Angus mackirk boss sluice!

Hey ya all just an update on my new purchase sluice, was planning to make one over summer but for the price thought this was comparable and a reasonable buy.
Gave it a quick run on the weekend down Daylesford way ( much thanks to Ron who pointed me in the right direction as I haven't prospected down there at all, and then had much pleasure in meeting him actually on site at the creek!)and am very happy with its performance!
The creek was drying up very quick with little flow but I was determined to try and make it work.
We set it up at the end of a rather large pool of water and dug a channel to try and get maximize flow.
We sieved our pay dirt down to quarter inch as we knew the flow was limited and the smaller the material would clear more easily!
We probably only had 25 mm of water running over the riffles although they recommended 40 to 50mm, the sluice was also set probably steeper than recommended also.
Was happy to see when come clean up time two lead shotgun pellets sitting behind the first riflfle! Along with the heavy sands etc!
Yes it was working! And yes we got nice colour, nothing big but gold alas! And how nice it is as a father to get the kids outdoor and enjoy the amazing countryside and give them some gold they can call there own! That is priceless!
I would fully recommend these sluices, very light and easy to carry, a flared opening that helps with water flow and a big one no carpet or miners moss etc to wash out before panning, simply just wash your concentrates straight into a bucket ready to pan!

Much thanks to ag man also and his recommendation of this sluice! Hope to get a picker like he did one day!
Enjoy life all, cheers

Enjoy life and remember, " all you can muster in search of that lustre"

Well done BB, I use the Foreman, one size down from the Boss and love how they work, will probably also but one of their narrower models (if I can find a supplier) which tend to be better suited to lower water flows.
Good to see a few of the 'locals' getting together (bit hard for us to get to Nundle for long weekend), changed my beach detecting plans and actually went to Creswick via Daylesford looking for Ron but didn't have the exact location.
Did meet up with a Ballarat local at who was into fossicking for gemstones... the first pan full I say him clean out contained both gold and gemstones must say I was impressed considering it was next to the carpark!!
Great first up effort with the Angus,
Cheers Tom

Oh yes Tom he mentioned trying to catch up with a few of you guys, and was sorry he missed you I think a bit of confusion with the meeting place! He was very helpful and a real gentlemen.
Sounds like your day went well, yeh gold and gems in the first dish! Who wouldn't be happy with that!
Hope to see you around sometime soon

Great report bryza. Thanks.
It seems everyone using the AM sluices are happy with them.
Light, simple to clean up, work with lower water flow...

Ramjet said:

Great report bryza. Thanks.
It seems everyone using the AM sluices are happy with them.
Light, simple to clean up, work with lower water flow...

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I have the "RECON" and after 4 expeditions have her "tuned in"

casper

Geez Brian, now I wanna buy one. You did ok at your first outing with it.

Can you send me some details. I might add one to my arsenal,,, or is that collection,,,
Hopefully they're not too pricey. After all, they are mostly plastic.

I should be able to use my pump setup with one.

Cheers, Ron.

I use the "boss" as well and love it. The gold recovery rate is fantastic and its fairly flexible and forgiving with how you set it up. I've got a couple of youtube videos up of mine in action for first timers to watch. I'm sure it won't be long before you are loading up the gold!

Adam

RottenRon said:

Geez Brian, now I wanna buy one. You did ok at your first outing with it.

Can you send me some details. I might add one to my arsenal,,, or is that collection,,,
Hopefully they're not too pricey. After all, they are mostly plastic.

I should be able to use my pump setup with one.

Cheers, Ron.

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The prices vary from just under $100 to somewhere around $240ish for the models available to buy here in Australia. I believe there are a few places you can pick up Angus Mackirk sluices in Australia now.

I got mine from prospectingsupplies.com.au, the business owner Geoff Strang was particularly helpful with advice and recommendations and took the time to explain to me, which was really helpful considering I didn't really understand the lingo and had zero experience.

This is a link to the sluices available on his online shop.
http://www.prospectingsupplies.com.au/category/72-sluices.aspx

I'd just like to be clear I have no affiliation with the business, I'm a satisfied customer only!

In regards to running them off a pump they can be a little tricky to get right. In my experience you can run a Mackirk with vastly varying amounts of water, however I think most experienced Mackirk users would probably agree more water (within reason of course) is better than less water. In some situations where depth and flow simply aren't available you can run the Mackirks a bit lean, it typically means you need to classify down a bit smaller and slow the feedrate to allow the inlet to clear. Ideally, with my "Boss" I try and achieve minimum 50mm of water at the inlet and when possible even more, right up to 10mm below the top of the sluice. With more water the sluices will clear much better, process larger material (as there is plenty of water volume to push bigger rocks through) and are far less prone to waves and water surface disturbance going through the sluice, achieving ideal depth with nice smooth even flow using a pump can be quite challenging.

I dodgied up these couple of designs a while back, trying to get a few ideas on how to provide the Mackirk with a smooth, even, non-turbulent water flow, not sure if they'd actually work, just a couple ideas I had that never made it into a prototype.

Hi E'Grease and others,
Trying to set up the AM at home with an 'artificial' water flow does seem to be a challenge.
GOLDdigg has a Vid in his post of what he has done, looks to be a start.
I've tried mine, just spraying water out of the hose straight onto the tray, ordinary at best, also filled a few buckets and just poured them straigh onto the tray while feeding cons ... still ordinary BUT even doing this a nice picker stayed put in the feed tray ... if nothing else just goes to show how much water it takes to move gold.
Will keep trying, like some of your drawings all help with ifdeas.
Cheers Tom

Well I did it. I bought a MacKirk.

Big Bryza, your fault. Now my collection of equipment is even bigger.

Seriously though, after that previous post of mine at 9.18 yesterday, I decided to have a look on line and see what they were worth, the "Boss" version anyway.
The new price is $180, so I thought I'd take a look on ebay. Lo and behold, there's a near new one for $120, "Buy it now", so I "bought it then",, lol. I paid straight away with my Pay Pal account, figuring I could pick it up from the seller at Bacchus Marsh during the week.

The seller and I traded emails, resulting in the realization, that we met at Sailor's Ck, Daylesford the previous Saturday. The seller turned out to be EternalChase, Mark. What's more, he dropped it off going past my place on his way home, sweet. Small world aye.

Anyway, thanks for your ideas Adam, especially the need to smooth the flow evenly over the tray. I'm gunna pay Bunnings a visit after work tommorrow and pick up a few bits. I reckon I might just squeeze enough flow out of my 2000 gal/hr bilge pump. If so, it'll be a doddle to set it up anywhere, even as a recirculating system here in the Van park.

Good luck with yours too Tom.

One idea I have is to knock up a clamp arrangement to hold a slotted 25 or 32mm pvc tube across the flare. Make the slot wide enough not to "squirt" the water out, but flow evenly for its full length. Rotating the slot from pointing slightly upwards to down, whatever suits. I also have a 20mm tube full of rare earth magnets I can put across the sluice just before where it narrows down to minimum. I plan to keep it up about 1/2" or so off the bottom. Adding the material upstream of the magnets I figure will help smooth the water flow and even out my 1/4 classified material. With a bit of luck, it might even eliminate a fair percentage of that pesky black sand. From what I've seen, there can still be a fair amount of really fine "flour" gold trapped with the black sand, so I intend to save the first few lots of sand, just to see if there's enough to warrant retrieval.

Hopefully I can get it up and running by Saturday.

See you all at the bakery in Daylesford on Sat if your keen, otherwise, somewhere near the powerline crossing at Sailors Creek.

Tom, if you need directions, just PM me, or give me a call. You have my number from Saturday.

Cheers, Ron.

Oh yeah, is anyone thinking about my idea to camp out Saturday night?

Bugger, had to delete my double post.

I have found this simple method of providing pumped water works well with the Grubsteak.

Thanks for that, looks great, what size pump is driving your setup .... will buy the Grubstake as a second unit.
Being only 6 inches wide it obviously requires much less water.
Cheers Tom

Nice going lads.
In general you don't hear anything negative about the MacKirks - Google trying to find bad feedback...

Anyway, Look on the MacKirk Website at their complete range & if your local distributor doesn't have what you want in stock, Contact MacKirk directly & they'll post out what you want promptly & usually cheaper than what you can get them for here.
I got mine from the manufacturer 8days after paying & cheap cheap

mdv said:

I have found this simple method of providing pumped water works well with the Grubsteak.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-...AAAAAAAACgQ/77q6pqTI00I/s640/DSC03536_DxO.jpg

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thats the go mate nice and simple, have you tried running it into a pan and testing your tailings?

Cheers everyone and thanks for your ideas! Good one Ron what a great price well done! Yes am very happy with the sluice! Love that idea mdv simple and effective might look at doing that in the future! Good luck everyone out there

Ok guys, I couldn't help myself.
Called in to Bunnings on the way home. $32 later, I've got fittings, pvc pipe, glue and foam door seal.

The end result,,,

25mm pvc tube. Bottom tube not glued in so free to rotate outlet slot angle.

Overall view of Boss Mac Kirk. Note 19mm tube is filled with rare earth magnets, hopefully to pull most of the black sand out. Gap under it is about 12mm. Held in place by taper of sluice and two screws in behind. It just clips in, not screwed in.

Rear view. brown material is an offcut of Composite Ecodeck material, weather proof, (hopefully waterproof for a while). 4 screws through the back and straight into the bends. Foam door seal between Ecodeck board and sluice.

Undo wingnuts, unclip magnet tube, 20 seconds and its back to a plain ol river sluice. There's about 150mm between magnet tube and outlet slot. Should be wide enough to ladle the 1/4" classified material into.

Gunna run my 2000 gal/hr bilge pump on it. I'll let you all know next week if it worked ok, unless you come out to Sailors Ck. Daylesford next Saturday and check it out for yourself.

Cheers, Ron.

hey ron looks good mate if you find your water pressure is too strong to flatten out wrap the outlet in some miners moss it works a treat.

G0lddigg@ said:

hey ron looks good mate if you find your water pressure is too strong to flatten out wrap the outlet in some miners moss it works a treat.

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Thanks for the tip. I'm hoping that rotating the slot to the bottom, back, or even straight up to bounce the flow off the top tube, might work. If not, I'll give it a bash.
I'm thinking of setting it up with a couple of buckets tonight to try and tweak it before I get out to Sailors.
Cheers, Ron.

good call, i got mine to work mate but had to run two 1500 gph pumps and has her very flat indeed, just an fyi this weekend mate sailors has stopped running completely i'm sure you know where the pols are though might even see you down that way at some stage