arizau
Silver Member
- May 2, 2014
- 2,516
- 3,941
- Detector(s) used
- Beach High Banker, Sweep Jig, Whippet Dry Washer, Lobo ST, 1/2 width 2 tray Gold Cube, numerous pans, rocker box, and home made fluid bed and stream sluices.
- Primary Interest:
- Prospecting
"I'm building a new sluice this winter and I've been looking at a lot of info on the web. I came across this modification to the highbanker that looks like it would benefit most guys running miners moss. It seems pretty sound to me but I don't have a ton of experience as a prospector. Im wondering if any of you guys are running this mod and if it actually helps.
Miners Moss (nomad)
often gets a bad rap. Folks complain it gets packed solid too easy, or that gold migrates under or through it and off the end of the sluice, and that it just holds too much worthless material and therefore creates too much concentrate to easily process.
Those are also the reasons why I'm not much of a fan of it's use.
However, there is a simple mod to fix all that .......or so I'm told
The modification to employ when using miners moss (nomad) is to box it into the sluice by adding a solid gate across the exit end of the sluice the same height as the moss or if using expanded metal over the moss then make the gate tall enough to reach the top of it as well
#1 the gate will prevent gold that migrates underneath or through the miners moss from being lost out the end of your sluice.
#2 the gate will keep the miners moss fluidized which will in turn aid in keeping the moss from packing solid.
#3 the fluidized moss will more easily allow the lighter material to wash on down the sluice instead of getting trapped in the moss.
#4 the fluidized moss will more readily trap all sizes of gold.
#5 the fluidized moss will be more efficient at exchanging lights for heavies.
This is not just something that I just dreamed up or made up or sucked out of my thumb.
It is a mod that was passed on to me by a full time miner I met at Thermal city gold camp in North Carolina several years ago that he had learned from another full time miner that had come up with the idea originally.
Since then I have spoken with another miner who swears by the mod and convinced me of it's merit.
Now to be honest, I have not personally tried the mod other than with my experiments building fluid bed gold traps of which all use a boxed in chamber to allow fluidization of material.
It makes perfect sense to me that the mod should do everything as I outlined above without creating anything adverse or negative toward the operation of the sluice box.
In fact just that one simple mod may revolutionize the way certain types of sluices are built once the mod becomes common knowledge.
I was going to keep this mod to myself until I had the chance to test it personally but since I have not been a fan of using miners moss I kept putting it off. I was recently convinced by a fellow miner that uses the mod on his sluices that folks using miners moss need to know about this and the sooner the better.
As far as why I have been avoiding using miners moss in the first place was because of all the negatives that this mod is supposed to eliminate.
Sooner or later I know I will need to re-evaluate my negativity toward the stuff but it's hard for me to go back and revisit something I have long since written off."
Note that I am not the author of the quote above and the references were for a highbanker operation. Sorry,I should have originally posted it the high banker forum.
Were I ever to try this, I would make sure that the dam at the end of the moss is in close to a vertical position while in operation. If it is not then it will slant towards the exit and form a ramp and possibly promote losses rather than capture with the fluid bed action if in fact there is any.
arizau
Miners Moss (nomad)
often gets a bad rap. Folks complain it gets packed solid too easy, or that gold migrates under or through it and off the end of the sluice, and that it just holds too much worthless material and therefore creates too much concentrate to easily process.
Those are also the reasons why I'm not much of a fan of it's use.
However, there is a simple mod to fix all that .......or so I'm told
The modification to employ when using miners moss (nomad) is to box it into the sluice by adding a solid gate across the exit end of the sluice the same height as the moss or if using expanded metal over the moss then make the gate tall enough to reach the top of it as well
#1 the gate will prevent gold that migrates underneath or through the miners moss from being lost out the end of your sluice.
#2 the gate will keep the miners moss fluidized which will in turn aid in keeping the moss from packing solid.
#3 the fluidized moss will more easily allow the lighter material to wash on down the sluice instead of getting trapped in the moss.
#4 the fluidized moss will more readily trap all sizes of gold.
#5 the fluidized moss will be more efficient at exchanging lights for heavies.
This is not just something that I just dreamed up or made up or sucked out of my thumb.
It is a mod that was passed on to me by a full time miner I met at Thermal city gold camp in North Carolina several years ago that he had learned from another full time miner that had come up with the idea originally.
Since then I have spoken with another miner who swears by the mod and convinced me of it's merit.
Now to be honest, I have not personally tried the mod other than with my experiments building fluid bed gold traps of which all use a boxed in chamber to allow fluidization of material.
It makes perfect sense to me that the mod should do everything as I outlined above without creating anything adverse or negative toward the operation of the sluice box.
In fact just that one simple mod may revolutionize the way certain types of sluices are built once the mod becomes common knowledge.
I was going to keep this mod to myself until I had the chance to test it personally but since I have not been a fan of using miners moss I kept putting it off. I was recently convinced by a fellow miner that uses the mod on his sluices that folks using miners moss need to know about this and the sooner the better.
As far as why I have been avoiding using miners moss in the first place was because of all the negatives that this mod is supposed to eliminate.
Sooner or later I know I will need to re-evaluate my negativity toward the stuff but it's hard for me to go back and revisit something I have long since written off."
Note that I am not the author of the quote above and the references were for a highbanker operation. Sorry,I should have originally posted it the high banker forum.
Were I ever to try this, I would make sure that the dam at the end of the moss is in close to a vertical position while in operation. If it is not then it will slant towards the exit and form a ramp and possibly promote losses rather than capture with the fluid bed action if in fact there is any.
arizau
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