6" subbie dredge

[bill-costa rica]

russ , with it sitting here in costa rica really sucks (ha ha) a country where all gold mining is banned. not to many people looking to buy a dredge. also have my 60 yard an hour plant forsale and my unimog... time is all I need to sell the unimog. the others who knows. trying to trade out the dredge and shaker for just about anything.

bill

 

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[Hoser John]

Good old Trev Altys' suitcase worked mighty fine back in the day. Now detecting as we all age-John

 

[njcommercialdiver]

winners, got any more pics of your subbie? im thinking of building a 4 inch

 

[Reed Lukens]

To date, one of the best subbies that I've seen, is Glen Lebaron's scalping sub that he called "The Dragon" on Berring Sea Gold. It's a standard Alan Tree's scalper like Alan had on his American dredges but Glen's is a fully adjustable underwater subbie with built in Blaster jets built into the nozzle and everything. The guy definitely has talent when it comes to dredge building. I watched the clips of his dredge a number of times to see all of the best ideas that we have seen on surface dredges, packed into a subbie. And the way he built it being fully adjustable as far as water pressures and everything really makes for a nice Suitcase. Here's a few pics and if you do your research, you will see the perfect subbie.

 

[Reed Lukens]

A few more

 

[brianc053]

To date, one of the best subbies that I've seen, is Glen Lebaron's scalping sub that he called "The Dragon" on Berring Sea Gold. It's a standard Alan Tree's scalper like Alan had on his American dredges but Glen's is a fully adjustable underwater subbie with built in Blaster jets built into the nozzle and everything. The guy definitely has talent when it comes to dredge building. I watched the clips of his dredge a number of times to see all of the best ideas that we have seen on surface dredges, packed into a subbie. And the way he built it being fully adjustable as far as water pressures and everything really makes for a nice Suitcase. Here's a few pics and if you do your research, you will see the perfect subbie.

Yeah but then he let it drift away during the offseason and he lost it. (did he ever find it? I can't remember).
He may have dredge-building talent, but it seems he lacked rather basic organizational skills... (cool subsurface dredge though)

 

[Beav]

Reed, do you know what season and episode/s these pics came from? I'd like to go find the video.
Thanks for posting the pics!
Beav

 

[Reed Lukens]

Yeah but then he let it drift away during the offseason and he lost it. (did he ever find it? I can't remember).
He may have dredge-building talent, but it seems he lacked rather basic organizational skills... (cool subsurface dredge though)

Remember, it's made for TV...

Reed, do you know what season and episode/s these pics came from? I'd like to go find the video.
Thanks for posting the pics!
Beav

Beav, they were all from season 2 of under the ice, I just went to idmb and searched for all episodes with his name, Glen Lebaron and then watched all of season 3. I screen shot the pics myself. He told me that he's building a new one also. It's a great dredge and I've always loved the scalper system.

Edit they were season 2

 

[Beav]

Thanks Reed! I knew you would know.
Trust you are enjoying yourself in Oregon.
Beav

 

[principedeleon]

Hey guys .. its been a while. im glad ya reopened this back up because im thinking on dredging in deep water like 30 to 40 feet deep and im planning to push what has been my limits.

So the plan is on using my subbie dredge.
Wonder how it would be the best way to keep my box from tilting underwater ?

I was kinda confuse looking at the dredge ya posted and i want to get this right. . The extra jets are used to push the clasified material from the sump to a upper sluice that looks to have some reversed angle iron riffle ?

 

[winners58]

I remember seeing that episode I thought the upper box looked like the riffles used on Dahlke dredge
not sure I remember the name right, dovetail riffles or something like that.
.

 

[Reed Lukens]

They're not reversed, just looks that way at first. I've got dovetails in our home built 6", but different then Dahlke's. I had a 4" Dahlke and liked his dovetails but we changed it up on ours for better action in the drop riffles.

 

[principedeleon]

I did place some dove tail riffles in my 6 inch dredge.
I know know how they look but the ones in the picture reed posted seemed to look like angle iron or 90degree angle riffles. In one picture in the animation presentation it looks that way but on a snap shot of the real thing it looks like some kind of square riffles. .

Couldnt a dredge bringing this clasified material to the surface be more efficient ?

I really see there could be a lot to be worked with when i see a submersible dredge instead of a surface dredge.

I ran my my 6" hose with a suction nozzle and my 4" dredge pump and moved hugee amount of gravel . Then i would switch to my 4inch surface dredge.
If only the best of two worlds could come to one .

 

[Reed Lukens]

Couldnt a dredge bringing this clasified material to the surface be more efficient ?

I really see there could be a lot to be worked with when i see a submersible dredge instead of a surface dredge. .

More efficient? It takes half of the power to run a sub, and with a scalper system like above, it's not really comparable. A properly built subbie with a fluid bed and/ or a scalping system, with equal horse power of the surface dredge, will run a lot more material, but it will lose more gold also.

 

[principedeleon]

Here i would say i never found a place where tiny gold would actually let me find more then 2 grams and normally 0.4 or 0.5 in fines. But im interested in looking more for those deposit which are more chunky and could pay 4 grams and up.

Idk if this is just how gold works in the river i normally dredge.

Plus here gold seems to be more abundent in mountain terrein so i cant float up my large 6" dredge all the way up river without having to take it all apart almost. There is lots of large rocks and water falls.

This is why i believe ima try to focus a bit on this kind of dredge for now. .

I have the trev sluice that i believe it suppose to work as a fluid bed as thats what mines look like when i ran it lol.

I want to try to fix the sluice box to a floatation device.

 

[principedeleon]

Almost complete subbie.

So here it is. ..
Is almost finished just need to add two more floatation device for i could go out soon and try it out.

 

[principedeleon]

Hii, Everyone.. i tested the dredge a couple of time already but at the first spot i wasnt seening any gold so most likely i wasnt passing gold through the box.
So i took it to another spot where i knew there was a lot of fine gold. I was impressed with all the fine gold
That Was in the sluice box and how the chunkiest was at the head of the box inside a rubber waffle mat.

Now i would have to say ima believer in a subbie dredge and No one telling me it doesnt trap fine gold because i tested it out for my own.

If someone ask how could a tiny box trap fine gold ?
I think there are several reasons for this. .
1. There is only one pump to create suction so less water passing through the sluice... meaning could get away with a smaller box.

2. I ran the sluice on a back tilt angle instead of forward.

3. Being underwater it creates a backpressure which reduces a lot the flow.

Another thing that is important and with every sluice is mantain it being feed for that the water doesnt clear out too much the riffles.

Hope this helps many. .
Because this for sure made a game changer for me.

 

[Beav]

2. I ran the sluice on a back tilt angle instead of forward.

So explain the "back tilt angle". Does that mean the box is tilted down toward the nozzle end, or does
it mean the box is tilted down toward the "exit" end?
Thanks
Beav

 

[arizau]

This is my thought. With a back tilt the rear kind of creates a fluid bed effect and concentrates the heavies. Not sure but it seems that kind of makes the riffles, if there are any, ineffective or at least work differently.

 

[principedeleon]

Yes, tilted toward the nozzle. .