Gold Rover
Jr. Member
Thanks to russau and KevininColorado and this forum, I was introduced to the high fallutin' technology of fluid bed suspension and gold traps. After some research and scrounging, I came up with the materials and plans for a 30 inch FB sluice. After a few hours of labor in my laboratory, I fabricated the gizmo and rushed down to the Colorado River for a test run!
The results were mixed. Using my paint roller grid grizzly I found that the trap filled up with rocks rather quickly. When I classified the material, the bed stayed fluidized, and watching the action with the grizzly and top plate removed really allowed me to see how the whole system works. I either have to make my grizzly screen smaller or I'm going to have to up the water inflow into the bed, or both, to make it run properly. Although there is little color where I set up, I was impressed by the how the bed would release the lighter material once heavier stuff was introduced to take its place. It caught a lot of black sand, that's for sure, so I'm assuming that any gold would have been trapped as well.
So, I'll continue to tweak it until I have something that works better, but I really enjoyed the crash course in fluid bed suspension. It's fun to learn things through doing. Thanks for the inspiration! Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
The results were mixed. Using my paint roller grid grizzly I found that the trap filled up with rocks rather quickly. When I classified the material, the bed stayed fluidized, and watching the action with the grizzly and top plate removed really allowed me to see how the whole system works. I either have to make my grizzly screen smaller or I'm going to have to up the water inflow into the bed, or both, to make it run properly. Although there is little color where I set up, I was impressed by the how the bed would release the lighter material once heavier stuff was introduced to take its place. It caught a lot of black sand, that's for sure, so I'm assuming that any gold would have been trapped as well.
So, I'll continue to tweak it until I have something that works better, but I really enjoyed the crash course in fluid bed suspension. It's fun to learn things through doing. Thanks for the inspiration! Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
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