Water fed nozzle - built my own. Works amazingly well!

Washington Gold

Jr. Member
Oct 30, 2014
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Would the forum members like to see pictures? I built it from brass and galvanized parts from Home Depot, works incredibly well with my Keen 2" dredge. Adjustable water feed to nozzle inlet.
Inspired by the Hyrdo-Force nozzle, cost me $80 vs $250

Water nozzle feed uses this:

TKrolLBSR.1.jpg
 

Love the ingenuity please post pics of your build I may want to make one as well.
 

The black tape where the bypass flex hose attaches and the pressure hose and intake hose attach?
There ONLY to protect my neoprene chest waders from gettin' ripped up. Pressure hose has a 1 1/2" screw coupling, intake hose has the band clamp.
Tape by the nozzle holds the jet nozzle discharge in position as an experimental stage to see how close/far away I want it from the intake. Don't want it too close to the nozzle intake or ya smoosh it pushing gravel. too far away means a good dose of splashing.
I think I have it about right as is.

Changes to be made? I want to place the bypass nozzle output jet on TOP of the suction pipe; dredging on the bank yesterday resulted in runoff going below the intake nozzle; you want the runoff going from ABOVE and INTO the nozzle :icon_thumleft:
 

Downside? I'll bet this unit is about 3 lbs heavier than the real McCoy
 

That's pretty cool WaAU, so it works though? you can use it out of the water? Fascinating, I think that I have enough parts laying around that I may try that, thanks for the tip on where to place the output. Great Job new member and welcome to the forum.
 

Problem is then you get stuck with the crappy sticky pvc valve, plus a pvc setup fractures much too easily.
I drive 122 miles to mine, failures gotta be minimized!
 

So ya Stocks, use it out of the water -

The nozzle spray is a pretty direct and powerful jet (comparison....uhm...think of a giant taking a full bore pee perhaps?) - that allows for water flow to the point where you get plenty of water AND plenty of suction.
You can also stand straight up and hydraulic the heck outta the spot you are working.
 

Additional thing: The tacky black tape covers up *male/female hose end fittings* for the reinforced clear pressure nozzle hose. Hose clamps secure it, covered so I don't rip up the wader$:thumbsup:
 

You should post some of your other builds, sure this is not your first
 

WG , now that you have a working proto-type , you might consider having a welder [or plumber ] braze one or two together. Cut down on the joints and weight . Good job .
 

Went to bedrock area on new claim, used the nozzle to BLAST the cracks - man this works well!
 

Messin' around for the camera :laughing7:

You can see how she works, blasting nozzle is nearly full on

Craig the crazy dredger.jpg
 

Great build great picture. Cheers!
 

Looks good :) There's not going to be enough water coming from that hose to be able to run directly from it, from what I can see so mounting it above even though it is best, will not make that much difference. I made one similar to yours but I use an HP400 or HP500 pump if running the 3" highbanker. It shows the blaster part in operation at 12:30 into the movie :)
 

You do not want to 100% truly run a gusher directly from it in the truest sense .......because then too much water is taken from the sluice itself - and is too great and the intermittent/blast out the box action with on / off valve movements.

Which is why I made the nozzle smaller. By the way, just remove the nozzle end and replace with a larger dia nozzle for more water flow

Now, I CAN run directly from it quite easily as the speed of that water jet is massive, combined with the fact that this is NOT a power jet setup (Keene-speak for where the water pump inlet is near the box vs current setup where water inlet is via nozzle inlet)
I can fill a hole with water and hydraulic down the hole as in the video above, not as much water. This is a 2" dredge as the areas here in WA State favor the smaller scale stuff as most places are streams
 

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