River / Stream Sluices - advice, information and questions

[Blindbat]

Hey hows all!? Im new to this and wondering if any one knows about the m&d sluices sold at seven hills nsw $2500 including pump etc its fibreglass as mark said that steel sluices are crap as metal on metal ( steel on gold) will cause negative charge n repel the gold !!!
I thought gold had a neutral charge or +1
Does anyone know a real good banker as dont want to spend $$ on crap n most sluices out there are very small expensive n looks like a toy id give my son
Any help much appreciated !!
IMG_3703.jpeg
Thanks

The steel/gold and charges thing is a load of crap mate. I'm not saying that charges don't exist rather they are negligible when considered in sluice design. If it were true we would all have fishing rods with magnets. Fibreglass may be a touch lighter, but will wear quicker with the abrasion of the wash.

 

[YIPPEKAIAY]

Thanx blindbat that was exactly what i was thinkn.... Getting to the point i dont know what to buy as so much hype with all the gear i was looking at the gold hog hibanker thats 2.5mtres long any thoughts on portabilty vs workload etc
Cheers

 

[cracka]

Hey Yippekaiay, I went to his shop about 3 yrs ago and was very interested in what he had to say. UNTIL....... "Then I add some resin to the fibreglass that attracts the gold to it." That's when I thanked him and politely left, never to return.

Cracka

 

[YIPPEKAIAY]

Resin?? Not sure what u mean but he told me he was australias fastest panner i thought he had some good points i wont run the bloke down but for $2500 for his sluice the size was just a rip off i thought im looking at gs-15 hibanker 500$ 1200 long n 36cm wide

 

[jamie]

$2500 for a sluice
thats a fair bit of coin, i made my own it only cost me a couple of hundred and the learning experience that came with it to me was priceless, i have got my spray bars sorted now, just need to cut the slots and we are good to go and catch that gold!

 

[YIPPEKAIAY]

I was thinkn bout making one but i thought id buy one n then maybe build one n add my mods yeah it might be stealing ones intellectual property , which i thinks a load of **** as theres no such thing as a new idea its just an old idea reinvented !!

 

[jamie]

it can work using others ideas to your advantage mate, no point reinventing the wheel when it rolls like it is meant to already, people have done the trial and error and the error is the costly part, my sluice is nothing new and exciting just a few 'borrowed' ideas put into my own build, it was the great guys on here that gave me most of my inspiration and i just asked questions along the way.. like this original post i stated lol
sometimes i think i should have just bought one already done and just hit the ground running but i do like to build things so it was right up my ally so to speak and it taught me new things with a greater understanding of them too now

 

[Eldorado]

When running a river sluice do you have to sit the sluice in the creek flat or do you have to slope it like a highbanker?Also do I classify my gravels through 1/4 inch sieve until I have say a bucket full and then run through the sluice? Probably stupid questions.

 

[Tribsa 56]

Hey eldorado. I try to start off with an inch drop for each foot of sluice but then adjust to suit water flow. I classify to 1/4 inch if i have a bit of flow. If not then 1/8. I try to get the sluice to clear in under a minute. If it doesnt then more angle. Thats how i go seems to work for me mate. My sluice is 220mm wide

 

[Eldorado]

Thanks tribsa.I will go with that theory and see how I go.

 

[Parko]

I use a home made river sluice - 300mm wide & 2000mm long. I usually work on a drop of about 15 degrees and a water depth of at least 20mm. 50mm seems to work best. Hope this helps.

 

[m@ttACT]

It really depends on the water flow through the sluice as to how it's setup. You may be in a fast flowing river or a gentle creek so it's different each time. I vary the angle on mine depending on how fast the water is flowing. I setup my sluice to angle it more until I see the low pressure zone forming behind each riffle. This allows the gold to fall behind the riffles and for the dirt/stones to wash through the sluice. Best thing is to set it up as best you can then put some dirt through to test it then adjust it until it is clearing fairly quickly. Otherwise your sluice will pack up and everything will run over the top. Increasing the angle will increase water flow allowing you to put pay dirt through it quicker.

 

[Eldorado]

Thanks for the tips guys.Appreciate the help,I will let you all know how I get on.

 

[Eldorado]

Went out to Oallen today and gave the homemade sluice a run.First half bucket from one hole yielded about 10 fly poo specks. Second half bucket from different hole was a bit better with 30 odd specks.Thanks again for the tips guys.Cant wait to get to Tuena to give it go, maybe get some more chunkier gold.

 

[cecc]

Good on ya Eldorado, some good knowledge here, Tribsa helped me the other week with my first run of the Mackirk and yeah it worked good, not much flow but found a nice little wate fall over two big bedrocks, once I get it level and the angle, classified down to about 1/4 inch and worked wonderful. got one little color. As some one mentioned here, test with some gravel and see how it clears and how the riffles are working, when you look close, you should see the little gravels tumbling under the riffle. And most blokes reckon to try and get the 'v' of water going through at the intake.

Best of lukck

Len

 

[numpty]

there is a photo on here somewhere that shows how the water should look running over the riffles.

dont know where it is though.

 

[casper]

Good on ya Eldorado, some good knowledge here, Tribsa helped me the other week with my first run of the Mackirk and yeah it worked good, not much flow but found a nice little wate fall over two big bedrocks, once I get it level and the angle, classified down to about 1/4 inch and worked wonderful. got one little color. As some one mentioned here, test with some gravel and see how it clears and how the riffles are working, when you look close, you should see the little gravels tumbling under the riffle. And most blokes reckon to try and get the 'v' of water going through at the intake.

Best of lukck

Len

G'day cecc,

I love my Mackirk - the vee at the intake means you have at least the minimum requirement of water needed to clear the sluice of classified gravel and associated light material. Also you'll see that if flow and fall are optimum the retained heavies will be "dancing" around in the riffles but be aware that these sluices are sensitive to "surges" which can flush out the accumulated heavies and also your GOLD so be careful not to disturb the water flow entering the sluice for example by walking around in the stream behind the sluice.

good luck

 

[cecc]

G/day casper yeah they're good aye? Yeah good Casper, thanks for the tips. Yeah Yobskin was telling me about not waking in front or that back of the sluice.

On ya mate.

 

[Rusty_G]

What is ideal if you can do it is to have a small drop of the end of the sluice where you can situate a tub with a rock in it. If the tailings flow straight into it, it can sort of serve as a fluid bed; this is good for testing as it allows one to test for losses.
Just a thought.

 

[Eldorado]

G'day cecc,

I love my Mackirk - the vee at the intake means you have at least the minimum requirement of water needed to clear the sluice of classified gravel and associated light material. Also you'll see that if flow and fall are optimum the retained heavies will be "dancing" around in the riffles but be aware that these sluices are sensitive to "surges" which can flush out the accumulated heavies and also your GOLD so be careful not to disturb the water flow entering the sluice for example by walking around in the stream behind the sluice.

good luck

I was walking around behind the sluice,didn't think about it disrupting the flow. I may have lost gold.More great tips from you guys,I certainly am learning a lot from this thread.I will try your idea RustyG next time and see if I am losing gold.