Wondering about getting a clean-sluice???

[ejimbo4]

Wondering about getting a clean-up sluice

So I just found my first gold and what a great time! Only problem was it took forever to get through my cons and all the black sand with my pan! I believe I did a pretty good job of getting the gold out but man do you have to be gentle(I had flour gold). I live in a area that has mostly pickers,flakes and flour gold with a occasional nugget so they say. I have been looking at these small mini sluice concentrators and was wondering if I could yall's opinion on a few of these and what might work best. Budget is a factor so I am trying to keep it cheap for now and the two I have found are both under $40.00. Thanks for any comments and suggestions. And if these are just plain bad ideas please say so!Like I said I am new to this but trying to make things a little easier on me. I would plan on using what ever I got on a recirculating system.

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[goldog]

How much cons are you getting? About a pan is what I get in a clean up. Screen that 2or3 times. I use a little kitchen strainer 15mesh and a fine screen around 40.Use a sniffer bottle to get your gold.

No need to spend your money.

 

[Sportsman]

I have the CA mini bucket sluice and have been meaning to post a review but haven't taken the time.

Short answer is I think it works well when run on a small bilge pump. It is very hard to regulate with a water hose. I hooked it up with a 350gallon/hour bilge that I had laying around and it gets 90% of gold on first try. I put the bucket in a Tupperware tub with the pump in the larger tub.

You will still have to pan the cons from mini sluice and feeding sluice isn't particularly fast but I think it's a good cheap way to get 90% of gold to see how you did.

Rerun the cons for the rest and if really fine, classify to a small mesh.

 

[ejimbo4]

I had about 3-4 inchs in a 5 gal. and I managed to get it down to 1/12-1/15 out at the creek. I travel with my panning kit and 3 of my wife's kitchen strainers! LOL! So when I got home the bucket was pretty much thick and fine. With the fine gold and being new I might have been a little over cautious with my panning but after I sucked the gold up in my snuffer I would rework it just to make sure I hadn't missed anything and it looks like I got it all each time. This was very small flour but 15-20 colors per pan but it would take me 7-10 minutes a pan just gently trying to wash the bs from out of the gold without washing out the gold if that makes sense?

 

[G.I.B.]

Dang, always learning something new here... thanks!

 

[ejimbo4]

I just ordered the Bucket Sluice Concentrator from California Sluice and it was 35.00 shipped. I will let you know how it works!

 

[goldog]

For 35.00 its worth a try. Let us know how it works.w

 

[Ace2010]

I just ordered the Bucket Sluice Concentrator from California Sluice and it was 35.00 shipped. I will let you know how it works!

I have 2 of these and run them both at the same time with feeders feeding both.I have them set up in 2 5 gallon buckets in a large tub with a 750 gallon pump recirculating with a four way splitter feeding both sluices and both feeders.-30 in one and -100 in the other.I would say I'm getting 99% of what I can see with my eyes.Let them run a few minutes after feeders empty out and not much black sands left to pan out.I like mine alot and use 2 because I usually dredge several days and have alot of material to go through.
Oh yeah, don't forget to cut a hole in your bucket just under the rim.

 

[bigjoek]

Jimbo that sounds exactly like my trips. I get about 20 30 pieces of flower some big flake. About 7 10 minutes to slowly wash the sand down. . . I felt like I was reading my own post.

 

[Ace2010]

When you have alot of flour gold in your pan with alot of black sand.Wash it all to the upper part of your pan away from your body, tilt pan down 10-15 degrees away and tap upper pan a few times.Then tilt pan back holding it with one hand close to your body with the material still away from your body.Tilt the front up 10-15 degrees and keep tapping the top of pan pretty hard with just enough water in it to reach the top touching the material as you tap.Most of the flour gold will ride to the top and the black sand will wash to the bottom.Suck all this into sniffer bottle.Now it is easier to wash the rest of the black sand out of the pan without losing the rest of the little bit of gold left.Hope this helps someone.It works good for me when I clean up and have thousands of tiny specs mixed in the black sands.
Similar to the wash and tap method except alot more tapping and let the washing take care of itself.

 

[bigjoek]

I used The tapping method too. Its nice. I like to get all the sand and gold up to the rim. Put about 3/8 of a pan worth or liquid, i tip the pan back towards me at about 15º and tip all the water up and then bring it back towards me. Th e water will wash a good pile of sand down. Then I side to side. Repeat etc .works good for me checked sand after haven't found gold. Any flake or speck I see comi g down the side I will wither snuff or jist move it with my finger.

 

[Reed Lukens]

Rodney had one... Sold it. poop tube is cheap & works or always screen it ¬¬¬¬

 

[KevinInColorado]

Are you using a magnet to pull out the iron sands before you pan? That helps me a lot!

 

[bigjoek]

I use a 12x36 strip od v mat to clean up. Works really well for me. But I'm only bringing home like 10 cups or so of black sand

 

[KevinInColorado]

Sounds like a great opportunity to spend more time panning. With practice you will get to be faster than the cleanup sluices, blue bowls and wheels!

 

[FlyingProspector]

Definitely not an expert but why not just use magnets? I use a releasable one and pile all the black sand together so I can go through it quickly and see if it carried any fine gold with it when I picked it up with my magnet.

 

[ejimbo4]

Don't get me wrong....I love to pan and I am not trying to get away from it but I don't want to all ways pan. I am trying to expand my knowledge and learn. All the creeks near me that I will be on for right now are all on ACOE property and they just allow pan and shovel. So the only chance I will have for some sluice action will be at home and I figure if I can use one to do some clean ups and get the feel of it and get a understanding then when I do hit a creek I can sluice I will be ready.
As far as magnets......haven't tried them yet. I kind of got the feeling from reading that there was a chance of the gold getting pulled up with the sand? What kind of magnet should I pick up to give it a try?

 

[Reed Lukens]

Yea some of the gold gets pulled up but up to 90% of the sand is magnetite here so it make it much faster. Look at the Keene web site for gold magnets or ebay. I always use one first then crush and pan the magnetite after.

 

[KevinInColorado]

Or just put any old magnet in a Baggie and use it to grab those heavy iron sands out of your pan. Makes panning much easier. I put a magnet in a yogurt container so when I pull the magnet out of the container, all the material just drops ...into a pan where it can dry out. Then later I use the cup/magnet again to separate the dry iron sands from any thing that stuck to it when wet. I do usually find a flake or three in there.

 

[FlyingProspector]

Yeah I just made a spring loaded PVC pipe magnet thing for like $6 and it works great and it's tough. I put all my black sands aside and like I said, quickly go through them afterwards just in case.