home made sluice for fine "flour" gold

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scottyk

Greenie
Feb 9, 2011
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home made sluice for fine "flour" gold

After alot of perserverance searching for any color what-so-ever I finally found a place that showed a few very small faint gold color that was too stubborn to be washed away with the black sand in my pan!!!! Anyway I kept searching around this same area hoping to find something a little bigger than these barely visible pieces, to no avail so far.. I need to set-up a sluice so I can run more material than just panning. I have some plans I drew up to make a "A52 copy" out of aluminum, I have a bending brake, TIG welder, and lots of fab experience so building is not a issue. I have not hit any bedrock or false bedrock yet, I only spent about 3 hours in this spot and the water is murky so I have spent most of my time moving rocks I cant see and trying to get as deep as possible. The color I have found so far seems to actually be in some real dense clay and not down on the bedrock.

I am just curious how well the keene A52 works with this flour gold? Is there any modifications or changes I should incorporate before I start the build?

The material that we will be running will have some real thick sticky poo like clay.

Any tips and opinion are welcome "or if anyone has a A52 that could send some measurements my way :wink: "

Thanks alot everyone, Scott
 

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Re: home made sluice for fine "flour" gold

YEP! if your only finding fine flour gold dont use any riffels at all! instead after youve bent your sluice, use somesort of matting. i have just got some outdoor carpeting from John "Hoser"Oates and its made by Shaw and its name is "Veranda" and its model number(?) is #54163 or if you dont want to buy this use ribbed indoor/outdoor carpet and maybe use some raised expanded metal to help hold it down flat. this is what im using on my 4 inch over/under dredge. the riffels for fine gold will only keep it in a constant mixed up state and not allow it to drop out of suspension so you can capture it. but if you do run into a small picker, this carpet will hold it if your not running to much water or feeding that sluice to fast. try it, youll see what i mean!
 

Re: home made sluice for fine "flour" gold

I have some miners moss already! So maybe just get some expanded metal to hold the miners moss down eh?? Cant wait to get back out there and see what happens when I run a good amount of material, maybe find some color that actually looks like something
 

Re: home made sluice for fine "flour" gold

Russau has it right. For fines, a slick plate followed by grooved carpet or miners moss with raised expanded is king. Clarkson study proved that years ago.
 

Re: home made sluice for fine "flour" gold

Here is the Clarkson study from 1990 on pdf if you care to examine it.
http://ygsftp.gov.yk.ca/publications//tech/placerrecovery.pdf

Proved to me why my sluice kept loading up between the riffles causing the fine gold to wash away and why most store bought riffle assemblies have the riffles spaced too far apart for maximum efficiency. I expect the reason is to save on production costs.

My Keene only had 8 riffles in 30" when according to Clarkson maximum efficiency calls for 12 riffles in 30"
Too close together or too far apart causes packing and loss of fine gold! Especially if you are running a lot of sandy material.

As the Clarkson study states expanded metal over un-backed nomad works best for the fines and flour gold :icon_thumleft:

GG~
 

Re: home made sluice for fine "flour" gold

GG ive used miners moss for several years in my 4 inch dredge. MM/raised expanded will trap fine gold, but as soon as you stop your engine itll packup on you tight! and starting backup wont losen this. this year ive switched over my MM for a outdoor carpet made by Shaw and the carpet name is "Veranda" product number is #54163 and its ava. through any carpet store but you may have to order it. this is a unbacked carpet that is shaped in the form of offset diamond shaped.i got this info from John "Hoser" Oates and hes been useing it for years and swears by it (not that John swears a lot???) when i used MM, sometimes it was so heavy after running ,it was a pain to get out of the dredge (mine was 1 peice 48 inchs long x 3/4 inch thick MM) and i have a over/under dredge. this year il be up in Wyomings Medicine Bow mountains for a few weeks trying it out. the weather hasnt been good enough this year yet to try it out.(rain,floods,more rain,more floods,high fuel prices)
 

Re: home made sluice for fine "flour" gold

Thanks for the info Russau :icon_thumleft:

John should know, so looks like I have to try it out. ("Veranda" made by Shaw, product #54163)
I like to try out stuff so I'll see if it makes me swear or not :laughing7:

Wish I could go with you to the mountains...... maybe next year, so don't get all the gold :wink:

GG~
 

Re: home made sluice for fine "flour" gold

GG sure wish you could make it this year also! ill be up there from June 27 for 2 weeks and your more than welcome to join us. the Cheyenne Wyoming chapter of the GPAA has their outting there the weekend after the July 4th. its a good time had by all.
 

Re: home made sluice for fine "flour" gold

russau said:
GG ive used miners moss for several years in my 4 inch dredge. MM/raised expanded will trap fine gold, but as soon as you stop your engine itll packup on you tight! and starting backup wont losen this. this year ive switched over my MM for a outdoor carpet made by Shaw and the carpet name is "Veranda" product number is #54163 and its ava. through any carpet store but you may have to order it. this is a unbacked carpet that is shaped in the form of offset diamond shaped.i got this info from John "Hoser" Oates and hes been useing it for years and swears by it (not that John swears a lot???) when i used MM, sometimes it was so heavy after running ,it was a pain to get out of the dredge (mine was 1 peice 48 inchs long x 3/4 inch thick MM) and i have a over/under dredge. this year il be up in Wyomings Medicine Bow mountains for a few weeks trying it out. the weather hasnt been good enough this year yet to try it out.(rain,floods,more rain,more floods,high fuel prices)
Click to expand...

The Clarkson study was for a wash plant sluice not a dredge sluice, completely different animal.
Also you gotta try the vortex mat, that thing is a gold grabber and so easy to clean. Not sure how well it works on a dredge sluice though.
But on a highbanker or hand sluice it's awesome!
 

Re: home made sluice for fine "flour" gold

as almost everyone knows, one sluice setup wont catch all the gold! a person needs to find out the approximet size of the gold thats in the stream/area that he is working. then he can kinda gauge what size riffels or sluice setup he needs to capture the majority of the gold in his location. nuggets are EZ but the finer gold(fines) need a different setup to trap them. and when doing a cleanup, thats another different setup than working a creek/stream.so, one size dont do it all. and you cant rush working fine gold. it takes a person to slow down/screen all and run these super cons slower/less feed/and less water to utilize specific gravity to work in your favor!and then still theres going to be some really small stuff that you just cant get out or almost cant see. then theres another method that can be used by a knowledgeable person. but i dont use it myself.
 

GG is right the Clarkson study was about washplant recovery of gold not a dredge. And I see many miners recommend the "Vortex Matting". If only I can get myself some of it would be great for a test ride ! unfortunately it is not available here on my side of the globe :dontknow:

And Russ thanks for the tips !
 

All it is is a type of conveyor belt. You might have some around you and not know it. Check and see if you have someone who does conveyor belt work. Might be worth a try.
 

Doug Watson said:
All it is is a type of conveyor belt. You might have some around you and not know it. Check and see if you have someone who does conveyor belt work. Might be worth a try.
Click to expand...

Here is a link that Goldhog has on his site with the appropriate stock numbers.
Vortex Mat
You may or may not want to order direct but there may be a conveyor product supplier in your region that stocks this/these items. Good luck.
 

Last edited:
This thread started 3 years ago, and since then, I think the Bazooka sluice has become noted as a great fine gold getter and no classification required. There are several DIY threads around on how to make a bazooka type sluice. Today, that would be my recommendation to anyone trying to do a DIY sluice to capture fine gold. It certainly works here in Colorado.

The only drawbacks are high costs to buy instead of DIY and the relatively high water flow required, which can be fixed with wing dams, especially if you put some black plastic bags on the wing dam to lessen the water seeping through and sending it toward your bazooka instead.
 

GoldpannerDave said:
This thread started 3 years ago, and since then, I think the Bazooka sluice has become noted as a great fine gold getter and no classification required. There are several DIY threads around on how to make a bazooka type sluice. Today, that would be my recommendation to anyone trying to do a DIY sluice to capture fine gold. It certainly works here in Colorado.

The only drawbacks are high costs to buy instead of DIY and the relatively high water flow required, which can be fixed with wing dams, especially if you put some black plastic bags on the wing dam to lessen the water seeping through and sending it toward your bazooka instead.
Click to expand...

You can address the water flow requirements pretty well by choosing the right sized sluice for your waterway. Bazooka sells a whole range of Goldtrap sizes. I run a 30 inch Sniper in smaller creeks and a 36 inch Prospector in bigger waterways...both work great. If making your own, obviously you can design for the water flows available, especially with a little advice from your tnet friends :)

PS I agree with Dave of course, go with a fluid bed!
 

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