What do You Want on your 'Zooka?

[goldog]

Any ideas shared on the 'Zooka thread belong to the Goldzooka MegaCorp.

Differing mediums? Hmm. ... You could try a few. Fine, course, odd shapes. Eventually I suppose you'd;

wait for it;

Find a happy medium. [emoji13]


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[Goldwasher]

sometimes it goes too far...for a difference you will never really see

 

[goldog]

I don't disagree Goldwasher. I started this as an exchange of ideas on BGT style sluices. Changes,features, tweaks and anything we could dream up.

Some have been good, some bad. IDK? Some just make me scratch my head.

The medium idea is one of those. Aquarium filters use various bio-balls or odd shaped medium to provide surface area for the biological filter.

Hypothetically, just to work this through my mind, it could help improve the liquefaction in the trap. In reality it would just be a big pain in the rear.

Other than a conditional application such as the black sand beaches this would not be a useful feature.


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[Prospector70]

How much pressure do the tubes need? Perhaps a electric pump to fluidize the bed in low water situations on one side and a small deep cell battery on the other side. I'm thinking like a slide gate to go from manual to automatic (Something to plug the tube input from the lower water chamber and open a bypass that lets the side pump pressurize them instead).

Great, another 5 lbs to carry...

 

[Oakstrails]

Thanks for the input.

I might try making a grizzly with a few horizontal bars this winter, maybe spaced 1/2" or an inch apart to see if it helps. Easy swap on my homemade units. As of now, I just have to keep an eye out for slate/phyllite shards bridging the trap entrance. A few taps with a rock clears any jams up, but it is still kind of annoying and slows production a bit.

Slate would be a challenge I think, like you say.

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[Oakstrails]

I've always been amazed none of the sluice companies have come up with different mediums to insert into the fluid beds. Like non magnetic ball bearings or Ceramic medium kits. Different sizes to higher or lower water pressure. I imagine you would want higher pressure when doing say, beach sands with lots of black sand.

PS if any of yous use any of my ideas you owe me a sample product lmfao. <3
(well worth a shot wasn't it?)

Haha good call

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[Oakstrails]

Hardware cloth creates a sporadic blockage. It actual negates the right type of scour. That affects fine gold recovery. It also creates a ramp with material that can allow fine gold to ramp up and over., never even entering the trap.

The mini and super mini already have fine gold capture issue and the least through put. Hardware cloth makes it worse.

I think your right...
1) I never really considered the sporadic blockage theory. I haven't really noticed the lack of micron gold using the hardware cloth, however I'm sure there is a loss. You would think if not shoveling to fast that sporadic blockage would give the fine gold time to settle. Unless it gets caught in a violent back current and agitation right at the grizzly.
2) I also agree with the mini having fine gold capture issues. Like you mentioned. I wonder if this could be increased by making the trap larger and maybe slightly deeper? Your thoughts.... [emoji41]


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[goldog]

Great, another 5 lbs to carry...

It's your idea, not mine.

Sounds like another great idea for a specific application. A lot of trouble for a commercial build but quite doable for someone who needs it.




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[Prospector70]

It's your idea, not mine.
Sounds like another great idea for a specific application. A lot of trouble for a commercial build but quite doable for someone who needs it.
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Here is a shot of the ceramic media I was talking about. 12 bucks for 5 lbs. I might just get one and try it.

 

[KevinInColorado]

Sounds like an interesting experiment! I look forward to seeing what you learn

Any idea the specific gravity of the ceramic material?

 

[goldog]

Specifically, will it hang around or flow away?[emoji848]


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[Oakstrails]

I was thinking about putting a piece of miners moss or that thin green scrubbing pad stuff in the bottom of the fluidbed trap. Would be very curious to view the Action in the trap. It would be easy to clean out as well.

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[Prospector70]

Sounds like an interesting experiment! I look forward to seeing what you learn

Any idea the specific gravity of the ceramic material?

As usual it "depends". LoL
They're made from different materials. I'll have to research further. They're essentially man made rocks though. They should stay.
Was looking at the ad, and it said "penny not included" haha, which means they've received complaints on it. WTF is my penny??!?!!? Hahaaaa

 

[Oakstrails]

As usual it "depends". LoL
They're made from different materials. I'll have to research further. They're essentially man made rocks though. They should stay.
Was looking at the ad, and it said "penny not included" haha, which means they've received complaints on it. WTF is my penny??!?!!? Hahaaaa

LMAO

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[goldog]

Today I’m going to go a little bit off topic. But it IS important to us fluidheads.

Water management. Or water bank. Actually more of a credit union but I’ll get back to that.

Flow is always important in sluicing. Where I’m working there’s a now seasonal stream. Once again we are in drought conditions and the forecast don’t look good. The creek is flowing just a few gps and just enough for my smallest ‘zook.

The ten day is dry and I worry that winter is turning into a one hit wonder.

Enter the WCU. by constructing a dam upstream I’ll be able to make a reservoir and release water as needed to run the sluice.

Currently the flow is approximately six gps. It runs but I think nine or ten would be better. If I could release an extra 3-4 gps it would “chooch” along at a better clip. Sooo...

There are 3600 seconds in an hour. Adding three gallons/s for 1 hr will “cost” 10800 gallons. A four hour dig time means I need a 40,000 gallon bank. With a bit of math that’s slightly more than 5000 cu ft.

An average width of 20 ft backing up 125’ would need to be 2’ deep. More or less.

You could conserve and it could last longer or be smaller.

Anyone ever try this? Pros ? Cons? Am I going to federal pen?

 

[Reed Lukens]

We used to do something along those lines on our old claim over the hydraulic mines sluice box, but we had a dam already in place about 1/4 mile upstream. It worked good being able to release more water when needed and by having it that far upstream, we could open the valve, then head down to the claim, set up the sluice and start shoveling a bit before the extra water showed up. It was worth it, and we had an endless supply of extra water that was easily controlled by a 4" valve.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=px6UizHxzDg

 

[goldog]

Thanks Reed! Nice operation. Glad to hear I’m not the only one.

 

[Caconym]

Zombie thread! Grrr, Arrrg.

I'm building my first sluice. This place is a goldmine of knowledge, thanks everyone.

I was wondering about putting some riffles or something on the tailings deck (I think that's what it's called. The upper deck that larger material travels over after crossing the grizzlies) just to catch, at least temporarily, any larger heavies or (optimistically) nuggets that are too big or happen to ride the rails. I remember seeing somewhere in a fluid bed test a flake of gold that had escaped and they were pretty sure that it was because it was shaped just right to slide up a grizzly and over the top.

Anyway, does anyone have any thoughts about what sort of riffles would be appropriate in this scenario? I was thinking square-profiled slots slightly larger than the grizzly classification.

Bonus: Here's my design thus far. I picked up a 4x8 sheet of 3mm ABS today. I haven't quite figured out the vertical dimensions or tubes yet.

 

[Goldwasher]

no gold that is too big to fit between the wires is going over the top.

I've tried to make it happen.

Any riffles wouldn't catch what had the energy to make it that far.

The way you made a bottle neck in your design.

well, there's a reason we use the term "bottleneck" for when things that get hung up.


The fluid bed keeps the material fluid from the tubes from the water.

The trap still needs to exchange from the laminar flow. your widened trap is going to fill quickly and not exchange properly.

 

[Caconym]

Thanks for your response Goldwasher. That all makes good sense.

I'm curious about the laminar flow across the trap and the baffle that people put on their gold traps. Seems like you can have one or the other, unless I'm mistaken?