2" Keene Dredge - SET UP my GOLD HOG (or ohter) mat system for me!

W

Washington Gold

Jr. Member
Oct 30, 2014
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Primary Interest:
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2" Keene, used to get gold that is a maximum the diameter of a pencil lead across, with most 1/2 that size and most of those are quite small - sorry, don't know the mesh size. Usually flood gold -

Keene picture:
2004PJF.jpg
Note their picture shows matting AFTER the punch plate. Hmm. Mine came with a very shallow matting OR this more aggressive mat - which I assumed either are installed up front under the bolted flare lip. Clarify?

Keene instructions are atrocious and virtually nonexistent as to assembly.

Usually run about 80% throttle

My actual sluice for my dredge:

Keene Dredge OEM mat setup.jpg

2" dredge, no classifying so it all goes through the dredge. *Very little gold is in rubber aggressive mat up front and under the punch plate* as the water is quite deep and lots of it up top. I NEVER see the gold when lifting the plate and washing out the mat shows very little.
Which mat setup? Gold Hog? Get rid of the green 'carpet'? Location or even use of the expanded metal? Fire away!

When a friend gets more ogold from the SAME location by panning only, I gotta be missing the gold...

Gold Hog Store Front
 

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Sounds like you are running too much throttle and blowing the gold out (assuming you are working the EXACT same material).
 

Any less throttle and she doesn't suck well - these are known to be used at about 80% - good thought however!
 

JMHO but if you need to run a lot of throttle and a lot of water in the box, you need to flatten out the box.,adjust the angle, before I invested in expensive matts. GH matts seem to run best with lots of water velocity, we run UR in the first three and I believe downdraft in the last section. I would sort and tune before you spend a bunch of money....
 

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if you only have fine/flower gold use classifier,but,- the first section punch plate over rubber mat is way too short to allow the fine gold to settle ,fall thru the holes of punchplate ,settle again down to the matting and beeing trapped in the initial turbulence when water comes out from flare.If only fine gold present ,try take out the big hungarians,run classifier at least 3/4 down the sluice over expanded over ribbed mat or other mattings and leave only some bigger open area riffles as insurance at the end of sluice.My guess..
 

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ya know doc has a tnet account and a email
I bet if you sent him a pm with this question he could help you :)
 

What Gold Hog Mat should you be using?

"Most dredges should be outfitted with alternating areas of scrubber and riverhog" ~ Doc

<3 nice dredge

Edit: Just read this PDF, Doc lays it out real nice and has some great information. Every time I read doc's writing I pick up a "nugget"

To Wit:
"The FEAR of losing gold... IS causing you to lose gold" ~ Doc

I'm totally stealing that Doc, its so true. You should write a book.
 

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Your friend could be moving more material panning than you are dredging with the 2''.
Are you blowing everything out of the box?
Could be he just hit a small pocket.

Wes
 

Much thanks for the advice AND for the pointing to the Gold Hog site - still watching videos and reading...FANTASTIC. Thanks to you all....!
 

JMHO but their is still a flaw in your recovery set up, I persnoally would tune your rig before I made any expensive decisions on changing to GH matts. I love their system, but if someone is out yielding you with a pan, your setup is flawed...
 

I've tuned as much as I can so far -

Even have the dredge at a slant to get the water flowing downhill as a reasonable angle. My confidence in the punchplate and especially the mat up top where the water is HUGELY turbulent...is nil.
Nothing is being captured up top with the OEM setup

Time for more Gold Hog research!
 

5 months, gone out 10 times 4 hrs each time. Been sluicing and panning for much longer.
 

Probably going with Scrubber n Riverhog; should I keep the Hungarians or bail on them? What might I run under the punchplate?
I've spent 3 hrs watching all of Doc's videos :-) - hasn't covered the above 2 questions
 

Washington Gold said:
Probably going with Scrubber n Riverhog; should I keep the Hungarians or bail on them? What might I run under the punchplate? I've spent 3 hrs watching all of Doc's videos :-) - hasn't covered the above 2 questions
Click to expand...

With whatever you choose, good luck
Heavy pans
 

I looked at the picture you posted on the GH forum and 1 thing that stands out is the riffles over the expanded metal, they need to be tight against the carpet.
I have a 3'' single stage keene and it has miners moss in that area under the expanded and that type riffle but the moss allows it to seal.
I have owned a 2'' dredge that I built using the same motor and pump yours has and did not have to run it that hard.
I also put GH mats in that dredge and never got them to work properly.
You will not be able to get enough drop on the sluice to make the mats work without the discharge end of the sluice being completely under water!
You will have to raise your engine mounting plate 6'' also which will put your jet flair completely out of the water, been there and done that.

Wes
 

Up top under the damper and in the first 3rd of the sluice is miners moss over the green carpet. If you look hard at your riffles you will see that the moss goes under the shorter or smaller riffles.
 

Gotta run it fast and hard in my case -

Going with Riverhog, Talon and Scrubber - ordered it today.

For a true test, I will dredge my prior tailings in a week or so to check it out, should be a good indication
 

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