Share your pictures of con cleanup sluices here

[aussiefarmer]

Put a bit of a mini sluice setup together today and thought a thread on this would help us all with clever ideas. 8)

Now I will be building a simple stand for the sluice I just threw it together to see if it would work ,

I am only running a garden fountain water pump which I thought wouldn't have enough flow but it is opposite it is turned right down and I had to reduce my sluice angle to about 5 degrees to slow the water down.

I have sown a bag up and putting netting inside to make a bit of a filter and the twin tub design worked real well and hopefully the bucket has caught most the gravel.

Its a bought sluice from crampo but I have built the head tank and added miners moss to get even water distribution.
Waiting to buy a long tub to clean the sluice out I can see fine gold in the first 3 inches of ribbed matt 8) .

I am wondering whats the easiest method for clean out ? I thought about flooding it and using a snuffer bottle but I think I will get a long tub and tip it in it ?

I hope more people share their setups and ideas it sure beats the pants off panning your cons

 

[5ftfossicker]

Like that idea .. so this cleans up your cons after panning ? Or its a sluice for after you sluice ?

 

[aussiefarmer]

Like that idea .. so this cleans up your cons after panning ? Or its a sluice for after you sluice ?

Its a mini sluice for cleaning my cons from my bigger sluice that I take out and about. I run the bigger sluice and end up with about 2 liters of concentrates from a clean out . Which to pan up would take 10 to 20 pans depending on how stubborn it is , so I run it down this which now I only have I small pan roughly 3 spoon fulls to finish up .
I am yet to check the wash water to see if I have caught all the gold, but I cant see any gold specks any further than 3 inches down the matt , so I am confident.
I have checked the tubs and seem to have all the gravel caught in the bucket , a small amount of silt in the black tub and only cloudy water in the blue tub with no grit on the bottom. Going on what I have seen on youtube I am real happy with my set up and the pump filter I came up with as I haven't seen anything like that.

 

[aussiefarmer]

Thanks silver 1 like out of 54 views :lol: must be my poor photo skills or maybe my rig looks like junk lmao :lol:

 

[silver]

As long as it holds gold af,... as long as it holds gold.

 

[nucopia]

Great post and a great idea there aussiefarmer. Your sluice looks good too
I have to build something on my mates place in Stuart Town later to wash the dirth from the creek or run the dirt from the mullock heaps around his place which are numerous.
I will need to work out a way to do it with recycled water , so any ideas posted here will be a big help.
Cheers !

 

[ChrisM]

This was my first attempt at a cleanup sluice. It worked ok but started to warp after a while
I then decided to make a more compact portable 12v system

It does take a bit to set the water flow but works nicely

 

[aussiefarmer]

So chrism did you buy your miller table or did you make it ? , it looks great like a bought one. You would diffidently get a cleaner sample with that but how fiddly is it brushing the gold across can you do a heap and then brush it across or do you have to brush every time you put some on and see the flakes ?
I am still going to have some heavies to deal with but I am pretty handy with a pan and syringe so I am happy with this method 1 small pan with heaps of color beats 20 with a couple of specks.
I was impressed how quickly I could feed it only a teaspoon at a time but I was dropping it on almost constantly.

 

[AtomRat]

What is the green on the millers? Is it a silicon mat?

I've always just run my cons down anything that will fit the rubber v groove matting from bunnings though the blank sands still clog it up hard. Sometimes I run a bigger rubber mat with deep riffle rectangles like my lower highbanker matting to speed it up but the heavies are annoying locally here. At least 1-2 cups worth for each shovel out of the creek

 

[aussiefarmer]

I found the slick aluminum got the gold on the bottom and most of it is trapped just before the mat , I wont know till I tip it out but I am thinking the gold is only in the first 3 inches of matt and most of it is just before the matt, So when I get my long tub I will put a pan in it to catch the bit where I think the gold is sitting separately.
Most of the matt is holding dark heavies.
I remember reading one of walnlizs posts saying the slick surface holds the gold down and I say a millers table works on that principle also.

 

[ChrisM]

Take a quick look at this post Aussiefarmer
I tend to concentrate it around the hole and drop it into the bottle after a few scoops [I like watching the bottle slowly fill up...
The green matting is Hobbico matting.
https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=6611

 

[aussiefarmer]

Take a quick look at this post Aussiefarmer
I tend to concentrate it around the hole and drop it into the bottle after a few scoops [I like watching the bottle slowly fill up...
The green matting is Hobbico matting.
https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=6611

Wow that's excellent mate great job I could suggest unbacked miners moss in your head tank if you are struggling with water flow it worked a treat with my mini sluice for even water distribution.
Well built looks like a bought one

 

[aussiefarmer]

Musta fluked my set up as I was only going off an educated guess and a reasonable knowledge of water and gold behavior , The last 28 inches of the mat had one dot of gold and the first 5 inches had roughly 100 bits of color ranging from what I would describe as flakes , specks , dots and dust . I am super happy to see color so small I would call it dust being trapped so early on the mat .
So all up I reduced 2 liters of concentrate down to 1 spoon full with 100 bits of color and 2 spoonful's containing 1 bit of color all done in an hour .
Now I am wondering whether to increase water flow or angle to reduce the heavies even further , but I am that impressed with the results I probably shouldn't muck with it .
will post some pics by the end of the week

 

[aussiefarmer]

Heres the pictures Both are while its running notice the water is crystal clear on the sluice 8)

 

[silver]

clean enough to drink(may taste soapy though)