Need a material for recirc system

[goldenIrishman]

Hey guys,

I came up with an idea for a way to be able to run my recirc sluice in the wash by the little dam I found but am having some minor problems getting it to work.

What I did was to make up a "ladder" structure that attaches to the discharge end of the sluice. The ladder is covered with plastic rain gutter screen with a layer of "T" shirt material over that. The idea here is to allow the tailings to go over the dam edge but keep the water in the "holding pond" that I've formed next to the dam. The reasoning for this is that the water only comes in at a trickle (this IS the desert after all) and if I was to allow the water to go over the dam I'd be out of water in no time.

The problem is that even though I'm using the "T"shirt material I'm still getting too much water over the edge of the dam. I've racked my brain (what little I've got left) and can not for the life of me think of another material that will allow the water to pass through but keep the tailings out of the water so they don't clog up my pump. (750 ghp - 12V bilge type) I'm trying to avoid having to haul my barrels down to the wash as getting everything there would take most of the day as well as several trips. There's no access to this area by truck.

Any ideas on a material to try would be a great help.

Jeff

 

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[Jason in Enid]

Only material I can think of would be something like a large sheet of 50 mesh screen. That should let enough water flow through it. I would think you would want a long piece and occasionally scrape the tailings over the edge.

 

[russau]

why not dig a hole in the deepest flow of the stream and place a mortor mixing tub in it and allow it to fill up.then let the off fall drop into a 5 gallon bucket so you can get rid of the unwanted rocks/material.

 

[jcazgoldchaser]

If I'm understanding the situation, you want this, with the tub on the upstream side and the screen overhanging the dam:



So, at the upstream side of the dam, dig down to bury the box so the top of the box is below surrounding soil/gravel level. Set the sluice upstream of the box as depicted above so the material will flow off the screen off the backside of the dam. You can add buckets or screens in the box to create settling areas before the water makes it back to your pump. At the end of the day, lay a piece of scrap ply over the box and spread gravel back over the top of it. All you're hauling in and out is your sluice and you'll have a box full of water ready to go next time.

You could probably do the same thing by digging holes and using a tarp to catch the water.

If you wait till night, you could probably find a few new friends to help you carry equipment,..

 

[goldenIrishman]

LOl Well the Border Patrol just did a sweep today so I doubt there will be many "new friends" in the area for a while.

I've got tubs but am trying to avoid having to haul them out to the work site. It's a nasty hump in and out and would require several trips to get everything out there and then several more to get it all back. With monsoons and the possible friends I"d rather not leave stuff out on site so I need everything to be one trip packable.

 

[Goldwasher]

pantyhose on the pump? in addition to a larger screen at end of sluice?

 

[jcazgoldchaser]

With monsoons and the possible friends I"d rather not leave stuff out on site so I need everything to be one trip packable.

That's why I'm suggesting the tub be buried and covered when you leave. Even if you fill it in. Who's going to dig it up and whats the monsoon going to do about it?

Hows this, gravel & sand are ideal filters.

Dig a sloping trench down to where your pump is going to be. Line the trench with Polyethylene Sheeting. Paint department at homedepot. Or trash bags. It's just going to direct the water to your pump sump like a slide, see?

Use screen to covert some of that overburden (that you removed for the trench) into your filter medium. You want the fines out.

Fill the trench back in with the sifted gravel and setup the sluice.

At some point you fill up the gravel with fines, which is why I suggested the buried tub. Easier to scoop out the muck than clean all that gravel again.

 

[goldenIrishman]

whats the monsoon going to do about it?

Oh.... Nothing much except to uncover it and haul it a mile or so downstream before it wraps it around a rock or tree. This wash is narrow, steep and when it rains it moves large boulders with ease. I was upstream testing an area and had to move some large rocks / small boulders out of the way to get to where I wanted to test. I had them stacked/lined up all nice and neat and when the rain hit it destroyed my pile to the point that I went in search of it. That's how I came across this dam. It's in a narrow area of the wash and you can see the debris from earlier water flow stacked up against a tree to a height of about 3 feet. So what does this tell me?

1. water gets deep in that wash
2. water moves fast in that wash.
3. I don't want to be anywhere near that wash when it's raining!!!!!!

I had dug down to the bottom of the dam and hauled the materials back to the house. We got a "Gentle" rain that night and when I got back to the site the next day the rather large hole I'd dug was completely filled back in. Goes to show me that even a little rain will cause a major flow in that section of the wash.

Today we moved the testing up to the turn that comes into the flats before the dam, I dug down to bedrock and brought back 10 gals worth of samples to run. Robi was digging right in the turn and brought back 2 gallons which we ran through the sluice. I still have to do a clean out on the mats but there's a lot of garnets and black sand for only 2 gallons of materials. My thinking here is that the start of the flats should be where the water starts to slow down so it should drop any of the larger color in that area. I'll find out tomorrow when I run the 10 gallons. The bedrock was nice and rough with a lot of cracks that I cleaned out as best I could. I'll keep following the bedrock downward towards the lowest point an then start following that "Channel" back towards the dam. As long as it stays dry I should be able to follow it for quite a ways. One good rain and it will be back to square one though....