like what the GW recovered at a far less price.

​

 

[LP13]

... I'd like to see something that can handle 12 yards an hour classified to 1/2 inch. If that gold well can go there you may have hit my holy grail.

On a side note, the gold well is not the first sluice to use that design. I've got some 1870's wooden Chinese sluice boards in the backyard that were built on the same principle. They used that design to clean up the left over tailings from previous mining because it could catch the small stuff that was lost from the inefficient Long Toms that were common at the time.

I'm pretty sure their bigger sluices could handle 12 yards an hour and more. I'll try to make time to take a picture of them in the next few days so you can see the similarity.

Here is a link to a video of a guy processing 20 buckets of material in 14 minutes classified to 1". He is not utilizing the full capacity of the sluice as you will notice him pouring the dirt down the center of the sluice and the sides are not getting any dirt. He also walks away and during this time there is no material going through the sluice. From the looks of it he is pushing the sluice at around 75% max for the section he is feeding. You can do the math. There is another video in that group in which he describes and shows what he's seeing in his pan.

HM Research - Manufacturer of the Gold Well Vortex Drop Riffle Sluice

And here is a link to test results done by Gary Smith as well as his references.

HM Research - Manufacturer of the Gold Well Vortex Drop Riffle Sluice

The GPAP did a field test of the 6" unit early this year. Here is a link to those videos.

HM Research - Manufacturer of the Gold Well Vortex Drop Riffle Sluice[

There are two videos of panning. One is a panning test of the tailings in which no gold was found (this was repeated 20 times, once for each bucket processed at the test, and in all the tests, there was nary one speck of gold found in the tailings.) The other is of panning the gold out of the Gold Well's concentrates. As well as the introductory video of the first test itself.

The chinese riffle boards did not employ a spiral pocket, or alternating slots and spirals. As a result they loaded up rapidly and once full, had very little exchange in the pockets, and so had to be emptied frequently, resulting in a large quantity of concentrates at the end of the day. But during the time the pockets (simple holes) were not full they did indeed work well. The Gold Well pockets constantly empty the top 1/3 of the pocket allowing long runs, and at the end of the day a cup or so of concentrates in the big units. Multiple sluices may be attached side by side for larger operations. Two 12" units would process a huge amount of material.

As for the B.S. I won't get back into the details except to say that I am an honest man. I am working hard, and I do not make enough out of selling these sluices to suffer insults on my integrity, not when they are posed in a public forum and I am called (or those associated with my company) a liar, fraud, a cheat and a homosexual, IN THOSE WORDS! There are certain things I will NOT tolerate and most honorable men would not. What was seen on T-net was the result of that issue spilling over from the GPAA forums here. And then people who had no clue how it had all started, jumping into the fray on the side of the original offenders.

The Gold Well does in fact work superbly, yet have seen no apology from those who falsely accused me publicly of those things. To put to rest the fraud aspect once and for all, you will see it on TV. Stay tuned for the new season of a favorite mining show in January. After that what it does and does not do will for the most part be history so to speak. Here are a few pics to enjoy. The first, some gold collected in a few hours, and the 2nd a picture of a 12" highbanker munching down on those horrible sands in Nome, AK!