sluice boxes

norcalsteve · Oct 17, 2013

I am buying my first sluice box and am looking at the jobe 36" yellow jacket and the keene a52. Is one better thsn the other? Any input would be appreciated. Thanks, Steve

Hangtowndiggins · Oct 26, 2013

Was able to get my bgt super mini in the water for the first time today, can't say one bad thing about it! Super easy set up, was ready to run gravel within 5 minutes of being in the water, didn't have to second guess if I had it set up rite, knew it was good to go once the water was making an x thru it, found a sweet new spot to today lots of bedrock had my homemade hand gold sucker found a good lookin crack to clean dug about 15gals unclassified off the top, bombed it thru the super mini in no time, cleaned it out to do a test pan found a few pieces, so put it back in the water with ease ready for more, like kevin said makes sampling a snap, every time I used my a52 I would never take it out of the water until the end of the day because cleaning it out and getting it back in the water would just take quite a bit of time away from diggin. After the quick sample washed the bedrock down, and started pumping the sucker until it was all clean, washed another 8 gallons of sucked up material in about 8 minutes cleaned it back out and called it good for the day, crack didn't turn out to be as good as I thought it looked but still got some good lil pieces, it trapped a good amount of black sand and quite a bit of real fine stuff too ill try to post some pics but pretty much all the super fines are stuck in the black sand until I blue bowel it another day. Was a great da

y found a new spot, ran the bgt with zero probs, had fun and found some gold all in a few hours time, and oh yea did a lot less work! I got the prospector size to take the place of the a52 but I feel that I could run a lot more material with less water flow thru the supermini then the a52 in a day

KevinInColorado · Oct 26, 2013

First gold from a new sluice is worth a big hip hip HORRAY! Great job

tweeta_bear · Oct 27, 2013

im beginning to dislike my A51 keene. ive been thinking about a gold cube. its almost impossible to set it up in the stream with 4inches of fall. today im taking my stand, pump,header box and battery to the creek with me. went up yesterday and spent most of my time tryn to get the sluice set up, which i couldnt get done so i said screw it, put the equipment away and walked the area looking for a good spot. i think i found it, sad thing is the creek was diverted by the flood waters and now there is no water in this section of creek, its on the other side of the bank.

question... if a pump pumps 2200gph does the length of line reduce this number or does it pump that amount no matter the distance?

63bkpkr · Oct 27, 2013

twetta b, any fluid, including water, going through a tube 'clings' to the walls of the tube which reduces flow, the longer the tube/hose the less comes out the other end. If the I.D. of the hose is rough then even less flow........................63bkpkr

Hangtowndiggins · Oct 27, 2013

Thanks Kevin I appreciate it :hello:

tweeta bear the longer the hose the less head pressure you will have resulting in loss of gph's try pumping into a reservoir and set up the a52 to recirculate into it, I have an a52 set up with a 2200gph pump recirculating into a 110 gallon tub, catch your tailings in a bucket and you can run it like this all day, but 2200gph calls for the a52 to have 2" of fall per foot in order to move the material like it should

Hangtowndiggins · Oct 27, 2013

Played around with how I'm going to set up the bgt prospector size on the recirculating system, got it mocked up and got the idea to set up the super mini behind it as a second trap not sure how of if it will work but figure ill give it a try and see what happens, still have a lil work to do, I plan on using a 2200gph pump for the top decks and a 1000gph for both fluid beds with ball valves for each to regulate and tune the flow separately, thinking run the super mini close to flat because it will be getting a lot of flow across the top deck. Also would like to see if the super mini will run on 1000gph alone and happy ill still get some use out of the a52, well just thought I would share let you guys know what happens after some tests

tweeta_bear · Oct 28, 2013

well thanks for the info guys. i didnt know about the 2inches of fall and i have a 1inch line with a ball valve. the 1inch line is with a ball valve going into an 1 1/4 sump pump hose. maybe thats why i seem to be having trouble. didnt get to the spot i wanted yesterday as the highway was closed do to a semi overturned and had has-mat team there. the weather is going to be crappy for the next week so maybe next week.

tweeta_bear · Oct 28, 2013

oops thats an A52 keene.

sideshowmick · Nov 9, 2013

I found this

Using this

So I upgraded this

And built this

I now I need to attach this

Is it possible to buy the dredge attachments without buying the whole dredge?

TheNewCatfish · Nov 9, 2013

Weight IS important. But WHY would you buy a PLASTIC sluice box ? Sure it's easy to carry. But what good does it do to carry it tweleve miles into the bush, just to watch it float away down a creek faster than you can chase it ? The lighter the sluice, the MORE prone it's gonna be to MOVE in a swift current. Save yourself a ton of money and drop by the nearest metal fabricator shoppe and ask'em how much it will cost for a three or four foot long, six inch deep, one foot wide piece of 1/8 th inch thick steel box. Should run you about $15 or $20 dollars, (especially if they have an already cut piece of scrap laying around). Drop a Razor Hog Mat into that for about another $60 bucks. You've got a sluice that WON'T float away for around $75 to $80 dollars.

mcordell · Nov 9, 2013

Hello norcalsteve, mcordell here. I have been using the Keene for a while and I love the duability. This thing has been thrown off some drops and it's tough as a Sherman tank. The capacity is about two buckets before I need to clean out (for the local gravels) and I've learned from goldenirishman the importance of classifying to get the best retention. My only complaint is cleanouts are a pain. The 2 pictures are the difference between classifying and just chuckin it in, same amount of material!