Sluice water flow setup.

[TheCaribbeanDigger]

Hey people! I have been bitten by the gold fever bug! I have been like 4 times to one of my local rivers and still looking for the elusive gold! I know theres not much gold left as history has tought us the "Spanish took all Puerto Rico's gold" but guess what, I found my first gold flake! [emoji23] Still in the learning process! I took a quick video of my sluice box. 8" wide by 33" long.

 

[rivets]

Love it


Learning and proses be one and the same ... seeing they have the one same end ... which births a beginning .. and that be understanding ... as in wisdom leads to knowledge that brings fourth understanding ... proses being of three summed up by the four .... or to put this in simple terms if you add one thing to another thing you have three things ... the fourth being their summation .....

 

[KevinInColorado]

Don't you believe that nonsense about the Spanish taking it all. You can bet they were too impatient and using poor tools so they left plenty for you!

 

[TheCaribbeanDigger]

Don't you believe that nonsense about the Spanish taking it all. You can bet they were too impatient and using poor tools so they left plenty for you!

That's exactly what I think! So on with the show!!

 

[TheCaribbeanDigger]

Another thing, I was thinking of using my sluice box outside the river using a recirculating water pump setup. What water pump should I use, or should I ask how many gph capacity? The sluice box is 33" long by 8" wide.9

 

[matt_unique]

I suggest a lot more water flow. The clearing of the lighter material is my tell tale gauge.

 

[TheCaribbeanDigger]

I suggest a lot more water flow. The clearing of the lighter material is my tell tale gauge.

Jmm I see your point!

 

[TheCaribbeanDigger]

20 min. project! Now all I need are the legs and the side screws for tightening the angle and height of the sluice!

 

[goldenIrishman]

One important thing to remember on recirculating systems. GET THE LARGEST PUMP YOU CAN AFFORD! You can always cut back the flow with a valve setup but if the flow isn't there to start with..... You want to have the water about 1-1/2 to 2 inches over the tops of your riffles. My recirculating system currently pushes 2,750 GPH through it and I'll be bumping it up to 5,250 soon. This will allow me to run the box at a flatter angle and lessen the chances of having blow throughs on the smaller gold. I'm running a Le'Trap drop riffle.

 

[TheCaribbeanDigger]

Wow and I thought 1000 gph was too much![emoji23] But I was figuring that out. I was seeing a couple of vids on youtube and most of the time they were runing 800+ gph pumps. Guess I'll get a 2000 gph capacity.

 

[Goodyguy]

Hey people! I have been bitten by the gold fever bug! I have been like 4 times to one of my local rivers and still looking for the elusive gold! I know theres not much gold left as history has tought us the "Spanish took all Puerto Rico's gold" but guess what, I found my first gold flake!
View attachment 1282965

Congrats on the flake

Just wondering why you put riffles and expanded metal over the drop riffles or mat at the bottom?
Seems to me it would work so much more efficiently with only the drop riffle/mat exposed.

As a recirculating setup I would first classify down to at least 1/4" and run only that bottom mat or what ever it is and then you shouldn't need more than a 1100 gph pump (2000 gph max) once you achieve the correct angle of drop for your flow. A control valve will be needed whatever pump size you go with.

On recirculating systems clean water is important as once the viscosity reaches too thick of a medium small gold will have a much more difficult time of dropping out of suspension. The use of more than one tub is recommended to allow the sediments time to settle out before the tub with the pump installed is reached, that way the pump is supplied with much cleaner and less viscous water. The more settling tubs the longer you can run without changing the water.

However if you are not running bank run material but much cleaner material from the creek bed you may be able to get away with just placing a bucket in your tub to catch the tailings and let the water overflow from the bucket into the tub supply your pump, of course you must empty the bucket when the tailings reach close to the top of it.

GG~

 

[TheCaribbeanDigger]

Congrats on the flake

Just wondering why you put riffles and expanded metal over the drop riffles or mat at the bottom?
Seems to me it would work so much more efficiently with only the drop riffle/mat exposed.

As a recirculating setup I would first classify down to at least 1/4" and run only that bottom mat or what ever it is and then you shouldn't need more than a 1100 gph pump (2000 gph max) once you achieve the correct angle of drop for your flow. A control valve will be needed whatever pump size you go with.

On recirculating systems clean water is important as once the viscosity reaches too thick of a medium small gold will have a much more difficult time of dropping out of suspension. The use of more than one tub is recommended to allow the sediments time to settle out before the tub with the pump installed is reached, that way the pump is supplied with much cleaner and less viscous water. The more settling tubs the longer you can run without changing the water.

However if you are not running bank run material but much cleaner material from the creek bed you may be able to get away with just placing a bucket in your tub to catch the tailings and let the water overflow from the bucket into the tub supply your pump, of course you must empty the bucket when the tailings reach close to the top of it.

GG~

I'm just starting out. This sluice came with this setup. So I'm still in the learning progress. The riffles are welded to the expanded metal and the bottom is some sort of a carpet. Looks like a miners moss but less twisty I guess.

 

[Goodyguy]

I'm just starting out. This sluice came with this setup. So I'm still in the learning progress. The riffles are welded to the expanded metal and the bottom is some sort of a carpet. Looks like a miners moss but less twisty I guess.

Sorry... I see now that what I thought was drop riffle is actually a zoomed in view of the inspection mat at the head of your sluice.
In that case I was mistaken about suggesting that you run without the riffles and expanded metal.

With that in mind unless you pre classify your material to at least 1/4" before feeding it into your sluice while recirculating you definitely will need a stronger pump than 1100 -2000 gph.

But everything else I said about recirculating is correct.


GG~

 

[mytimetoshine]

Yea I would think especially when your stealing another countries gold your just going to cherry pick and leave a lot behind