Astrobouncer
Hero Member
- Jun 21, 2009
- 823
- 344
Its almost done, I just have to seal a couple seams on the back trap, and then add some more waterproofing.
I took pictures of it next to the bazooka to help show its dimensions.
My version is narrower then the Bazooka. I did this on purpose, when you have excessive width you are wasting kinetic energy that could be better spent moving overburden up and out of the sluice. Mine starts at 10 inches wide and tapers to 6 inches at the end. It continues tapering right up until the end because the narrower width should help push the oversize out of the sluice.
The first four pics is of the bottom section and the trap.
Top part that tapers inward, plus the grizzly.
Inside the bottom half of mine.
Bottom half of the bazooka.
And then side by side photos of mine next to the bazooka.
For anyone not familiar with how these work, they use a fluidized bed principle to keep the material in the trap liquidized. As long as you keep the trap full of water, the material coming in from the top will settle the heavies in the trap and the lighter material will wash out the back. They work great in that they have a built in classifier and I can move about double as much material with a trap sluice like the Bazooka then my drop riffle sluices. Also, its about impossible to lose gold, unless you displace the gold in the trap with something both heavier and smaller (which is hard to do).
There's downsides to one of these though. They require more water then a normal sluice or a drop riffle and in fact, the more water you give them the better they run. Also they generate massive amounts of tailings which have to be shoveled from behind the sluice or the trap will not work right.
I took pictures of it next to the bazooka to help show its dimensions.
My version is narrower then the Bazooka. I did this on purpose, when you have excessive width you are wasting kinetic energy that could be better spent moving overburden up and out of the sluice. Mine starts at 10 inches wide and tapers to 6 inches at the end. It continues tapering right up until the end because the narrower width should help push the oversize out of the sluice.
The first four pics is of the bottom section and the trap.
Top part that tapers inward, plus the grizzly.
Inside the bottom half of mine.
Bottom half of the bazooka.
And then side by side photos of mine next to the bazooka.
For anyone not familiar with how these work, they use a fluidized bed principle to keep the material in the trap liquidized. As long as you keep the trap full of water, the material coming in from the top will settle the heavies in the trap and the lighter material will wash out the back. They work great in that they have a built in classifier and I can move about double as much material with a trap sluice like the Bazooka then my drop riffle sluices. Also, its about impossible to lose gold, unless you displace the gold in the trap with something both heavier and smaller (which is hard to do).
There's downsides to one of these though. They require more water then a normal sluice or a drop riffle and in fact, the more water you give them the better they run. Also they generate massive amounts of tailings which have to be shoveled from behind the sluice or the trap will not work right.