I know times are tough for everyone right now, and most of you might not have a couple hundred extra to spend on mining equipment, but are quite capable of building your own stuff but you would like some plans and explanations allowing you to do so. In many cases, with experience, a person is able to design and build equipment best suited to the ground they are working.
Not all sluice box configurations will work good for all streams or material. For instance, in my area, most of the gold is very fine, so I will use my LeTrap sluice box... It is molded plastic, no carpets to clean out, and it traps even the most fine gold... Particles so small you may never even know they are there without a magnifying glass.. In fact, I have gotten stuff so fine, that even at 10X magnification all you see is a yellow glint in bright sunlight letting you know it's there. But it takes a lot of current to use, and it is pretty much a two man operation to clean up, since one person alone is quite capable of losing all the concentrates from one accident.
If the gold is coarse, and I can't classify as small as I do for the LeTrap, I will run my Keene A51 Hand Sluice. I have replaced the ribbed carpet with 3M Nomad Miners Moss... Looks like rubber spaghetti molded together in a mat. This stuff is very effective. But I learned that efficiency goes up when you use it only with the hungarian riffles and remove the expanded metal.
So, what I want to do here now, is give you a run down of various equipment, and common configurations and why they work so well and what types of conditions they are best suited for. And of course, I will provide links to pages that show you how to build these pieces of equipment.
ROCKERBOX
A somewhat forgotten but highly effective piece of equipment revered by the oldtimers, the trusty rockerbox. These are probably the most easy to make if you have a table saw, though I made one entirely by using a band saw. In the old days, they would use rockerboxes. They were best suited to two man operations, since one person could dig while the other person rocked the box and dipped the water. The material was dropped into a small hopper with holes in the bottom. Water was dipped from the river and poured over the material, and the box was rocked side to side. This allowed the gold to settle out in the carpet as well as help shake the material in the hopper. Once all the stuff that could pass through, did, the hopper was emptied and new material added.
Rocker boxes had the advantage of being able to be used in areas where waterflow was not high enough to allow sluices to be used, and they could be worked well by one person. They were highly portable, cheap to make since their primary material was wood, and could be made in just about any size needed. The amount of material moved in a day is greatly increased over that of a gold pan... But I would say more material can be processed with a sluice. And in general, the bigger the sluice, the more material you can run.
There aren't many commercially made rockers available, but there are some that fit in small totes that allow you to reuse your water... A good option for the desert if you don't want to pack batteries AND water. But generally, your best and cheapest bet is to make your own.
Here are a couple links to different plans for building one:
Old style rocker
http://nevada-outback-gems.com/design_plans/DIY_rocker/Rocker_box.htm
River Rocker
http://www.minnesotagoldprospectors.org/RiverRockerBox.pdf
Another old rocker design, as well as interesting information:
http://lapidaryworld.com/pdf/gold_rocker_box.pdf
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SLUICE BOXES
The Sluicebox is the most common box used by prospectors and miners. It is probably one of the oldest tools used as well, second in age only to the gold pan to be sure. They can be made in any length and width that is practical to use. The longer the box and the wider it is, the better the gold recovery... Wider is better for fine gold, along with a slower flow of water. But longer is good because it increases the likelihood any gold going past the top third of the sluice will settle out before dropping off the end. Most gold will get caught in the first third or so of the sluice if it is set up properly.
They used to be made out of wood, lined with burlap or canvas, and they would use all sorts of systems as riffles... From the famed Hungarian style riffles, to using blocks laying accross the sluice, in some cases they used railroad track or rocks to make their rifles. Anything that would give gold a place to hide and trap in. The old sluices were generally made with great lengths, and they would run sometimes weeks at a time before cleaning up. The efficiency was not the best, but the great lengths and sheer size gave the gold ample time to get caught. Any losses would have been due to cracks in the wood, or perhaps old discarded burlap or canvas. Most old timers would burn their old carpets and pan the ash to get all their gold... And sometimes burnt their old rocker boxes and sluices too! Wood can track a stunning amount of fine gold... However, before torching an old rocker box from the gold rush years, please consider that it's collectors value probably far outweighs any gold still caught in the wood!!!
The general rule of thumb for running a sluice, is one half to one inch of drop per foot of sluice... Depending on how fast the water is and the size of the gold you are finding. Fine gold generally needs a flatter angle. You don't want your riffles loading up with blonde sands, but if you are seeing only black sands collecting, you might adjust it so just a slight amount of light sands cover the black.. If you can catch some lighter sands, you are probably catching your gold. A good way to test a sluice set up, is to throw a penny or other coin into the head of the sluice box. If it gets trapped in the first riffle or two, your set up is probably good. Your first scoop of material should take a few seconds to clear the head of the box. It shouldn't rush through super fast, but it shouldn't just sit there on the bottom either without much happening. Feeding a sluice steadily is important. If you leave any sluice unattended for great lengths of time, it is possible gold will blow out, since the material behind the riffles is constantly churning. Any exposed gold that isn't covered by concentrate is at risk of being lost... But it might take a significant amount of time before something like this happens. If you are going to leave your sluice alone for more than an hour or two, I recommend cleaning up.
There are many commercially made sluices available... I find the best deals are on eBay, or you can go to shops that I have done business with in the past and am very pleased with the speed and professionalism they give. www.minerox.com is based in Riggins Idaho, and I have done much business with them, all without incident. They have just started offering sluice boxes. And I know the URL might bring something bad to mind, but www.lifestylestore.com is actually a prospector supply shop! Their prices are generally unbeatable, and I am more than happy to keep ordering from them. Please note, I AM NOT in ANY WAY affiliated with these companies. I am a very satisfied customer who doesn't like dealing with companies that don't treat their customers right, and these two have treated me the best out of any. www.angusmackirk.com is another great supplier, based in Boise, Idaho... I have done business with him one time and am very pleased with the transaction. His sluices are similar in design to the LeTrap... Molded plastic riffles, no carpet, ensuring a 100% cleanup.
Right now, I recommend using the LeTrap... In my opinion it is the best sluice ever made. I like it better than my Keene sluices... But when I am by myself, I do not like using it because it is plastic, and because water weighs a LOT, it is hard to get it out of the water, and a few times I have had an accidents with losing my concentrates since there is no carpet. However, two people have no problem hoisting it out of the stream without problem. It catches every particle of gold, though if you are getting large flat flakes, I urge you to reduce the water flow, but it works best when you see material bouncing around in front of the riffles. Also, it pays to keep it well balanced, if you have the sluice twisted, material will collect strangely in the riffles and you are at risk of having your concentrates washed out. It is a bit finnicky to set up, but once it's set up, I recommend running it until it's time to go home. It's well worth the trouble.
My second recommendation are Keene's sluices... The factory configurations work great, but I found I was getting better results using miners moss, and I have since learned you need to have a second layer under the miners moss or the gold will work its way out of the sluice since once through the nomad, the sluice is slick aluminum and gold slides out easily with vibration of the water flow... Putting tool box liner under the nomad worked perfect. And I have just learned that expanded metal is a bad idea to use with the miners moss, so I will test my sluice without it and compare results to that of the LeTrap.
You can expect to pay anywhere from $75 to $150 for a sluice box... Keene's A52 would be a great choice if you didn't want to go with a molded plastic sluice like the LeTrap. And if you didn't want a huge sluice, then the A51 Hand Sluice is a good choice... A bit more compact and easier to pack around. The plans are a bit hard to find lately, later I will post my own, but here are a couple good links.
Building a sluice isn't too bad of a job, and here are some links to some plans:
http://webspace.webring.com/people/fw/wyogold/sluicebox_st1.html
http://nevada-outback-gems.com/design_plans/DIY_hand_sluice/hand_sluice.htm
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I hope you have found this post useful... I will keep bringing you good information and resources on a regular basis, so please, feel free to bookmark my blog, or subscribe to it for future updates. I am unsure what my next post will be on, but I will do some thinking, and it should be here in a few days! Good luck and may your pan always have some yellow in it!
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