Sidewinder Sluice

[OreCart]

Has anyone ever tried the sidewinder sluice?

I can understand the principal, but it seems like after a bit, it would lose a lot of gold. But maybe I am wrong?

 

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[Goldwasher]

Has anyone ever tried the sidewinder sluice?

I can understand the principal, but it seems like after a bit, it would lose a lot of gold. But maybe I am wrong?

Ever notice how when you look up race car videos...you will see lots of nice race cars?

But when you look up sluicing videos...you will not see a sidewinder!

Wonder why

 

[OreCart]

Ever notice how when you look up race car videos...you will see lots of nice race cars?

But when you look up sluicing videos...you will not see a sidewinder!

Wonder why

I know what you are getting at, but there can be other reasons besides inefficiency. The design is patented which would keep others from copying the design as it would be unmarketable. But I am not stupid either. I can see where it would trap fine gold...like a real stream does on the inside bends, but I can also see a fatal flaw, and that is, a real stream transfers gold further down the river too. At some point, you just plain run out of bends.

I like the sluice for a host of reasons, but am not convinced it does well with capturing the fine, flaky gold I have here. I have a lot of sand to process in my gravel pit, and sluices and wash plants go well together. So I was curious if a grizzly/trammel/traditional sluice/sidewinder sluice could be married together somehow to help process a lot of sand, and yet capture fine, flaky gold.

What I mean is, a sidewinder sluice has the same relative concept of a vortex, kind of like how a centrifuge concentrator works, but would be easier to build, and be able to handle more tons per hour. What if I put a sidewinder sluice on the beginning half of the sluice slung underneath a trammel? Or alternatively, had the first half of the sluice be conventional in design, going into a sidewinder sluice for the last half...to get the fine, flaky gold?

Since this is a wash plant, it only has to work well, with no restrictions on weight or size.

I am not saying this IS the answer, but I wonder if it could be part of the answer?

 

[Johnnybravo300]

They are very big, heavy and awkward too. A bud of mine uses one. I wasnt impressed with it.

 

[KevinInColorado]

They are very big, heavy and awkward too. A bud of mine uses one. I wasnt impressed with it.

So true! I told the inventors they needed to put wheels on it LOL!!

Does it work? Sure. Is it worth the weight and price? To me, that’s a “no”.

 

[Goldwasher]

I know what you are getting at, but there can be other reasons besides inefficiency. The design is patented which would keep others from copying the design as it would be unmarketable. But I am not stupid either. I can see where it would trap fine gold...like a real stream does on the inside bends, but I can also see a fatal flaw, and that is, a real stream transfers gold further down the river too. At some point, you just plain run out of bends.

I like the sluice for a host of reasons, but am not convinced it does well with capturing the fine, flaky gold I have here. I have a lot of sand to process in my gravel pit, and sluices and wash plants go well together. So I was curious if a grizzly/trammel/traditional sluice/sidewinder sluice could be married together somehow to help process a lot of sand, and yet capture fine, flaky gold.

What I mean is, a sidewinder sluice has the same relative concept of a vortex, kind of like how a centrifuge concentrator works, but would be easier to build, and be able to handle more tons per hour. What if I put a sidewinder sluice on the beginning half of the sluice slung underneath a trammel? Or alternatively, had the first half of the sluice be conventional in design, going into a sidewinder sluice for the last half...to get the fine, flaky gold?

Since this is a wash plant, it only has to work well, with no restrictions on weight or size.

I am not saying this IS the answer, but I wonder if it could be part of the answer?

My point is the thing has been around for years. If it was worth buying. People would.

It isn't so, they don't.

The bends are literally pointless. It's just a gimmick. You will notice in the prospecting world that gimmicks create an initial interest...

The long term results tell the real story.

ALL !!! Sluices have vortexes in them.

Any sluice that you "HAVE" to classify to use is problematic.

Contrary to the interwebs and weekend warrior legends. Drop riffles , Keenes ,Jobe , Le Trap , Gold Hog. etc.

All work great with fast water and minimal classifacation.

The side winder will load up with material if it isn't classified. Causing issues with recovery and throughput.

For your washplant just use traditional style sluice runs. If your grading out put into two sizes run two sluices with recovery tuned to the size of material and gold.

Run an under current with low profile recovery to lessen turbulance. have a course recovery zone and wash away.

You want to catch your fines as soon as you can. Speed of water and disturbance are factors you are working against.

Give gold a place to go and it will. If you don't disturb it it will stay.

 

[DizzyDigger]

OC, I believe the idea of the Sidewinder is to create the natural eddy's and
currents just as you'd find in a creek, which might allow more locations for
the gold to drop out of the water flow.

Have you considered trying something like the image below, using rocks
(red circles) to create somewhat the same conditions in a straight sluice?

 

[Goldwasher]

OC, I believe the idea of the Sidewinder is to create the natural eddy's and
currents just as you'd find in a creek, which might allow more locations for
the gold to drop out of the water flow.

Have you considered trying something like the image below, using rocks
(red circles) to create somewhat the same conditions in a straight sluice?

View attachment 1706512

the problem is it creates uneven scouring and gives places for material to build up.

The flow would also have to be minimal for rocks to stay in place.

Large ops tried all kinds of recovery designs from the late 19th to early 20th century. There have been sluice runs with staggered baffles.

There is a reason that the industry settled on expanded metal over burlap ,carpet, miners moss etc.

it worked better than other recovery designs.

Ore cart have you read the Clarkson studies? http://www.gold-rus.com/Yukon-place...r-Mine-Study-For-Increasing-Gold-Recovery.pdf

 

[arizau]

This thread has a couple of excellent links, provided by winners58, in it that are very informative of sluice design and how they work too. http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/s...ite-forum-diy-sluice-design-construction.html.

 

[N-Lionberger]

You can try zig zag riffles, they are old school.

 

[OreCart]

Thanks for all the links!

They confirmed what I suspected, that they are not going to work for my material, and the type of gold that I have. :-(

I will have to get really serious about figuring what I have for gold down there, what I have for yield, and get a better plan together.