New sluice I made, with hungarian riffles.

[Astrobouncer]

So this is my 5th sluice I have built so far. Each time I build one, I learn things and make note of things I want on the next one.

The key features on this one, starting from front to back:

About 4 feet long.

1/2 inch Classifier built in to the front of the sluice so you don't have to pour water on the material to classify it. This way the shoveled material will sit in the water and the current will wash the material back. It sits high up so there's still plenty of room for the current to pass through the sluice and move material.

Rubber mat nugget trap after the skid plate to help with sampling. (This will be deep v groove mat when it gets here, right now its tool box liner).

Inspection mat is also tool liner for now, this will also be deep v groove once that arrives.

Raised wooden bar above the inspection mat for a sluice magnet. (haven't got the magnet yet though)

Riffles are closer together at 2 inches and aluminum Hungarian riffles to help keep the material moving and not build up like my last sluice does. The first riffle is facing the opposite way to help speed up velocity. My last riffles were 3 inch in my other sluice and those clog up to easy IMO.

Black cloth with grooves in it for the bottom, and then black expanded mesh over that to catch the fines.

Easy removal of the riffles by turning the 4 wooden pegs and it slides right out. The wooden pegs also provide extra clamping power to keep the riffles firmly pushed against the carpeted bottom.

Raised lip on the end to hopefully help retain the fines.

And the best part of all: Spent 7$ on the aluminum, 11$ on the wood, 1.50$ on the carpeting. So 19.50 total investment . Took 2 days to cut it all, fabricate, measure it, and put it together.

Tomorrow I will hit up North Carolina and put it to the test. And get some pictures of it on the river.

 

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[jimmygoat]

Nice sluice Astro. Hope you get some yellow stuff tomorrow. If you find you are loading up try removing the lip on the end. Good luck to ya. Jimmygoat

 

[Goldwasher]

it is nice doesnt look too heavy either,dont know how long the hardware cloth grizz will last though,what is the black mat stuff is it rubber and where did u get it?

 

[Astrobouncer]

Thanks guys.

The black mat stuff is tool box liner. It is rubber and has some nice size holes. I had an old roll of it from when I bought my toolbox I think it was included with the box. I am gonna put some deep v groove mat in there soon, but for now the tool box liner should work just as well. You can buy tool box liner at like auto parts stores and also some hardware stores.

The black matting/carpeting under the riffles is just some cloth material I found at hobby lobby that has some nice grooves in it. It was the biggest cloth with grooves that they had in a black material.

The black expanded stuff that is like expanded metal is plastic gutter guard, you can get a roll of it for like 5 dollars I think I got it at either Lowes or Home Depot awhile back for my first sluice.

 

[maui]

astrobouncer, looks like you made yourself a nice looking sluice. after you give it a go, let us know how it worked.
real nice job. take care and be carefull out there. ron

 

[Astrobouncer]

Thanks for the suggestions man, that's quite a bit of text to read!

You are though right the sluice can definitely use some refinements. And better carpet.

Here's a short video showing it on the creek at Thermal City NC. I wish I had gotten better video and longer but my battery died =(.



The inspection mat worked kinda because I could see specs sitting in it but the current there makes it hard to see. Could really only see the specs from the shine when the sun was out. I will prolly get rid of the 'nugget trap' there as it is just creating turbulence, or move it back to just before the first riffle.

Also your right the classified size is kinda big at 1/2 inch but the riffles are 1/2 inch so they move pebbles that size and smaller out pretty good.

I tried feeding it 1/2 inch material and I tried feeding it 1/8 inch material and it seemed to do fine with both. I ran two full 5 lb buckets of material through before I had to do a cleanup with 1/2 inch classifying.

O and I will try and get some photos of the gold cleanup soon, it wasn't a whole lot but it was some and that's always better then none. I have 25 lbs of cons to go through.

 

[Astrobouncer]

Thanks for the thoughts guys. T I thought my last sluice loaded up too much (even feeding it slow) with 3 inch riffles, which is why I went 2 inches apart on this one. Maybe I should have gone 2 1-2 inches apart? It definitely caught some gold and more then I expected on its first trip. Also it was a MONSTER for catching black sand and garnets. Me and some guy with a Jobe prospecting aluminum sluice did our cleanups at the same time and I had about 3 times as much cons as him. I need a sluice magnet next...

I redid the nugget trap riffle and the inspection mat completely. Its not done yet but its almost there.

Here's the pictures of the cleanup from the rivers only (not the creek).

I still have about 10 lbs of sluice cons to pan but its all stuff from the creek which wasn't as good a spot as the rivers.

I gotta go study now I got a criminal justice test tomorrow =/.

 

[enamel7]

I want to go where you just stir up the dirt and catch the gold in your sluice.

 

[greydigger]

Where do you get the ribbed rubber mat?

Grey

 

[Astrobouncer]

Where do you get the ribbed rubber mat?

Grey

The material from left to right in the final pic is this: home depot vinyl matting (looks like its rubber but its really vinyl). Toolbox liner (rubber). Nugget trap one, home depot vinyl material glued in place with gorilla glue, nugget trap two home depot vinyl matting folded in on itself to make the grooves and then held in place with clamping force from the screws.

The nugget trap by the screws comes out for easy cleaning. It worked really well yesterday at the river, I caught 4 pieces of gold in there. I have heard Ace Hardware has some really good ribbed rubber matting but since there isn't one close by, I have yet to check there and see.

 

[Astrobouncer]

I made a lot of improvements to the sluice based on what I observed at Thermal City this past weekend. I scrapped the whole nugget trap system for now as even though it was working, it was a pain to take off easily. I am still debating on what I am gonna do there but I got a few days to think about it anyway.

I was having some problem getting a nice fast flow like I like so I made a standard v neck tapering down to help with that and sealed the bottom and sides. Also stained most of the wood (but not done yet). I changed the built in classifier to sit only 1/2 inch below the top of the sluice and got rid of the wood support there so it wouldn't restrict water flow at all.

Edit: added some more pictures, its almost done.

 

[Caminochaos]

Two questions.

What are the aluminum riffles made of?

and

How did you connect them?

 

[Astrobouncer]

The aluminum riffles are 1/2 inch aluminum solid angle like these: http://www.tractorsupply.com/home-i...1-frasl-2-in-x-72-in-x-1-frasl-16-in--3501259 Each section is cut to 8 inches in length which is how wide this sluice box is.

I made a wooden frame for them and they fit into my frame at 2 inch intervals then I used a nail gun to hold the wooden pieces in place. I will take some pictures today so you can see this in detail. They also have small strips of cloth glued to the bottom of each riffle with gorilla glue to seal underneath so fine gold doesn't get away.

Edit: Here's a video of me feeding the sluice on the river at Vein Mtn Gold Camp yesterday. I zoom in on the gold in the inspection matt but because of youtube quality its hard to see. I will post pictures of cleanup this week. I had another custom sluice I made behind my main sluice to make sure I was catching the fines.



Heres pictures of how I made the riffles:







I should note too that I used wood stain on the top and polyurethane all around (three coats) to waterproof the wood. Otherwise you get too much expansion and possible warping.

 

[Vodka1000]

Hungarian riffles.

Check this out:
http://nevada-outback-gems.com/prospect/Cal_dredge_trip/home_made_3_stage.htm