is it possible to build your own Dredging machine?

[Amona]

is there anybody here with experience building those machine?

Amona

 

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[Hoser John]

I've built and sold many thousands,save yourself lotsa grief,buy used,but not abused,very cheap in the winter and current depression. Join a local yokel club,local membership always has plenty of retired folks to assist you over the painful newbie learning curve. Club outings and buddy up trips will make it all fall into place and keep you OUT OF TROUBLE. Very nasty place to be with HUGE fines and confiscation,court,and lose of equipment and vehicles in some instances.Tons a au 2 u 2-john

 

[aarthrj3811]

Hey John….I made my own Dredges back in the 70’s and early 80’s. Good Dredges were hard to find in those days. My first store bought Dredge was a used 5 inch with a triple box on it. The Dredges that you can buy now are cheap and seem to run a long time with no problems. Would I build a dredge today….No way…Art

 

[Jeffro]

Listen to Hoser. If you wanna save money you might be able to, but I can almost guarantee what you build will be far inferior. Good dredge manufacturers put a lot of time into tweeking things until they get them just right.

Some don't though, but they copy those that do.

Dahlke makes good dredges, but I think they are overpowered. The old Spartans were pretty good too.

 

[rmptr]

Yes, you can build a dredge, but the key components are prohibitive to fabricate yourself.
Engine -you can adapt something already on hand and belt drive a pump
centrifugal pump - pretty hard to beat a pump manufactured for the purpose
adapting something else usually is too heavy or bulky
You can build your own aspirator if you have fabricating skills and tools, but you'll end up with many more hours in it than outright purchase.

Sluice - if you have material and fabricaating equipment on hand a sluice is a good thing to build.
Even though most coarse Au drops out at the head of a sluice, plenty improvement can be mad in recovery of fines with a longer sluice.

There are only so many sources for the kanaflex used for the suction hose.

All told, I would say you are better off purchasing a complete rig and spending your creative energy improving for your site and conditions rather than inventing your own widget.

My first was a Keene 3" I bought without flotation. My fabricated frame was not as clean as their factory fabricated unit, and the tubes I floated it on were a long shot from the marlex pontoons jerry sold.

Sometimes you just gotta gratify an engineer for his workmanship by buying his product!

Never-the-less, pretty much all the facts and figures are there in plain view for you to fabricate your own after their package.

R M P T R

 

[JamesE]

I agree with everybody here if you're talking a regular 'placer' dredge.
BUT I notice that you're in the islands and if you mean a hand held single tube with a screen box that's used for moving sand for relic and coin recovery in the ocean,,, that's a whole different deal. I have no experience with them but based on principals, one of those should be a fairly straight forward build especially if you can get a look at another one.
If you mean a 'placer' machine', like everybody says, you're better off with used, the cost of the parts and mistakes will be be a lot more than the cost of used in good condition.
Joining a club is a really good idea for new guys, even 'old' guys for that matter. There really isn't any downside for the money.

 

[Tarkus]

Again: Agreement with most here. I build my own, using Keen pumps and motors but do so because I like building things, and have a metal fabrication shop( prefer stainless steel over plated steel) and can't help tinkering.

 

[Amona]

Thanks to all for yours replies, I'm making my research to learn the "how to" with the highbankers sluice machine. Due the increasing price of the gold makes to me packing up and go to northern Georgia from west palm beach. I would like to find a claim pretty close to the border Georgia-Florida.

Amona

 

[submerged]

is there anybody here with experience building those machine?

Amona

I dont quite get it when someone asks for a how to and all the replys are buy used or new and nobody can give an answer how to build.
If you take a picture of a dredge or see one first hand it breaks down to a little effort and skill pontoons are purchased or you could use a styrofoam floats for a dock the blue ones gasoline proof many boat dealers have access to them. The frame is 3/4" square stock that is galvinized but you could just prime and paint because the galvinized wiil also rust, to achieve the bends cut the stock at 90 degrees and weld. oxy acet would suffice but stick or mig/tig would be faster and look better. Keene bends their frame on a mandril bender something that not everyone has in their shop so cutting all pieces at 90 degrees would work fine. The jet flare is a piece of round tubing stock say 3" with a 1.5" piece welded at 20 degrees creating the jet this could be bought cheap enough and the pump no brainer (keene) the engine can be had from northern tool. The sluice will need a brake to make the 2 bends, a shhet metal shop would do this for very little money and the riffles are simply 1"x1" angle pieces welded to a frame that rests in a sluice tray. I am going to take pictures of my dredge and post them with measurements and a how to build post because after buying 2 dredges to date I am sick of looking at a design that keene has used on all their dredges that is lightweight steel and to the point is a poor design. I will soon have a set of plans to build from the only things you will need to buy would be a motor, pump, hoses a jet flare can be built but would be a little harder to construct because of having to roll the steel to create the flare with a 3" inlet and it would flatten out to 5" eliptical but if you had a mig or tig welder this would be very easy to do. I will post plans soon but if you have any just ask

Ed

 

[Tarkus]

Ed: I can and will post plans and process also along with pic's of the construction of my new 6" as I get it going. Jerry Keen and family are friends of mine and build reasonably good machines, I won't say there the best but they are dam good middle of the road recreational machines. I recommended buying a used one for the beginner due to the huge time allotment and learning curve for building one, and even with years of fabricating experience, if someone else built what I wanted I'd just as soon buy it, than make it some times.
But I agree it's not that hard and if you like to tinker have at it and enjoy the process. I'm lucky I have a full metal shop available (power breaks and shears) and every type of welder at my own shop. I said before I build my own because I prefer S.S. and aluminum to plated steel, and have a few of my own ideas on how to increase recovery.

 

[Jeffro]

I've been working with steel for 20 years now, and I can tell you it ain't that easy to do what you suggest.

Been working with plasma, laser, pressbrakes, rollers, robot welders, turrets, saws, sheers, ironworkers, etc. for quite awhile.

But go ahead and try, I did. Try and build your own jet, or even a jet flare. You'll soon find out it ain't as simple as that.

I ain't saying it can't be done. I did it and so can anybody with enough patience and time. But you'll soon find out its a heckuva lot easier and less time consuming just to purchase one, especially for those inexperienced in metal fab.

 

[sthrngold07]

wELL.......Where are the plans?

 

[rmptr]

Plans?

There is really not much need for plans!

Recovery of free gold from placer deposits by means of a sluice is about the simplest classification process that can be considered.

Use a photograph of nearly ANY commercially manufactured product and fabricate something. Anything!
It shall recover gold.

Then you can begin the fine tuning process the manufacturer undertook so you are not blowing fines right on through your recovery system.

About the best advice I would offer is that a longer sluice is superior to a short one.
After an initial set of coarse riffles a clear drag plate area is advisable to allow material to stratify and classify itself before passing over a set of smaller riffles to recover fines.

In some cases a black sand catcher is advisable.

Commercial dredges for hobby use are too short.
They are fabricated to be handy and manageable for weekend commandos.
Yet they WILL recover coarse gold, which is the most fun, and gratifies the operators.

MOST of the money is in fines.
Make improvements in their recovery and profit goes up.

Other than sniping for concentrated pockets, the key factor in mining is moving extensive amounts of yardage of materials through the classifying system.
Big equipment makes big money!

R M P T R

 

[JamesE]

Ya' know Brother,
You got all of us playng "blind man feeling the elephant"!!
WE need more info. If you have access to a full shop and experience in building stuff from scratch, then of course you can, and also you can, If you also have an understanding of the basic physics principles involved. Just from the question, "Is it possible?", makes me think you don't, absolutley no disrepect at all, but if you gotta' ask, you probably can't.
If you want to Zen know how a sluice works, you have to spend the time feeding, and watching the gravel, as it moves through the box, how it changes as you change the angle, or the water flow, or the speed of feed, or even as the sun goes behind the clouds.
You need to spend time at the nozzle, whether suction or jet, in in the shallows and deep, and which is which, to know the difference.
Everybody here is right, and it's to you to go and learn what you need to know, to know what you need.
Don't buy more than a pan and classifier and a bucket and pick and shovel until you go and see what works. That is all that is needeed for prospecting.
You won't know what you need until you've put in the time feeding gravel with a mentor (partner).
and I agree that a (local) club is the best place to start. A lot of ol' guys can point at where to dig, only need a Yoda to dig with, or for, them. Because they know it's there, and they don't care, and it'll be there, still, if it don't get dug.
As I wrote, absolutley no disrespect intended.
Anybody see Raquel W., She's gotta' be 10+ years older than me, and still such a babe.
She can rob my cradle any time.