Rate my mini sluice

[Steve_the_pirate]

Hey everyone, long time reader, first time poster.
I've just recently gotten myself into the gold hobby and was wondering if you guys had any constructive criticism and/or tips on my first mini sluice. I just bought this sluice from a rock show in my city. It's about 4 inch wide by 24 inch long. I'm not a fan of the bolts and washers running down the middle but I was thinking of getting some gold hog matts and putting that in.



Once I'm done and happy with my sluice it'll be time to figure out a mobile solution to having a pump and battery that can go most places.

Thanks for the read

 

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[kcm]

It's made of aluminum diamond plate, right?

I think GH mats would be a smart idea, as they appear to work better than older sluice/highbanker matting technologies.

 

[johnedoe]

Yup..... dump the miners moss..... it's pretty much useless... and gold will, not maybe, but will migrate right out the end of your little sluice.....

 

[Johnnybravo300]

Looks cool but so did the space shuttle challenger right before it exploded! Hehe
Get it out there and test it. See how it does. Seems a little smallish for handling much material. Did you get a tiny tots scoop and bucket set with it?

 

[Underburden]

I think it will make a fine clean-up sluice with just a few mods. Chuck that oversize raised expanded and miner's moss. The recommendation for God Hog mats is spot on.

 

[Steve_the_pirate]

Haha she is a shiny little piece. It wasn't expensive so it didn't come with anything and that doesn't bother me. I've read a lot of the sluicing section on here and going and running her would be awesome but sadly it's winter here.

I really appreciate the replies. That is my first sluice, this summer I went out panning just for the heck of it and I caught the gold bug after I found a tiny amount of gold. I don't really have anything else yet thought, still need a pump, I'm thinking of 1000 gp/h. Too keep the mobile aspect I'm going to get a battery and inverter as well.

Really I just want a bazooka gold trap, but the river is very unreliable, thus the sluice. The gold trap will come once winter is over

 

[Oddjob]

First thoughts:

That sure a lot of bling

You got a free bush grill with that expanded

Chuck that moss

However you have to start some place right, should help you learn and develop on a tiny scale, your not going to get rich of course, but on the bright side you made a wise newby choice; no experience and you did not go out and buy something that you could not get your money worth out of. Cost effective.

GH mat is a good idea (I think their sample sizes will fit), but make sure you read up on it so you do not get something that needs lots of flow. Make you a nugget trap, my bad a picker trap for it, heck if you think you needed it then you could even hook up a box for a hand dredge to do some crevicing.

All in all, it looks like it will be fun, so staying cost effective and having fun you can check off; and who knows if you really get in to it later down the road that could be set up for con cleaning.

I think if you went over to the sub forum Prospector Journals and kept us posted it would be pretty cool to follow and see how things turn out. A few mods and it will pay for its self.

I wish you the best of luck and hope you have lots of fun.

Did I mention that was a lot of bling. LOL

 

[Oregon Viking]

A mini highbanker!!

It will go nicely with these....



Hey.... Is that an old school skate board?

 

[Oregon Viking]

First thoughts:

That sure a lot of bling

You got a free bush grill with that expanded

Chuck that moss

However you have to start some place right, should help you learn and develop on a tiny scale, your not going to get rich of course, but on the bright side you made a wise newby choice; no experience and you did not go out and buy something that you could not get your money worth out of. Cost effective.

GH mat is a good idea (I think their sample sizes will fit), but make sure you read up on it so you do not get something that needs lots of flow. Make you a nugget trap, my bad a picker trap for it, heck if you think you needed it then you could even hook up a box for a hand dredge to do some crevicing.

All in all, it looks like it will be fun, so staying cost effective and having fun you can check off; and who knows if you really get in to it later down the road that could be set up for con cleaning.

I think if you went over to the sub forum Prospector Journals and kept us posted it would be pretty cool to follow and see how things turn out. A few mods and it will pay for its self.

I wish you the best of luck and hope you have lots of fun.

Did I mention that was a lot of bling. LOL

Sample sizes?

 

[Johnnybravo300]

Yes, get gold hog matting. Run your cons through with a variable setting of water so you can slowly turn it up as needed. Instant finish sluice you could control and run slowly but probably much faster than a miller table. Anything you'd lose wouldn't be worth worrying about I doubt.

 

[mike(swWash)]

Cute little critter...........
I'll give it an 8 on detail, 10 on dazzle and a 1 on mat type selection. What are the dimensions?
Use 100gph per inch of width of sluice mat for a pump and vortex matting if grizzly is for -1/8"
Gold hog mats are also highly recommended with a little more gph per inch of width.

Time to scale up and be the envy of all who see it.

 

[Steve_the_pirate]

I'm getting some awesome feedback. I was kind of curious if depending on the matting if I could have it as a mini sluice for the river and bring it home for a quick setup change and make it a clean up sluice, maybe?

I will have to measure it because I don't remember the exact sizes. I believe it's 4 inch wide by 24 inch long. I believe the grizzlies are setup for 1/4 or at least that's what I was told haha but I do believe they are bigger than an 1/8. Gold hog matting seems like a great product and I'm very excited to get my hands on a few matts. I really want to get my personal flow together before I move to bigger and better but I see a bazzoka in my future haha

I really enjoy this site, I will try and contribute haha but since its winter and, well, permafrost and ice is lame haha. Oh, and that's just a regular old skateboard, nothing flashy about her, just wanted to use it for scale reference

 

[Johnnybravo300]

A 2 lb mini bazooka would take more material all day and be much faster without packing batteries and an engine, hoses, etc....
Just my opinion but leave it at home and use it to process your cons during the winter.
Instead of lugging that thing around you could take extra food and water, some beers, a chair, another bazooka, extra buckets. Anything else would be more productive.
It's all about efficiency brother, and once you carry that through the woods a few times climbing over logs and through bushes and sweating your balls off, you'll hate gold prospecting in no time. I see a productive tool in some ways but it's a garage tool honestly.
Digging for gold usually involves moving as much material as you can and that involves processing it. That tool would work but would be super slow.
Plus you'll be tinkering with that thing all summer trying to set it up. Get the bazooka and save that for winter work.
It will take you some experience to get that set up correctly and you'll lose alot of gold before you catch very much.

Just my $.02,....

 

[kcm]

Just make sure to call Gold Hog and talk with them. They have different styles of matting for different purposes. Some people use the same exact selection of mats, but maybe in a different order as per their location/needs. And by all means, that little unit would be perfect for using in the field and then again for cleanup, using the correct matting for each task.

 

[johnedoe]

I'm thinking of 1000 gp/h. Too keep the mobile aspect I'm going to get a battery and inverter as well.

1000 GPH is overkill for a 4" wide sluice.... 500 will more than handle the needs. which will also let you use a smaller lighter battery.... But really you should just fix the thing up to be cleanup sluice because no matter what ya do it ain't gonna cut it in the field..... I could process more with my EZ pan.
Just some thoughts.

I will say though..... You did an excel job in your fabrication.... Nicely done..

 

[Silversurfer79]

Definitely gold hog mats, I use in mine! Work great. I also use a 1100 gph pump I picked up on eBay for next to nothing. Basically use a little bigger than a vexilar size battery and it goes for at least 3 hours no problem. Good luck!

 

[mike(swWash)]

4x24 is a great clean up sluice size(ditch the top classifier). You can buy 1 cleaning mat from doc and 1 striping mat and you'll have a mini-mini multi sluice. perfect for when you get some good cons from your next size high banker that's also using hog mats.

 

[Steve_the_pirate]

I appreciate everyone's 2 cents. I'm getting a good idea of what's up. I do recognize that she wouldn't be the most efficient mini sluice but I really like having it as a back up to the days I won't be able to use my river if it's just too low or too raging. My goal is to get a zooka, thinking the sniper, and use that for my efficient days and my mini on my concentrate days or the days I just want to be casual.

I really can't wait to pick up a good variable speed pump. It would be great if I needed a smaller pump and all that jazz but I want to have a pump for a while so I don't want to cheap out to much haha. So what would be best? I've been looking at submersible aquarium pumps, yay/nay?

Thanks again for the support, once again I wish I didn't get this during winter, I'm just itching to get out there haha

 

[Goldwasher]

Anything that can be buried by one pans worth of material isn't for field use...Just sayin'

You don't need an inverter you can go direct to battery.

your best battery option is sealed lead acid. Security system, electric fence, power wheels, back up light.
Go to home depot or lowes to the electric gate opener area. There is a battery that is under thirty bucks get it. it will get you a couple hours of run.

You want a bilge pump. for that size sluice you would want this pump. https://jet.com/product/detail/1189...14_kwd-4580015685521832:na:na:na:2&code=PLA15

put the lowest profile matt you can. Gold Hog is your best bet. but cheapest would be deep vmat. Or smaller expanded over shallow vmat.

That's a clean up sluice theres nothing you can do about that. If you have an old battery and a (charger alone is ok but, not better) your a pump and a few tubs away from a decent clean up station at home.

You can then focus on actually hitting the field with a tool that will out produce that little guy constantly. A gold pan. Because I promise you a gold pan is more productive.

I don't know what state your in but, if your in fine gold country that sluice is going to slow you down quite a bit. If your in regular gold country it is going to slow you down a lot.

Not trying to be harsh Just don't want you do drop a lot of money on something that your gonna end up using at home anyway.

Don't get a big pump planning on restricting it. And don't buy pricey ones because they both wear out with use.

 

[Steve_the_pirate]

Great tip, not too harsh for me at all. The last thing I want to do is spend too much money on a mobile solution when it would be a better clean up sluice. I was planning on getting a con sluice last, maybe I got it first haha. I really don't want to get out there once and end up hating it, I'm trying to get all my ducks in a row if you know what I mean.

I actually live in Canada. So I'all have some research to do and what some of the best places around me are but sadly I have about 5 months to figure it out haha