Sluice setup

[Upthecreek]

Hi all was hoping to get peoples opinions and or advice on sluice setup.
Ive just purchased an 8 dream mat and built a sluice to fit it. My sluice has a flared inlet slick plate (I hope Im using correct terminology) and was just wondering when using these mats what would be the desired depth of water over the mat.
Hope my question makes sense,
Cheers Les

 

[Anolphart]

Hi Les, I have an 8" Dream Mat and I've found that it depends on how hard you want to feed it. Or perhaps more importantly in these times of drought, how much water is available. Generally flow is more important than angle on the DM but always try to get a nice V shape at the head so that you don't load up one side more than the other. The tell-tale sign that shows that it's working correctly is when the cells are all active. Just watch the little pebbles rocking' and rollin', and swirling around like kiddies playing on a roundabout. The gold being the heaviest will settle whilst the lighter material will get tossed out. It's a brilliant concept and very effective.

My observations have been that if I get the flow right, all I need is about 25mm above the mat. Just remember that you can get any depth of water covering the sluice but it may not be effective if you don't have enough flow across it to keep the cells active.

 

[Upthecreek]

Hi Anolphart,
Thankyou for your advice. I know allot of it is trial and error and adapting to conditions but its nice to have input from fellow users of similar equipment.
Cheers

 

[just starting]

Hi Les, I have an 8" Dream Mat and I've found that it depends on how hard you want to feed it. Or perhaps more importantly in these times of drought, how much water is available. Generally flow is more important than angle on the DM but always try to get a nice V shape at the head so that you don't load up one side more than the other. The tell-tale sign that shows that it's working correctly is when the cells are all active. Just watch the little pebbles rocking' and rollin', and swirling around like kiddies playing on a roundabout. The gold being the heaviest will settle whilst the lighter material will get tossed out. It's a brilliant concept and very effective.

My observations have been that if I get the flow right, all I need is about 25mm above the mat. Just remember that you can get any depth of water covering the sluice but it may not be effective if you don't have enough flow across it to keep the cells active.

Spot on . Also remember to block the outsides of sluice at the inlet so the water doesn`t run past it too much. Blocking the sides will guide more water into the sluice ,increasing flow and volume. A 5 degree angle is about what you should aim for . Not enough angle will drown the sluice with too much water running over the top and the Dream mat is less effective. You may struggle to get the V if the sluice is too low or too high.

Watching the cells in full song is magical. I made my sluice with 2 dream mats side by side ,which means i need a bigger volume of water than a mini goldrat, but once set up properly ,it is like watching a few dozens little fans spinning in the mats.

 

[Upthecreek]

Hi Just starting,
Thanks for your input. I found with my old sluice that I could greatly increase volume by placing a sheet of plastic in creek and propping with a couple rocks to funnel more water into sluice when the creek is just flowing and at the end of a session I just roll it up and throw it back in my pack.
Do you find you can get your sluice set up to the point where all your cells are active?

 

[Mirrors]

As long as the top 3rd of the mat is active you shouldn't miss anything if set up correctly

 

[just starting]

Hi Just starting,
Thanks for your input. I found with my old sluice that I could greatly increase volume by placing a sheet of plastic in creek and propping with a couple rocks to funnel more water into sluice when the creek is just flowing and at the end of a session I just roll it up and throw it back in my pack.
Do you find you can get your sluice set up to the point where all your cells are active?

I would say i have had about 90 to 95 percent of them going at once. I have 4 bolts holding the mats in ,so they can`t quite get to 100 percent working ,but close enough.

FOZ

 

[Upthecreek]

Thanks everyone for your comments.....cant wait to get out and give new setup a run