how can I increase the water flow into my sluice box?

wild eyed willey

wild eyed willey

Full Member
Oct 25, 2012
187
56
Southbridge, MA.
Detector(s) used
bounty hunter, fast tracker
Primary Interest:
Prospecting
Is it normal to have to make on site modifications to your sluice to get the proper water flow? do you have a sluice that works no matter where you plunk it down?

I constructed my own sluice box rather than purchase one on line and It did not work.. not enough water flow to move the classified material any distance... I have no flare, but I could try to make one... My stream isn't very deep, but it does have flow. there is not a lot of elivation drop, but it isn't stagnant either...

I could really use some help here, should I purchase a particular sluice for slower water flow,, should I attempt to construct a flare to increase the water flow?

Does the flare tilt down or should it tilt down? should a flare pan have drop instead of being flat bottom out from the main body?

I just have no idea whay this thing doesn't work... this is the third attempt at building a sluice box and I just don't get why it wont move material.
 

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A flare would help, but you don't have to have one. You need to build a wing-dam. Spend a while after getting your sluice setup up, and make a 45 degree dam of rocks going out from each side. This will funnel a lot more water into your box.
 

Not all sluices's are created equal. All the different designs have a minuim water flow that make them work the best. Sluices with hungarian riffles require more flow than sluices with just some type of matting and expanded metal. Classifying sluices like the Bazooka Gold Trap or the Top Runner require medium to fast. It sounds like you have fairly slow water so you need a sluice that is primarly matting and expanded metal. You should look at South Yuba Mining Co.. They have sluices classified for slow and fast water. You can look at the slow water sluices and if you still want to make your own, you can get some ideas.
 

How wide are you making them? If you have a real slow flow then a narrower sluice will work better. Build you one 6" or 7" wide and just use some deep V rubber matting in it and see how you do. Especially if you are looking at small/fine gold. And classify your material to at least 1/4" before running it.
 

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Drop riffles work well in slow water as well. I usually have to build up a dam no matter where I am sluicing regardless, just to get the flow right.
 

Thanks for all of your input, I didn't have time to check for replys last night, but I did fabricate a flare and installed it, while Gold Rush Alaska was on.
I took the sluice down to the river this morning.
At first I had not enough water speed and so I decided to build a wing dam ( I noticed this watching you-tube Videos)...

First let me offer a description of my sluice, then I'll explain my results.

I took two sections of stack ducting, they are L shaped sheet steel, they are meant to snap together to form a rectangular section of air duct, that measures 3.25"High X10"wide X 42" Long. I put them together to form a three sided trough and pop riveted them together. For the head I used a 3.25" X 10" stack duct head, it would be installed into a wall or a floor and have an air vent installed. This I riveted to the trough. Last night I cut away parts of the Stack head and installed the flare I constructed out of a Piece of flat sheet ducting that I got from Depot.

The sluice is now 58" long, the mouth of the flare is 25.5" wide sides are 3.25" high, the flare is 16" long and over laps the duct head by about 3". The main sluice body is 10" wide. ( so I more than doubled the original mouth dimension with the added flare).

I have 12" of black, small rib floor mat ( rubber) also got from depot. Followed by 26.5" of Vinel siding ( I had leftover) to act as riffles.

After building the wing wall and classifying down to 1/4", I noticed the black mat cleared very fast and held almost nothing, while the vinal sideing riffles remained plugged for most of the time.. I often cleared the while running with my finger. I tried changing the height of both the front and back of the sluice box, but I could not find a happy medium. I ran several buckets over the morning and when I finished, I panned the remaining material in the sluice.. I found lots of metal, Steal and or lead, from tiny bird shot pellets to larger perhaps buck shot sized pieces... and 1 tiny flake of gold about the size of a pencil dot. I don't know if the flake was the only one that entered the sluice box or if any other gold just washed out because of the riffles being clogged.

I think I need a re-design.

Edited to add, I think I might need deeper ribbed or grooved matting and shorter riffles, possibly carpet and no riffles.
 

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I do not know what part of the county you are in but at Orchard Supply Hardware here in Calif they carry plastic/rubbber carpet runner and some versions of it look a lot like the material used in sluice boxes, same type of crossection so it should work pretty good for prospecting. Best of success to you.......63bkpkr
 

Rebel73153 said:
How wide are you making them? If you have a real slow flow then a narrower sluice will work better. Build you one 6" or 7" wide and just use some deep V rubber matting in it and see how you do. Especially if you are looking at small/fine gold. And classify your material to at least 1/4" before running it.
Click to expand...
I think you might be right, shorter and skinnier might be the way to go.... I need to get some good matting too.
 

nuggetshooter323 said:
Not all sluices's are created equal. All the different designs have a minuim water flow that make them work the best. Sluices with hungarian riffles require more flow than sluices with just some type of matting and expanded metal. Classifying sluices like the Bazooka Gold Trap or the Top Runner require medium to fast. It sounds like you have fairly slow water so you need a sluice that is primarly matting and expanded metal. You should look at South Yuba Mining Co.. They have sluices classified for slow and fast water. You can look at the slow water sluices and if you still want to make your own, you can get some ideas.
Click to expand...
I went to the site, I like the two smaller sluices and they are affordable too.. thanks for the link.
 

I found that site once and bookmarked it mainly because the smaller sluices were so affordable.


wild eyed willey said:
I went to the site, I like the two smaller sluices and they are affordable too.. thanks for the link.
Click to expand...
 

Also check out California sluice box sluices. You might send a PM to Shovel Humper here on the forum. I just received the 10"x32" stream sluice, small 7"x23" Jr. sluice and the Bucket sluice concentrator from him for a real good price. Good person to deal with.
 

Rebel73153 said:
Also check out California sluice box sluices. You might send a PM to Shovel Humper here on the forum. I just received the 10"x32" stream sluice, small 7"x23" Jr. sluice and the Bucket sluice concentrator from him for a real good price. Good person to deal with.
Click to expand...

I'm new here and I don't know how to find shovel humper, I don't see any members list.
 

here are some pics of my sluice with my new matting idea.
I have two sections of carpet and two pieces of metal. I just need to figure out a way to hold them in place while working but still be able to remove them to clean the sluice. Sluice box 003.jpg

Sluice box 002.jpgSluice box 001.jpg
 

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