LeTrap Recirculating sluice (video).

[specksandflecks]

These LeTraps are great little sluices. Think I paid $80.00 new for mine a few years ago. It was my first sluice and a couple highbankers and dredges later it remains my only hand sluice. IMO if you are just getting into prospecting and considering buying a hand sluice I highly recommend looking into one of these. They are inexpensive, light, efficient and can remain very useful if you go on to buy more equipment like highbankers, dredges and even other hand sluices.

I am a relative newbie at prospecting but if you ask most any veteran miner on this board or others they will most likely tell you its money well spent. These things really shine for small gold and the green contrast gives excellent feedback with both the initial presence/quantity of black sands and gold.

At the risk of sounding like a commercial endorsement which this isn't, they do have some drawbacks. One is the water flow needs to be fairly well dialed in, the other is volume unless they ever make a larger one. Most sluices suggest screening to 1/4"- and the LeTrap is no different. If you know you have smaller gold and really want to see it shine screen to 1/8" or smaller.

Some video of my LeTrap running -20 mesh concentrates in the highbanker stand set up to recirculate. If you have broadband there is a higher resolution version, not sure what resolution this one is.

 

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[placertogo]

Thanks for a great video. I am a great fan of the LeTrap sluice. I use one of mine as you do, doing my final concentrating of buckets of material brought back from the stream. My deep well home water system delivers water at about 3 gallons per minute (pretty slow compared to most municipal water systems) and I find the LeTrap effective even at this low flow rate. I also have an Eldorado (Swedish made modular sluice) and it works well, also. Angus MacKirk is doing great in the molded drop riffle sluice business and these are showing great results as well. We are reaping the benefits of modern technology and getting lots of gold that the old timers missed with the more primitive sluices and other equipment.

 

[specksandflecks]

Glad you enjoyed the video. Well said about the plastic drop riffle sluices as LeTrap isn't the only game in town. I have run mine with less water than in the video but probably no where near 3 GPM. I'd be interested to see that in action. Are you running at a steeper incline with the 3GPM?

Another thing I should have mentioned in the video was the importance of having a fine filter on your water pump intake for your recirculating setup as prolonged exposure to fine particulates in the water will wear the vanes on the pump impeller and trash the seals especially on the high pressure dredge pumps. My recirc screen works well for protecting the pump but I need to design a better system since I have to wipe the filter off every 10 minutes or less depending on how much material I am running and how fine it is. -20 is my smallest cut and anything larger doesn't cause filter clogs though.

 

[placertogo]

I have mine set up with an adjustable frame. Since I am using the home water system and not recirculating, I run into a 2 by 3 foot tub with an overflow tube that runs the water into my garden, so I don't have to worry about the grit ruining pump vanes. That way I retain my tails to run again. I generally run steeper than an inch drop to a foot of run and I find that the LeTrap still works with a steeper slope than most sluices. Feeding it slowly and steadily retains better than 90% of the fines so there is not much left in the tails. All my material is screened to under 1/4 inch.

 

[Goodyguy]

If the pump is small enough use panty hose as a filter

A larger pump can use a paint strainer bag as a filter.

I use a paint strainer bag over my foot valve when dredging, high banking, or using a trommel, works great and the spray bars never clog even the ones with 1/8" holes or even down to 1/16"

Paint strainer bags can be purchased at Home Depot, Lowes, hardware stores, paint stores, etc.
They come in 5 gallon, 1 gallon, and quart sizes.

 

[specksandflecks]

That's basically what I'm using on mine when recirculating GoodyGuy. I just need to get another screen like that before the intake screen so the fine particulates aren't being sucked tight against the screen making it easier to clean. I will start using the pump screen when pulling creek/river water also, thanks for the tip!

 

[placertogo]

Thanks, GoodyGuy, for the tip about those filters. I have a little mini-system here using a couple of Doc Ashcroft's "Gold Miser" mini-sluices and a little fountain pump. I will encase the fountain pump in one of these filters and the setup should work better. This forum is great for sharing information.

 

[Goodyguy]

Thanks, GoodyGuy, for the tip about those filters. I have a little mini-system here using a couple of Doc Ashcroft's "Gold Miser" mini-sluices and a little fountain pump. I will encase the fountain pump in one of these filters and the setup should work better. This forum is great for sharing information.

Panty Hose makes a great filter for those fountain pumps if the lady of the house has any throwaways. Just cut the foot out of a pair and put the pump inside with the tubing and wire sticking out and just tie a knot around them with the open end of the stocking.

 

[Jeffro]

You can pretty much eliminate the need for a screen of any sort by poking a hole in the side of your tub away from where the tailings are and letting that dump into another bucket where your pump sits. No silt, no sand, no hassles.

 

[specksandflecks]

You can pretty much eliminate the need for a screen of any sort by poking a hole in the side of your tub away from where the tailings are and letting that dump into another bucket where your pump sits. No silt, no sand, no hassles.

That is basically what I have done however the recirc tubs dont hold enough volume to give the fine particulates time to settle out. What you are describing (and I have done) would probably work well enough, or at least better, if I doubled the volume.