Hi Everyone,
Long time scratcher, short time forum member, once happy, now married. Southern Tablelands NSW based.
After a 6 year hiatus from panning, 'Master 12' and his little brother, 'The Red Headed Grandparents Revenge, the child who no's know fear, Junior 9' have been watching the TV show "Gold" and have decided that they want to be gold miners. My excuse for dusting off my old two tier sluice and dragging out the pans....and I am sticking to it.......
We had a day on the river at Turon not so long ago and the bug has bitten
me us (again)...... we managed to turn a small amount of color for the boys, and they have been pestering me since for a return trip. Then She Who Must Be Obeyed heard that there are Sapphires to be found not far from home!...... and so my life ends
I have been wondering how to improve the performance of my set up, after reading some of the stories here and looking back on how I used the sluice I wonder how much gold I have actually washed out of the bottom !!!
I am in the process of building a Hi-banker and will use this to replace the current bottom of my sluice (photos to follow).
Just wondering if anyone has tried this in the past?
I will use the current green nylon carpet and riffles in the new hi-banker bottom, I have sourced the expanded aluminum but am having a bit of trouble finding the bread basket bits. I have approached two local bakers about broken ones (neither had one) and short of a 'midnight stock-take' at Coles
I have had no luck........ would anyone know where I can get some or would anyone have some for sale?
I would also ask everyone's patience and indulge me a few dumb questions from time to time while I fine tune everything. The new sluice will have a small Honda two-stroke pushing the water up to a 40mm PVC square set up with a ring of 2.5mm holes drilled into it that has replaced the original flooding system and works a bit better an seems to hold the material up higher an a bit longer in order to wash and break down the mud and clay.
Would appreciate any comments, thoughts, secrets(shhh, I promise not to tell anyone....) or pokes of fun, or maybe if anyone was interested in a group (local) trip one weekend.
thks in advance.
No Nuggets.