rocker box/gold cradle

[JKUBen73]

happy sunday all. wanted to see if anyone had suggestions or links for DIY rocker box. trying to build one & found a set of plans online very poor print quality & alot of the measurements dont jive with each other. any info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Ben.

 

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[Bodfish Mike]

Ben - just do a google image search to get some ideas.
Then build one with what is laying around or easy to get.
Make it you own - it ain't rocket science.
I built one and used it a spot that had low water flow.
It was Slow but it got the gold.
Cheers Mike

 

[JKUBen73]

Thank you mike for the feedback. I was going that route of just going for it.I have no problem building just wanted to get angles correct & such. Thanks again for taking the time to respond. good day, Ben.

 

[arizau]

Thank you mike for the feedback. I was going that route of just going for it.I have no problem building just wanted to get angles correct & such. Thanks again for taking the time to respond. good day, Ben.

The main thing to know about rocker boxes is that the primary capture zone should be the apron and not riffles on the bottom of the box as you see in some google searches. Design the apron in such a way that it concentrates the black sand, gold and other heavies in a pocket that sags from a 4 sided frame that slants to the rear of the bottom. The rocking motion will slosh the material in the pocket and concentrate the heavies while ejecting the lights and pebbles....similar results compared to production panning. The bottom is a secondary recovery area but carpet, maybe mesh and a riffle or two makes it more effective.

Good luck

 

[N-Lionberger]

The apron is the primary recovery area as stated above. Look at old rocker boxes from back in the day no two are exactly alike but most did not have riffles in the “sluice” area, most often they just had a lip at the end of the box. the action of the box is that of a large gold pan having carpet and mesh actually can mess with the action, I tried it several ways in my homemade boxes the one with simple block riffles permanently affixed to the bottom worked the best on my little one, on my big one a single block riffle wedged in near the end with a piece of felt directly underneath the riffle purely there to seal the riffle to the box worked well. Punch plate in the hopper gets a better wash action, expanded let’s the water through too fast. Continuous operation yields best results if you need to stop and start again stick your finger into the collected heavies and loosen it all up before you get back to rocking.

 

[russau]

Riffle's wont work in a Rocker Box anyway! There's not enough water flow to get them to work! And there's a big name National prospecting club ( cant say the name !)that used to have those instruction's on their site

 

[N-Lionberger]

I have a book of the Buzzard somewhere that has those plans, they are not original to the Buzzard or his organization I believe they were originally printed up back when in the day when the state of California actively encouraged our kind. It’s a neat design really I want to make a mini version out of ABS plastic that I could operate with a hand powered bilge pump like the old gold grabber design but be able to disassemble it flat for packing into my secret spots. The plans in question detail a break down rocker box that uses threaded rods to hold it snug together.

 

[Hard Prospector]

If you read the historic records of the CA gold rush from 1848 to 1852, it became obvious that the rocker box and its efficiency was very poor. These areas were later "long tommed" and the amount of gold recovered from these previously "rocked" diggens was amazing. I believe its the rocking action that causes much of the gold to be lost.

Bear Bottom Mining makes this thing called the Grizzly Sluice 2, looks much like a rocker without the rocking. I bought one and was amazed by the gold recovery. Shouldn't be too hard to make one out of wood..... look it up.

 

[winners58]

Rocker Box

this page has a thorough basics of the rocker box
https://www.911metallurgist.com/blog/gold-rocker-box
.
another design is the Jack Swift river rocker
.
plans free to use not to be sold.......................... Photos from Bob Baldwin (RIP) North Bend Prospectors
View attachment Rocker Box 1.pdf

 

[N-Lionberger]

Appears the cat approves.