Building a sluice box

[spawn00x]

Hi,
I am thinking about making myself a sluice box out of aluminum, and I was wondering if anyone knows how thick of the metal I should use. What do the keene's and others use?
Thanks in Advance.

Art

 

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[kiwi jw]

Hi there Art, I used 2mm thick aluminum. This box is 32" long X 9" wide. Made it to be easily back packable.

Happy hunting

JW

 

[strickman]

j.w.,thats a nice looking piece of equipment you have.looks better than some i have seen in stores.i recently got a LOT of aluminium cable tray-the pieces are perfect for a large sluice,and i believe the bottom is stainless.i have 4 or so sluices already but this could be made into a LARGE one for a production model(maybe two man).and i need to do something with it -maybe a high banker as well.with over 30' of this stuff , need to find a use for it.did you make your riffles as well ?were they hard to get right?

 

[spawn00x]

Thats a nice looking sluice, was it hard to bend?

Hi there Art, I used 2mm thick aluminum. This box is 32" long X 9" wide. Made it to be easily back packable.

Happy hunting

JW

 

[Tarkus]

In bending sluice boxes, I normally use S.S. because I have access to large scraps that cost me nothing and they last for a long time. The aluminum box needs to be made from 5000 series which is soft enough to take the 90% bend without cracking, if you try and bend 6000 or 2000 without a large radius bend it cracks. Sheet metal shops should be able to bend it for you, also check with heating/air guys they often have breaks (benders) in their shops.

 

[greydigger]

Stainless Steel can put up with a lot of abuse.
Titanium would be lighter.

Most commercially made sluices in USA are made from 6061 T-6 aluminum.
The bend radius looks to be about .063 and not too large in my opinion.
Here is a pic of mine. Kinda blurry but that is a penny for comparison.

Grey