with low water - 1st attempt to reciculate

[jrib1]

testing in the garage before I move to area in the woods, home made trommel feeding into sluice and using the keene dredge/highbank pump, now have to pan out to see results

 

[russau]

Smart move on your part!

 

[Jason in Enid]

I like everything about it except for the PVC legs. They are fragile for supporting weight. The mechanics and setup look really good.

 

[jrib1]

I got steel legs but trying to figure. Best length, I classified and panned material I put thru it, looks like sluice caught all the black sand, now I just have to find where the gold is ! HAHA

 

[jere64ca]

Ohhh the joys of recirculating! Recirculating trommel is the way I roll in dry areas, just cant bring myself to drywash.

Couple of observations and suggestions for everyone that recirculates will encounter. Tailings management will be one of the biggest issues you will have to deal with, you will lose quite a bit of your precious water in the wet tailings. You will have to screen your water before it goes into your pump or you will have excess pump problems as well as spray bar plug ups. Think about how you will easily clean the screen during operation when designing your system. Spray bars should have holes larger than your screen size to minimize plug ups and removable/accessible caps on the end for when they do plug up.

 

[russau]

Ohhh the joys of recirculating! Recirculating trommel is the way I roll in dry areas, just cant bring myself to drywash.

Couple of observations and suggestions for everyone that recirculates will encounter. Tailings management will be one of the biggest issues you will have to deal with, you will lose quite a bit of your precious water in the wet tailings. You will have to screen your water before it goes into your pump or you will have excess pump problems as well as spray bar plug ups. Think about how you will easily clean the screen during operation when designing your system. Spray bars should have holes larger than your screen size to minimize plug ups and removable/accessible caps on the end for when they do plug up.

And / or a way to access the spray bars to clean out the material that WILL build up in them!

 

[SunshineMiner]

May I ask what your're using as the bottom plate for the trommel, where the classified material drops into the sluice.. I need to try that.

 

[jrib1]

I made a wooden frame and window screen, lbut I have to keep cleaning the screen, material piles up, thought by classifing before sluice it would work, next time I would put finer mesh inside trommel as the gold is small in this area.

 

[arizau]

I made a wooden frame and window screen, lbut I have to keep cleaning the screen, material piles up, thought by classifing before sluice it would work, next time I would put finer mesh inside trommel as the gold is small in this area.

Just my opinion...I would not classify my feed finer than about 1/4" and rely on the sluice to trap even the finest of gold. I think you will actually lose gold from your trommel if it is lined with a fine screen due to the screen partially blinding off (plugging as did your framed screen) thus allowing some or a lot of the fines to report to the trommel tails along with the oversize material.

Good luck.

 

[jrib1]

Good info, I went from 1/2 to 1/4 screen in trammel, will try it. Soon, tnx

 

[DizzyDigger]

Good info, I went from 1/2 to 1/4 screen in trammel, will try it. Soon, tnx

I have the same trommel, and my experience is that 1/4" is about as small as you
can go. I've tried a 1/8" mesh and it needed about twice the water flow from the
spray bar, and was a PITA to keep clean of debris that would hang up in it.

 

[SunshineMiner]

jrib... in reference to your picture... it looks like you have maybe a 5gallon bucket cut up and attached to the pvc frame to direct your material into the sluice box?

 

[jrib1]

it's 2 pieces of metal tried different openings,