Sampling sluice...gets the gold!

hurthawk

Sr. Member
Jan 16, 2008
342
413
Tuolumne county Ca
Detector(s) used
Gold Bug II
Falcon MD20
Garrett 1500
Fisher F2
Ace 250
Primary Interest:
Prospecting
With Diane's broken leg (it's a long story)...We have not had a chance to go gold prospecting or detecting. Cabin fever was setting in, so I decided to go ahead with a project I had been considering. I wanted to make a sluice that would easily show me the location of the paystreak with random samples from various likely locations. The obvious answer was to incorporate an extra long inspection mat with a short set of riffles. It took two days to make the box, waterproof it, and round up the hardware but the effort was well worth it.
After making the sluice, I could not wait to test my creation so I got up early today and headed for the creek. After an hour drive to the claim, I spent five hours working my new box and my old Keene sluice. My home-made sluice performed like a champ and I am very pleased.
It was a warm but perfect day on the creek and the best part
(of course) was the gold!
Diane could not come with me today but we will find out on Thursday if her cast can come off...
if so, we will be digging and detecting our little hearts out.
Rick
 

Attachments

  • box 1 8-10-2008 12-54-47 PM.JPG
    box 1 8-10-2008 12-54-47 PM.JPG
    62.8 KB · Views: 3,496
  • mat and old carpet 8-11-2008 3-32-19 PM.JPG
    mat and old carpet 8-11-2008 3-32-19 PM.JPG
    49.4 KB · Views: 3,349
  • cut BBQ grill 8-11-2008 7-47-12 PM.JPG
    cut BBQ grill 8-11-2008 7-47-12 PM.JPG
    66.6 KB · Views: 3,201
  • riffles installed 8-13-2008 3-21-42 PM.JPG
    riffles installed 8-13-2008 3-21-42 PM.JPG
    71.9 KB · Views: 4,151
  • latches installed 1 8-13-2008 3-22-10 PM.JPG
    latches installed 1 8-13-2008 3-22-10 PM.JPG
    65.9 KB · Views: 3,230
  • finished product 8-13-2008 3-21-23 PM.JPG
    finished product 8-13-2008 3-21-23 PM.JPG
    54.8 KB · Views: 3,166
  • sluice set up monday 8-18-2008 1-25-32 PM.JPG
    sluice set up monday 8-18-2008 1-25-32 PM.JPG
    80.1 KB · Views: 3,392
  • sluice in creek 8-18-2008 1-22-25 PM.JPG
    sluice in creek 8-18-2008 1-22-25 PM.JPG
    107 KB · Views: 3,409
  • inspection mat 8-18-2008 1-24-59 PM.JPG
    inspection mat 8-18-2008 1-24-59 PM.JPG
    61.7 KB · Views: 3,347
  • pickers 1 8-18-2008 5-15-51 PM.JPG
    pickers 1 8-18-2008 5-15-51 PM.JPG
    79.9 KB · Views: 3,421
  • pickers 2 8-18-2008 5-17-40 PM.JPG
    pickers 2 8-18-2008 5-17-40 PM.JPG
    47.2 KB · Views: 3,269
Upvote 0
Re: Sampling sluice

Looks GREAT , HH!

And you got a good spot, too!

(Whereabouts ARE you?)

Splashing in the creek is a lot of fun in the summer heat...

Best,
rmptr
 

Re: Sampling sluice

Thanks Russau.

I was in a hurry and just grabbed a bit of carpet. I will find another piece and cut it correctly.

Rick

P.S. I am in Tuolume county near the entrance to Yosemite.
 

Very pretty gold and nice work on the box. :)
 

can you send me some plans on building that?
or maybee a price for it if youll sell it.
 

Ace,

I don't have plans for it....I just went with materials I had at the house. The box is 4' long with 10 ' of 1X4 for the sides and braces. I made the riffles from a BBQ grill replacement that I picked up for $5.00.
I plan to set it up in series with the keene sluice to find out if any gold is washing out.
Rick
 

great looking sluice, and apparently it works, look at all that yellow!!
would love to find even a quarter of that here in Missouri.
I built a sluice when I first started, thought I went overboard with the 4' length, apparently not.
Good luck, happy digging.
retrmy
 

So, did you just set the sluice in the creek bed and let nature do its thing, or did you dig dirt and dump it upstream from the sluice using the creek as a natural water pump?

Other than that, it looks awesome! Great job on the fabrication.
 

Very cool. I need to upload a pic of my homemade sluice. I think I did a pretty good job on it. It pics up tons of black sand. I'll have to start a new thread and show a breakdown with pics and some explanations. Congrats on all the fine gold :thumbsup:
 

interesting!!! the mcCain concentrator and their mini concentrator also uses similar material for their "riffels". looks tobe working for you also. looks like its(grill) secured down tightly also.
 

Just do a search online for either: rubber sluice matting or deep v groove matting. Should bring up lots of similar things you could use. I built a sluice just like this one too, however I have yet to find a good enough spot to use it on.
 

Good lookin' sluice and good lookin' gold. Is the gold coming off the bedrock or are you getting it in the overburden?
 

Top Member Reactions

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top