Full ribbed matting in the sluice

[GrizzlyGremlin]

So i have been sluicing with decent results. One of the things i have noticed is at the end of the day when i pan out my cons im really only seeing the same pieces that were caught in my black mat. Either im setting up the sluice properly or im blowing gold out of my riffles and carpet. I have a second proline sluice which i was thinking about junking the carpet and riffles and just load the entire box with a combination of ribbed matting and vortex matting. This would let me run super slow or very fast and i will be able to see how far the gold gets down the sluice. Does this only make sense to me? The gold cube functions on this principal and people eat that machine up!! If anyone has any experience with a rig like this please post up a pic. Thanks metal monkeys!

 

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[Goodyguy]

A lot depends on the type material being run, the size it's classified to, and also the size of the gold in the area.
If the gold is all less than 1/8" and you classify down to 1/4" all you'll need is the mat.

But lets say you are running bank run material and you're classifying to 1/2" Then you are going to need the riffles to help tumble and wash the gravels and dirt. The riffles will also provide a safe haven in the low pressure area just behind them for the gold to drop out and keep away from the fast moving flow that is required to wash the 1/2 gravels on down and out of the sluice.

The Gold Cube recommends the material to be classified to 1/8" No need for riffles or a fast flow when the material being run is classified that small.

GG~

 

[dpdkld]

Here in Missouri I mostly find fine, flat, flaky....the three "F"s kind of gold. However, I have found some decent sized pickers and chunky round pieces on occasion. I've found over several years of experimenting that deep V matting or vortex the entire length of the box with 3/4" raised expanded metal over it (i use aluminum as it is not very heavy) to create my riffle effect. This gives you many riffles to help break up material and drop the gold. I've panned tailings many times to come up empty or at most 1 or 2 almost invisible dots of gold so I know this works well. For a 36' box (excluding flair if equiped) I drilled two holes, top end and bottom end or between the center and the top and bottom of the box for a bolt with washer and wing nut to hold down expanded. Ive never put the factory riffles back in. I almost forgot to add bend your expanded slightly convex to your box and it will flush down when the wing nuts are tightened.