Prospector70
Hero Member
- Nov 6, 2013
- 832
- 1,256
- Detector(s) used
- Bazooka Gold Trap 48", Keene A51 sluices and a
Number 2 Shovel baby!
- Primary Interest:
- All Treasure Hunting
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Im wondering if an electric pump would work like the guys use on their regular sluices for recirculating for places with no motorized equipment or late nights in the shop
The a52 works wonders...but a bgt highbanker on a solid stand would be gloriousSo......... BGT highbanker. Yes? No? I'm ready!!!!!
I make your glorious stand!
I designed this before the new sizes were available; this was made for the 30" Prospector but will fit the 36" model and maybe others.
Now I primarily made this for myself and friends but I did make a dozen extra... One is promised to my buddy Bob A.k.a Underburden so 11... lol
AstroBouncer talks about my frame at 19:20:
Here are the directions I made for my stands:
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Bazooka Frame Operating Instructions
1) Put all four legs in the main frame and lightly tighten them in place. The front legs should be around 1 inch shorter then the back to start.
2) Put the assembled frame into the faster running water (no sluice). In slower moving water, rock dam wings or the equivalent will be needed to funnel enough water in the sluice ram and fluid bed for proper operation.
3) Adjust the legs one at a time pushing and turning them down into the stream bed. Don't worry to much about leveling yet.
4) Place some larger rocks between the back legs to help hold the frame down but more importantly to encourage water into the sluice ram and not all underneath the sluice.
5) Insert the sluice and adjust the height, level and angle. The water should flow over the highest point of the sluice past the grizzly. One inch of water is a nice place to start. Keep the angle as shallow as possible to move rocks through the system, increase the water depth before increasing the angle.
6) Tighten all set screws securely.
7) Remove the sluice and shovel some smaller rocks into the middle of the frame in between the large rocks you placed earlier. It is important to not let too much water go underneath the sluice.
8) Replace the sluice.
9) Run some test material through the sluice to make sure you have the system clearing rocks with minimal assistance (clearing the grizzly bars periodically is normal.)
10) Slip your fingers into the discharge of the sluice after the sluice has had a chance to clear. If your feel the material going past the middle of the PVC pipes you are probably scouring too much material out of your fluid bed and possible finer gold. Either raise the angle to be shallower or let more water around or under the sluice.
WARNING: Lifting the sluice by inserting your fingers into the discharge slot may damage the sluice!
11) To empty the sluice, push back on the front and move the sluice backwards 3 or four inches. Then grab the BOTTOM of the front and the back of the sluice and raise up out of the water in a level fashion, carefully clearing the top retaining tabs. Dump the sluice into a bucket of water and rinse out with a up and down motion.
Tips:
a) The sluice likes LOTS of water and you should expect to wear rubber boots and put the sluice out into the water a ways.
b) When to empty the sluice? Really the best way to answer this is to watch the fluid bed for packing or too much material. You can poke at the fluid bed with a stick or even slip you (skinny) fingers in the back. It is ok to grab one of the legs and shake the sluice side to side a little (not too violently). This will help exchange some lights for heavies, just watch the level of those heavies (check for packing.)
c) The sluice is a work horse and can handle a lot of material, but don't get carried away. Feed the sluice at half throttle not turbo!
d) Stand in front of the sluice when pulling. Slows the water entering into the sluice and makes it easier to pull.
Enjoy your new Bazooka Prospector Easy Frame!
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I also make a HB conversion and I like the clean hood design in the video; my only issue is it has some crazy waterflow... I am using a pressure gauge with my prototype and still dialing the unit in. The Bazooka's weakness is it needs a fairly narrow window of water volume (flow and pressure) to fluidize the bed properly. And for the super fine gold (lots more of it than larger gold) you really need to know what your bed pressure is. But that is not even enough as you still have to 'poke' at the fluid bed while in operation to make sure you are not locking up. So bottom line to much water is bad and to little is worse; the finer the gold the narrower the 'sweet spot' for water flow.
*Updated*
After reading Prospector70's description of the design, I must say it is radically different then mine. I ran three pipes with rubber boots to the bed tubes. Then I have the top water feed wye'd and an inline valve so I can adjust the ratio of water coming into the top and bottom. I wonder if the one shown has an adjustable 'baffle' to 'let' different flows of water over the top?? If not I think it would be extremely difficult to adjust the HB into the 'sweet spot!'
My 2+2 bits...