Need some answers plz!

[olekyground]

I am new to this wjole sluicing thing.. Do you usually have to be in a creek to sluice and can someone post a how to sluice on here? thanks!

 

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[Astrobouncer]

Hey man. A sluice is designed to work with a flow of water running through it. Basically the heavy minerals like gold, lead, silver, iron etc, will settle to the bottom while the lighter materials like sand and light gravel will be carried off by the water. Sluices are easy to make and can move a lot more material then panning alone.

The sluice consists of (usually) a V shaped flare to help bring in more water, an inspection mat (usually black rubber v matting) to see if your getting any gold, riffles behind which the gold will settle out, and some kind of carpeting (or miners moss) under the riffles to hold the fine gold.

You can use a sluice out of water with a recirculating water setup called a highbanker.

To setup a sluice you need about 1 inch of drop for every 12 inches of sluice length you have, so if your sluice is 3 feet long, you need about 3 inches of drop from the front of the sluice to the back.

To make one, you only need some lumber, or aluminum if you want to keep it nice and light weight.

To work one, you basically shovel in some gravel from the river slowly, letting the water wash it away. Dont feed the gravel in too fast or the gold will be washed out. If you cant see your riffles when your putting material in, your going to fast. Another good rule of thumb is it should take between 14-20 seconds for the material to clear from one end of your sluice to the other (depending on how long it is). Also you should classify your material down to whatever size riffles you have or below. So if you have 1/2 inch riffles you want 1/2 inch or less gravel running through it. Personally, I classify down to 1/8 of an inch regardless, just because there isn't much gold bigger then that where I run my sluices.

In a sec I will post some links to sluices I made, soon as I find the threads. (Edit: here's the links to some sluices I made)

http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,265020.0.html

http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,310884.0.html


(edit) Here's video of me running a sluice on the creek at thermal city (It was a bad spot but I was just testing how the sluice did that run)

 

[jog]

You can run a sluice pretty much any where you want as long as you can get water to it. This is my recirculating set up that I put together. When I don't have time to prospect but am passing by a spot, I stop and Classify a few buckets and then come home and run them whenever I have the time. I will shovel out the material in the first tub and run it twice.

 

[maui]

jog,very nice set up and plenty of water. take care and be safe out there ron

 

[Goldwasher]

jog are you usin a mayfair pump? whats your flow somewhere around 40gpm? and do you do a clean up before you run that other tub to see if you missed much the first go round or to see if your missin a certain size of gold on the first pass? just wonderin?

 

[jog]

jog are you usin a mayfair pump? whats your flow somewhere around 40gpm? and do you do a clean up before you run that other tub to see if you missed much the first go round or to see if your missin a certain size of gold on the first pass? just wonderin?

pvillehunter...
I am running a Attwood 2000 Heavy Duty Bilge Pump. It will put out 2000 GPH and is 12volt, draws less than 10 amps.
The material that runs off the sluice into the first barrel I shovel out into 5 gallon buckets, then I will rerun it. I can't get everything out with a shovel so I pan whats left at the bottom. I don't end up with very much second time around just a few specs and a flake now and then.

 

[Goldwasher]

hey jog??

hey jog... i have no idea how i missed a reply from months ago....thanks for the answers...i figured there wouldnt be much in the first barrel couple more things what kind of battery are you using..and at 10 amps how long can you run your rig...are you using less flow than available to you? i have a chance to run a little bigger set up and would need 40-50 gpm for sure...sorry to um ehhh Dredge this up but, in California its the only Dredgin i can legally do...lol

 

[jog]

pvillehunter...
I just use a heavy duty car battery. Last year I used this system about a half dozen times, maybe more. I only had to charge the battery once.
It works pretty good. I usually will run the material from the first barrel that the sluice is running into a couple times.

 

[TerryC]

You can run a sluice pretty much any where you want as long as you can get water to it. This is my recirculating set up that I put together. When I don't have time to prospect but am passing by a spot, I stop and Classify a few buckets and then come home and run them whenever I have the time. I will shovel out the material in the first tub and run it twice.

Jog, here's a trick I learned from watching my brother work his recirculator... put a bucket of the appropriate size in the barrel, under the sluice. After it fills with sand, swap it out for an empty. NO SHUTDOWN TIME!!! (good setup you got!) TTC

 

[jog]

"HEY" Now that's a great but so simple idea that my brain is in "SHOCK". I will definitely give that a try. Thanks for the TIP!

 

[golddust77]

ive got another idea that i have used on the same system the tube running water to the pump barrel take a sock and slide it down the tube roll the elastic end over the end on the sluice side and put a couple of rubber bands on to hold in place you can run for a long time before the sock fill with sediment .and your water will stay alot cleaner thanks for your time....

 

[greydigger]

Good idea GD.
Always good to filter the water from soil.
Old socks, T shirts, etc. are free.
Maybe after awhile when they start plugging up, a metal detector could find fly spec there.
Golden socks anyone?

Grey

 

[stryker-one]

Slick setup. Looks very mobile too. I mean you can take to your camp and run it at night--nice.

Stryker