Intermediate step between concentrates and blue bowl?

[Crookedrecords]

hello again!

I have been able to go prospecting a lot more lately and have found a good location. In the past I would usually return with about 1 gallon of concentrates which I would then classify into 5 different sizes. The two largest sizes (4 and 8 mesh) I would run my metal detector over just in case and then hand pan pretty quickly. The two smallest sizes I could run through the blue bowl and there wouldn't be that much to deal with.

Now I may be coming back with about 5 gallons of concentrates at a time and be going out every other week or so. By about the 5th pan of 20 mesh my wrists are killing me and I start to get sloppy.

I'm looking for something to help me out. That new keene micro sluice looks pretty good but the cost is prohibitive right now. Does anyone know if they sell that Hungarian riffle rubber matt to the public? I can make a mini sluice myself from aluminum and two different sizes of rubber matt but I don't know what the verdict is on those. I'm just looking for some feedback from someone who has tried a few different methods and could recommend something. I don't want to spend all that time and money making something if there is a better/easier/cheaper option.

Thanks in advance...

 

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[patches63]

well,the spiral pan with a hole in the middle was the usual prelim to the bowl.+30 or+50 for the wheel,minus that size into the bowl.i still work that way.modern finishing sluices such as joels s-1 are probably much more simple.but you will still need to pre-classiffy the same way for optimal recovery.properly run auto-feeders enhance all of the above.the s-1 system.devised by joel farmer of boise idaho,(g-1 highbanker fabricator)has excellent feedback.go figure,joels father is angus mckirk,also of boise idaho.fine gold runs in the family,apparently.check out the mckirk excalibur setup.a highbanker with an undercurrent.looks like a good hobby banker.if i had an s-1 finish sluice,i would try classifying 10,20,30,50,70,100.that would give you 12 different sizes of concentrates.(+10,-10,+20,-20,etc.)then run them each seperately.like a wheel or bowl.and post pics.

 

[Hoser John]

The old green keene bowl, NO INSIPID WINGS ,work pretty good on the medium size and you can get single pass results without the double run work required for good wheel extraction recovery. I have never heard of such weak wrists--get a squeeze ball, weights whatever to build up them wrists as good panning techniques are the real answer and require no crutch-tons a au 2 u 2 -John

 

[Crookedrecords]

believe me I built up my wrist and forearm muscles as a teenager.....as well as a mean case of tennis elbow. I think I just need to stop putting 20lbs of material in the pan at a time.