sidewinder sluice box

[3xflyfisher]

Hi all,

I curious if any of you have seen the you-tube videos of a new concept in sluice boxes called the "sidewinder".
This unit does not use riffles and captures heavies along with some lighter material in built in eddies. It looks like it does capture more lighter material than a traditional design but the makers claim it is great for the super fine gold many of us are after. I don't think it is being sold yet but am curious as to everyone's thoughts on this thing. Google "sidewinder sluice box" for the you-tube vids.

HH and have a great day.

3xflyfisher

 

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[buckfynn]

I've seen the vids on you tube. I would like to see a comparison against an A52 to see how it fairs for recovery before I would get excited about one.

 

[3xflyfisher]

Buck,
That's where I saw them too. A side by side comparison would be good. I would also like to see the Bazooka tested in this comparison as well.
3xflyfisher

 

[latnem]

Yeah I have seen these videos as well. Interesting design but not sure how effective it is. Thing is probably gonna be difficult to mass produce with that shape.

 

[johnedoe]

Seems like somebodies latest greatest marketing scheme...........

 

[charlotte49er]

I received mine last Tuesday.

Sidewinder Sluice (R)

Sidewinder sent me one to try out. (It's good to be in the prospecting/metal detecting business. LOL)

This sluice is an absolute Beast! (In a good way) Powder coated - TIG welded - Stainless Steel! Weighs 24 lbs and is 5' tall! I doubt that you will ever have to pile a rock on top. (Or maybe even buy another sluice as long as you live!) It's like taking an M1A1 tank to a gun fight!

One of the points that I immediately liked was, it's veratility. It comes with expanded metal over carpet over "V" matting. If you are working an area primarily containing fine gold, you can just use the matting. If you have pickers and flakes, leave the expanded metal and carpeting in.

I plan on testing it on Nov 3rd & 4th at our Gold Festival. (I think I can talk someone in to do that for me.)

I'll take pics.

 

[B H Prospector]

Mr. 49er,
I don't know how you can promote the sidewinder without trying it out first. I've seen the videos and it seems to me to be a gimmick sluice. It will be just like a real stream. Once the inside bend fills, in this case about 5 bends, the rest of the gold goes right out the end.As in a real stream once the gravel bar fills up the gold just keeps moving to the next bend etc. etc. You will spend as much time in clean up as youi will running dirt. Just my observation from the videos i"ve seen.

Good Luck!

BH Prospector

 

[Doug Watson]

A 24# Sluice? You've got to be kidding! Packing stuff is bad enough as it is.

 

[nuggetshooter323]

I've been keeping an eye on them for a while, and it seems like they've had so much trouble getting their product to this point. In my opinion I think the design just doesn't work all that great. At best it may be only good in slow water. All the utube video's were of them feeding the sluice, and showing the action of the water and material, but I really don't remember any clean-up's to show captured gold and what mesh size. And like Doug said, a 24lbs sluice at 5', WOW!! They better put some pack straps on that sucker or else nobody's going to be dragging that thing around very far(a dolly maybe?). With plastic sluices around like they are, you'd think that Sidewinder would have at least used plastic instead of powdercoated aluminum. It's probably at least twice the price it should be and that powdercoating is going to get all scratched up and crappy looking on the first outing.

 

[charlotte49er]

Isn't that why we test machinery guys? To find out how good or bad it is. If we didn't, we all still be using pans and sluices lined with Lamb's Fleece like the Egyptians. I don't recall that I said that it was the best sluice or the end all.

I said I was impressed with it's veratility. I like machinery that you can change based on the conditions.

In the end, I can only give them and y'all my honest opinion. I'm not going to run something down that I was given to test without testing it. Truth is, I don't know how it's going to do in the stream. I can't condemn it until I see it in action. They already told me that there are plans in the work to reduce the weight. I can only guess what it is. However, first, I have to see how it works.

 

[nuggetshooter323]

Charlotte49er, I'm not running you down for doing your job (i do envy you), I'm just giving my opinion on the whole Sidewinder thing.

 

[charlotte49er]

Charlotte49er, I'm not running you down for doing your job (i do envy you), I'm just giving my opinion on the whole Sidewinder thing.

I understand. I watched the videos a year ago May as well. However, I can't make a judgement on how it performs until it goes in the creek. When I get something to review, I have to keep an open mind and report it as I see it. The big mistake I made was giving some of my initial observation.

 

[Oakview2]

I didn't really see any endorsement of its performance, only your comments on how well it was built. Given that it hasn't touched water, that was all you could comment on. I believe the one poster assumed maybe a little too much. The proof will be in the testing on a creek. I look forward to hearing your results. It doesn't look like it would work for me, just it mere length and weight makes my back hurt this morning...

 

[nuggetshooter323]

Somebody else actully made another "sidewinder" type sluice from plastic. It was being advertised in the GPAA magazine for several months, but I guess Sidewinder had the patent and took them to court and won. That design actually looked more portable and easier to clean.

 

[63bkpkr]

I will be interested to see how it actually works and how long it will run before needing a cleanout AND to learn if it looses any type of gold to the safety pan. Once that info is in then we will have an idea of what the design will do out in the field.

As far as the 24 lbs and 5' in length well, I've packed in an entire 2" Keene portable dredge along with the rest of my camping supplies and that was down two different mountain trails so things like that can be accomplished but it is NOT easy. I do agree that it will be a more manageable unit after they've reduced the weight and I would like to see it be in two pieces each about 2.5' in length. The comment that the product is well made is also a valuable input.

And to 49er, thank you for sharing the picture of this unit and we will all be waiting impatiently to hear about your trial results. Hope the Nov. festival works out well for you and if you have a chance to share some interesting pictures of "new stuff" I for one would appreciate your taking the time to post them along with your initial thoughts about what you see there.

63bkpkr

 

[lcollins]

Hello Everyone!

Just want to say Thank You Charlotte49er, for offering your innitial opinion of the durability and showing a nice picture!
We are certain that you will retrieve more micron Gold than you have ever thought possible....In Fact, you should be able to
capture lots of micron Gold from any other sluice tailings that you have the opportunity to test.

We have been testing our various models for over 2 years now, and we have just recently offered two sizes of the river models to the public.
We have captured flour Gold smaller than 150 mesh from every other sluice box tailings that we have tested.
Many folks have labeled our sluices as gimmicks or scams, and we realize that it may be difficult to understand that there will always be better ways to achieve success in the quest for micron gold.....The good folks that have had the opportunity to use our sluices, understand quite well!
Please take a look at this video and all of you may get a little better understanding:


We hope to become good friends with all of you very soon!
Take Care
Ed & Sharon

 

[NeoTokyo]

I think it is a good looking sluice as far as design goes.

Someone said that the gold will fill up in the corners and wash out, this simply wont happen in an average days use unless you found stupid amounts of gold and the mesh filled up too, talking ounces here.
Being a self cleaning sluice the lighter stuff will flow out leaving the gold behind.


I would love to test this thing out up here where we have lots of chunky gold.

I was sent a TeeDee E-Z sluice to test out this week, I will be posting that up.
Keene A52 sluice vid is up and the first Bazooka vid is up too.
Just love testing these things.


Keep up the good work Ed and Sharon, and please keep in mind a welded plastic model made out of the same stuff the Bazooka is made from.

-Eric-

 

[lcollins]

I think it is a good looking sluice as far as design goes.

Someone said that the gold will fill up in the corners and wash out, this simply wont happen in an average days use unless you found stupid amounts of gold and the mesh filled up too, talking ounces here.
Being a self cleaning sluice the lighter stuff will flow out leaving the gold behind.


I would love to test this thing out up here where we have lots of chunky gold.

I was sent a TeeDee E-Z sluice to test out this week, I will be posting that up.
Keene A52 sluice vid is up and the first Bazooka vid is up too.
Just love testing these things.


Keep up the good work Ed and Sharon, and please keep in mind a welded plastic model made out of the same stuff the Bazooka is made from.

-Eric-

Hello Eric
You are absolutely right!......The bends of the Sidewinder Sluices build up material in a layering fashion, (by specific gravity)...The lighter material is constantly stirred and steadily washed and stratified, eventually washing away in the flow path. There are known limits of heavies, (which can be periodically removed while the sluice is in operation), when the bends become full. It depends entirely on the area you are working.
We have been able to run over 3 cubic yards of material through a 4ft model, (highbanker), in one afternoon and recovered 1/2 of a 5gallon bucket of black sand.....the yield was a little over 4 grams of Gold.....lots of garnets....some lead....some mercury.
The video that is shown here, was taken along Clear Creek and there were two, five gallon buckets of material run through the sluice, (pre-screened to 3/16"), In 1-1/2 hours....we recovered just over 1 gram of Gold smaller than 30 mesh.....majority of the gold was minus 100 mesh.
We are planning to build some small, plastic, models that will be for sampling and backpacking, etc.
They will be plastic injection molded.
For now, we are only offering serious, indestructable, models that can take a lifetime of torture, and handle tons of material.

Take Care
Ed & Sharon

 

[nickmarch]

Ed,
Did you make the video with the glass jar? Showing the higher specific gravity at the bottom with the gold being dead center on the bottom of the jar?

 

[nuggetshooter323]

Being a Colorado prospector like Ed & Sharon, I know that most of the gold here is smaller than 50 mesh, even more at 100 and below. I know that when I was using Hungarian riffles I was losing most of the fines. If I saw fines, I knew I lost at least that much or more. I be intrested to see how far down the sluice that the gold is reaching, and how often the clean-ups have to be done. Eric, the flow in their video looked really fast, and with the amount of black sand here in Colorado, you can't blow out black sand with that kind of flow and not lose fine gold, also, you can't trap fine gold in expanded metal and matting without constant clean-ups. It's not going to be gold clogging up the corners of the Sidewinder, blacksand will be. In the video, when they did the clean-up, I don't think that was concentrate from three or four yards of material, it was probably from no more than a five gallon bucket. I have a Grizzly Sluice III, and I have to clean it about every two shovels, but I don't mind because I know I'm getting micro gold with it. I don't think you can call the Sidewinder a true self cleaning sluice, because you have to classify the material to 8 mesh, my lower back is yelling at me just thinking about it.
I respect Ed & Sharon for how far they've come with this project, and I wish them luck. If they come up with small a plastic one I'll probably get one to try it out if the miners testing it like it.

Someone said that the gold will fill up in the corners and wash out, this simply wont happen in an average days use unless you found stupid amounts of gold and the mesh filled up too, talking ounces here.
Being a self cleaning sluice the lighter stuff will flow out leaving the gold behind.

-Eric-