Matting at head of sluice

[Cameronpatrol]

Hi all
After seeing a fair few videos of sluicing
It appears theres a fair few people running fine ribbed Matt at the head of the sluice.
So I went and got hold of some and have cut it to suit my sluice.
The question is do people have them removable or are they glued down?
I filled my mininsluice the whole way down and will be running it as my Moss.
But on my larger sluice its just at the mouth so I can see whats being caught early in the game.

Chances are it will float away without anything holding it in lol.
I guess it wouldnt be such a bad thing to glue it, as it would be pulled apart for cleanup anyway.
Thoughts and advice appreciated
Cheers cam

 

[moeee]

Whatever way you decide , try and prevent material or water getting underneath.
My mat is not glued down but I do a clean up every 10 minutes or less of actual running so its not an issue.
If you gonna run it for long period , best makes sure you put your bead of glue right around , close to the edge.

 

[Cameronpatrol]

thanks for your reply moeee.
Its a snug fit.
I'm too impatient to do one cleanup lol so having removable would be good.
Had an idea to keep the leading edge down on the sluice, I have plastic srips at work I can slide on.
But to get me out tomrow ive also got some narrow hose I might slice and slide over the leading edge.
its heavy matting but my luck would have it floating away or just being a pain in the bum moving around.
see how I go.

 

[Matt80]

I tend to find the ribbed rubber matting wants to stay down on its on its own as long as it's a snug fit, but definitely best if you can use something to hold it down, at very least the front edge if your going to be running a lot of material or water(amount of water flow can vary a lot between different sluice designs).

Personally l use the ribbed rubber matting as a guide to show me what's in the material lm running(amount of black sands or other indicators), it will catch gold, but l leave most of the capture to the miners moss. The ribbed matting also makes it easy to see how l might need to adjust the water flow(side to side or more or less).

I'm not personally in favour of gluing them in, you can if you want, but you may find you want a different setup in different areas so being able to quickly pull up the current matting and use a different type can be very useful.

 

[brendomac]

You could use a couple of bulldog clips right at the front. I saw it in somebody's youtube vid recently.

 

[Cameronpatrol]

So in got out yesterday.
Not one spec of gold but I had fun and learnt not to go back in a hurry lol.
I scrounged upna piece of narrow hose and cut a slit in it, then slid it over the sluice and rubber Matt.
Did the trick but the rest was lifting up.
I think I might double side tape it down so it can be removed if needed.
I just wanted it for an indicator as to what may have gone through.
Im dalebating wether to spend some coin and scrap the whole riffle and matting setup.
I like the look of the gold hog or the owl matting.
Im more of a visual type of person lol
Like to see whats happening and whats been trapped.
Plus quicker cleanups and less parts to stuff around with.
Quicker the cleanup the quicker I can get back to having fun and digging holes.

Side note I think ill run a wire brush over the new rubber matting as its very shiny and slippery.

Cheers cam

 

[moeee]

i myself go out about every 3 weeks , but I always get at least a few specs.

Could you post a few photos of your sluice head with and without the mat ?
Perhaps a member can assist you better then.

Don't scrap the set up unless it is losing gold.
I myself built my own sluice and used rubber matting the entire length the sluice - why ? - because the gold in the area is only tiny and I also like to clean up often and quickly so I can see if I found any gold
Just know that the rubber mat doesn't "work" material like riffles do - it fills quickly and needs to be cleaned often.

Not sure about the wire brush - once you have roughened it , and say it ruins the mat , there's no undoing it.
It will prolly get rougher as you use it anyway.

 

[Cameronpatrol]

I normally get something
This was a completely new area and was a lot of hard work. Tons of big rocks.
Ill try to put up some pics tonight.

Its not losing gold it works pretty well, Id just like to clean up often and see whats happening.
Not sure if its impatients or just excited to see what has appeared lol bit of both I think.
Cheers cam

 

[moeee]

Well i reckon a single clean up is just plain diggin' and work and no fun.

Diggin' interspersed with lots of clean ups and makes the process enjoyable.

It's like eating your favourite food a little at a time and making the taste and pleasure last.
Instead of wolfin' the whole lot down and once and the pleasure is large but short lived.

 

[Cameronpatrol]

Yeah your not wrong.
Half the time I could probably pan it out, but hey I have a sluice I want to use it then swing the pan.
Something hypnotic watching the sands dance around lol
a bit staring at camp fire.
Eventually it will be a all rubber Matt / hog/owl setup.
Sit the mat in the pan and rinse away we go.
Thats my style.
Cheers

 

[moeee]

You should be panning your site before you even set up the sluice to get some indication of gold being present.
Don't have to take all day doing the pan , just pan quickly so that you can get on to the next pan.
Once you find a fleck or whatever that does it for you - set the sluice up near there.

I have had many times a good spec count , and just a metre in any direction , Zilch.
Once I find a few flecks in a pan , I work that area through my sluice.

 

[Cameronpatrol]

yeah makes sense.
I manged to get some pics resized after email from my phone to laptop lol.
what a mssion

 

[moeee]

mission accomplished and very well done too
I can't see how you were having an issue with the mini sluice.
And same with the bigger sluice , although the split hose would hold the front down , the rear of the mat would need something.
If it were me , I would think hard and consider cutting a length of flat steel , 2 strips I mean to run across the ribbing front and back and drill a hole in the middle thru mat and sluice and get a bolt maybe 1/8th inch and wingnut.
If you do that and hate it , the small hole won't destroy your sluice should you not like the mats.

 

[bumdags]

To me in the second pic it looks like your expanded metal is in backwards?

 

[Digginholes]

I think there really should be at least a small amount of slick plate at the head of any sluice or it could cause every thing to catch up and clog the top too early, the material needs time to gain motion and also seperate giving the gold the chance to drop lower then the rest of the materials or you could find yourself putting too much flow through to clear the head of the sluice resulting in too higher flow that will push the gold over and out not giving it time to drop into the v may or riffles.
Just my opinion, but hey i could be wrong also

 

[Digginholes]

And yes I also second that your expanded is facing the wrong way

 

[Digginholes]

In my highbanker the first 300mil is slick plate no riffles or matt the next 250mil is expanded mesh sitting one end straight on the sluice no matting the bottom edge sits on the start of the matting and a wing nut holds it down along with the start of the matting, which then has riffles for 300mil then the final 300mil has bread crate with cutouts in L shapes generally I find the majority of the gold is actually caught in the top 250 where no matting only expanded mesh exists it drops and stays put just from the turbulence created and in the matting I find the very fine stuff

 

[Cameronpatrol]

Thanks very much for the input an help fellas.
I havnt tried to mini sluice yet with the matting, I wasn't too concerned about that one as it runs the full length and the mesh and riffle bars hold it all down in place.
I brought home some plastic strips from work that ill slide over the leading edge, that should hold it down nicely.
Wasn't too sure which way to put the mesh in lol, it fitted both ways when I bought it.
I just looked at the direction of the angled sections and faced them the way a riffle does, having been pointed out I shall spin it around.

I think your right with the wingnut and plate at the start of the larger sluice, I might even trim it so it just reaches under the expanded mesh on to tale side and then plate and wingnut for the leading edge, that should hold everything in place nicely.
Or I still have a heap of matt left I could cut a longer bit if it turns to poo.

Think ill head back to my old area and have another crack.
theres one particular spot which dosnt really have much flow at the moment and is a pool of water, Id like to set it up somewhere where there is flow and run some decent amount of dirt through it.
I did a test pan of a bank on the inside bend, good few specs surprised myself lol.
so very keen to get s few shovel loads in.

thanks again fellas :Y: :Y:

 

[Cameronpatrol]

It appears Im running the bigger sluice mesh wrong way around as well lol
Wonder if that might be why theres no gold.
Oh well lol

 

[moeee]

well it wouldn't help , but it may very well be why you have so much concentrate to clean up

I did see a guy actually had his riffles in the wrong way around and it was plain that he was not gonna catch gold unless it was in the first or second shovelful