Gold Hog Mats

[aushunter]

Hey There Lads,

Man O Man I see heaps of potential here, I use a small sluice (Ezy Sluice) and it has a hard plastic riffles in the bottom.
As far as copy right, I don't think it is a problem due to the fact that you didn't measure these up from any hard copy or digital drawings, just basically traced over them not knowing if any of the dimensions are true - reverse engineering.
Also I reckon there is great possibility of creating a snap together system that you can interchange from whatever mat you wish to have for different type of material washing thru the box - don't glue them together, create a snap lock system that can interlock. Might be onto something here.

I hit the Boss up for a 3D printer this morning so hopefully I will get a new toy to play with at work.

Keep your mind open and create.

Cheers
Brad

 

[DigginForGold]

I gave a second of thought to some kind of snap together system also...literally like a sexond of thought and then moved on lol. After another second of thought Im not sure how I'd go about it, but Im sure I could come up with something given enough time

And GL with getting a printer. Sluice mats aside, its heaps of fun to play with.

 

[Occasional_panner]

Depending on the flexibility of the material, something like this might work.

@Headsup, did you mean to use the corn starch and silicone for the riffles or to make a mould?

 

[DigginForGold]

Yeah that kind of thing was my first thought, but the way it prints in layers means that the joins betweens layers are weak points and any kind of separating force can make it shear apart fairly easily. I split one of the mats this way by not triming the supporting material of the male part well enough. Easily fixed with some abs slurry but it highlighted that weakness.

 

[Occasional_panner]

Didn't you say they resisted being slid apart when in the banker anyway, you probably don't need them to click together.
If you really wanted to secure them a small hole drilled through and tie some thin wire or fishing line.

 

[DigginForGold]

Latest one done.

In the picture they are in the position they will be for use and as you can see there is a small gap down the bottom. Im thinking i can just make a solid piece for that space and glue it in to the sluice. This way I might not have to worry about the slight gaps down the sides of the mats, or getting the joins between absolutely sealed and perfect because anything that manages to get around the mats wont be able to exit the end of the sluice. If theres any gold there I'll just sucker it up. What do you think? That was why I wanted to join the mats together...tk ensure nothing gets through. But this way might let me keep them as individuals so I can swap and change for conditions?

 

[DigginForGold]

Didn't you say they resisted being slid apart when in the banker anyway, you probably don't need them to click together.
If you really wanted to secure them a small hole drilled through and tie some thin wire or fishing line.

Yeah they stay in place perfectly as is. No need for any drilling or securing. I guess the joins are for other mats I might come up with for other set ups where they might not stay in as well. Its all well and good that they stay in the highbanker that Im using now but I couldnt guarantee that for another set up in the future. Better to over "engineer" it than the opposite.

 

[DigginForGold]

Maybe something similar to this kind of methed would be the way to go?

 

[Occasional_panner]

Yeah that should work fine, now you just have to wait a year till the bloody creeks drop.

 

[B5MECH]

How about running a channeled end trap to catch anything that does sneak through that slides around the end of the sluice so it goes through 1 more riffle section before exit?
I think keeping them separate would be easier for clean up, could just drop them in a bucket of water

 

[DigginForGold]

Do you mean basically something like a single large u shaped channel? Yeah I should. Leaving it flat would be a waste, and I can still stick it in there as mentioned above.

 

[B5MECH]

That's it, to slide on the end so it can slide on and off so when you see gold there you can slide it off and clean it without touching the others if there not full yet, if the abs isn't strong enough reinforce it with a small alloy channel out side it

 

[aushunter]

https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/img/member-images/7956/1474000955_click.jpg

Depending on the flexibility of the material, something like this might work.

@Headsup, did you mean to use the corn starch and silicone for the riffles or to make a mould?

I like this idea better as I know that this will hold together and wont flutter or lift, losing gold.

 

[DigginForGold]

@B5MECH
Okay I think Im confused haha derp...well I know Im confused. So the end bit isnt glued? My thought was that thats whats ensures no gold escapes out the end. If the end bit is removable then wont it be just as good as rhe rest of the mats? Any the alloy channel...? Ugh. Help! I have no idea whats going on hahaha

@aushunter
Yeah I would tend to agree but the limits of the material would most likely prevent that kind of system. Back to the drawing board I suppose...

 

[B5MECH]

Um like a mini sluice that slides around the outside of the end of the sluice so as long as it fits neat it shouldn't lose anything, the extra alloy channel would be to reinforce the sidewalls of the abs end trap

sort of a mini sluice that slides around the outside of the sluice end. :lol: rough drawing The whole end piece printed with walls

 

[B5MECH]

So the trap would slide around the outside of the end about 3 inches in with maybe 4 inch of riffles that would be past the end of the sluice, I think gravity would stop the gold from going between the sluice and the end trap and getting out by traveling up

Alloy brackets glued to the abs channel with a sort of draw slide, slide on and slide off, it could be glued on but would be harder to clean the gold out

 

[DigginForGold]

Cheers mate. But busy atm but looks good at a quick glance. Might be worth a shot. Ill have a think about it later.

 

[bazxa]

Tape them as per goldhog, it makes a one piece mat reducing the chance of shearing. The gorilla tape is great. Can post photos 3 weeks when I return home

Barry

 

[XIV]

Believe it or not pink is a great colour to show gold it stands out like the proverbial I have been told

I'd believe that. Probably wont ever find out first hand thpugh

A slick plate in that design starts the liquefaction.
The ore drops straight down then starts running forwards before it hits the matting.
You will get better separation of your heavies with one.
If any thing, Put a boiler box in with a sloped outlet facing towards the matting.

Yeah thats what I would have thought but they confused me over there at the other forum. I'll have to consider the boiler box idea

Epic topic, great work PotOfGold! Looking forward to hearing how it runs!

Haha thanks Hopefully it doesnt turn out to be an epic failure!

Now you have me thinking. firstly how are you going to clean it out, as it is solid.
2nd, if you where to print out the same thing, but in reverse, you could use it as a mold, and if that's the case, not only would it be flexible and easy to clean out, it would be 1 solid mat.

Firstly, way ahead or you Have been looking into maybe making a mould and then doing it with a 2 part liquid polyurethane. Its not cheap but should make better mat. Theres so many differnt types with different hardness and stuff so Im a little overwhelmed and am not sure whoch one to use but I sent of a couple of emails so hopefully they'll get back to me with some advice. If anyone else has any advice on what I shoukd use please let me know. Secondly, I dont really get how its solidness is going to make it hard to clean out. Ill clean it out as I do my AM sluice which is also hard...I'll tilt it on its side and splash water over it. On top of that there is some flex so I can bend it and open up the riffles a little which should be enough to stop anything jamming in there. This is why I used ABS instead of PLA. PLA is hard and brittle. Drop it and it shatters. ABS on the other hand is hard, but also has some flex so it will bend rather than shatter if droped from a height.
Not really sure how printing out a mould would make it one solit mat either? I mean, I can still only print a max size of 200 200mm...so it would have to be a mould for each mat which I still have to join. Unless I print out parts of a mould and then join those parts together post print. I was thinking that I could print em out normally as individuals, join em together, get some liquid silicone, press the mold into itnand make a mold from the silicone, then get the polyurethane and pour it into the silicone mould giving me one large solid but flexible mat. Its and idea but not sure if it would work.

I would glue them together with Sikaflex.
Rough the joining area's up a bit them join them.
That way you can separate them later with a bit of effort.

Do you think I'll want to separate them? I figure that it may be better to test with them unjoined as I may want to rearrange them, but once I've found the order of things I figure it might be easier to have it as one piece. Hmm...

EDIT: Also, I plan on trying to design and test my own mats soon just for the fun of it so not sure how long a I'll be using these anyways.

Just make up 2 or 3 configuration join them together untill you have length . Pour and 1 large mat.

 

[DigginForGold]

Yep thats what Im going to do I'll print in PLA, join them and fill in any seams then will make the mould from that. Still investigating and deciding what material to use to make the mats...Polyurethane or EPDM Rubber. Leaning towards the PU since I can only find black EPDM in Aus...I want to be able to add colourants to make it green. A green mat is a must. Black would be the last colour I choose since you can't readily see the black sands against it. We'll see though since the EPDM is a little cheaper...its a compromise I may just have to make.

And here you can see the latest flouro green section. Ugh. Ugly haha. Oh well.

Also, once the mats are all printed I am also going to modify the hopper on my HB...Im going to make it a little taller and wider with all new spray bar setup. Tis going to be a whole new beast