Hand Crevice Sucker Pump

Some great info guys, I'll give a home made one a go before buying one.

I have just made one cheap.
you need the following;
Tennis Ball
1M of 65mm down pipe
65mm end cap
threaded rod 12mm x 1M
4 x 12mm nuts
2 x 12mm repair washers, (wide outside diameter washers)
25mm dowel (or broom handle) for handle.

If you need instructions/pics let me know

Busby

Hello,

A good way to help seal the washers on the plunger when they ware down and you lose suction, is to put a round bit of leather on the washers inside as the leather will swell abit when wet and give you good suction again. hope this helps.

regards trashmagnet

This is how I make mine
Get hold of the following:
1 metre length of 65 mm waste pipe
1 meter length of 12mm galvanized threaded rod/bar plus 4 nuts and extra large washers (3-5cm) to fit
a standard sized tennis ball
some 13mm tubing/conduit/plastic pipe
a 65mm push on end cap
some pieces of cylindrical wood 25mm diameter about 100 mm in length (cut from a dowel or broom shaft etc)

Tools
Hacksaw
Wood saw
drill
25mm flat wood bit
9 or 10mm wood/metal bit
13/14mm wood/metal bit
araldite or other epoxy resin

method
drill the tennis ball all the way through the middle and out the other side.
put the bar through the ball with a washer and 2 nuts either side to sandwich the ball.
the bottom (outer) nut wants to be either flush with the bottom of the rod or on the rod with a turn over.
push the tube/pipe/conduit over the threads of the rod (long end) leaving approx 40mm of threads exposed.
drill a 13/14mm hole through the centre of the end cap and put this over the rod.
The whole assembly can now be put into the 65mm pipe to check for snugness (you may need to tighten those nuts to compress the tennis ball)
take one of the 10cm dowels and drill a hole in the centre of one end to a depth of 4cm. This will then screw onto the top of the threaded rod to make part of the handle. secure with resin.
take the other dowel and find the centre point of its length. at this point drill vertically down with the flat bit until the point just protrudes through the other side. This will now make the other part of the 'T' handle.
secure with a woodscrew and resin.
last thing, drill a 10mm hole in the 65mm pipe about 3cm below where the end cap fits on as a vent for the air to escape when you pull the plunger.

Hi Syndyne, I went out today and build one of these. Thanks for the inspiration. Just a question. How long should the bottom pipe be (where all the gravel falls). I haven't glued that part together yet as I wasn't sure. I have also bought bilge pump from ebay and planning to finnish it off once I get it. You said you are using 1" hose. Is it 25 mm or 19 mm? Thanks.

great set up another thing ive found is a yabby pump works quiet well if you don't have the know how to build things and there rather cheep as well

[video=480,360]http://youtu.be/cI8cv6L6duo[/video]

Testing some valves I made, they seem to work with this material. Ill post a video of it in use in the bush next time I go
Yes its only got electrical tape holding it together, but it still in test phase lol cant glue yet.

two questions.
1) should i glue joints or try to hose clamp the joints to b able to un clog if/when needed?
2) With the catch bucket I have no plans other than to hold the hose in there and a rock on top so it won't fall over. Should I keep it that simple or should I b looking into some sort of hopper/ grizly with punch plate or bars?

Thanks any tips would b much appreciated. Built not bought

Yabby pump washer
When the rubber washer wears out on my yabby pump, I get an old (1 for ur feet : ) thong off the beach, jam the yabby pump down on it, twist a few times till it cuts a circle out of the thong, then push a screw driver through the middle of it , and put that where the old rubber or leather ring went. bobs ur uncle a just over size rubber washer for free in 2 min .I use them they do break and wear out but that's after like 6 months or more, then repeat lol

Simple yabby pump mod
Poke a hole right through a tennis ball, put string/rope/wire through both holes, tie a knot with a washer in it to stop rope coming out. Ball on a string wow tie other end of rope inside yabby pump to the washer nut , so when u pull handle to full suck up stroke the string pulls in and the tennis ball plugs up hole, no gravel falls out . When u push handle back down ball fall out of the way, well most of the time, and u can dump into a bucket or pan for testing.

this may help a bit

Here is one I made, Tutorial is downloadable and printable pdf..

Used it last weekend and it worked a treat..

https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=1101

Good luck with whatever you decide on doing.

Cheers, Tone

I have made one of these according to the instructions (thanks syndyne). We took it out to Warrandyte creek to test it today and the hose keeps getting blocked. It is a 19 millimetre high pressure clear hose from Bunnings. Should I put anything on the sucker end like a nozzle? I have never seen one of these in action so I am not sure. Should I use different hose? Any ideas? Please help.

Beagleboy said:

I have made one of these according to the instructions (thanks syndyne). We took it out to Warrandyte creek to test it today and the hose keeps getting blocked. It is a 19 millimetre high pressure clear hose from Bunnings. Should I put anything on the sucker end like a nozzle? I have never seen one of these in action so I am not sure. Should I use different hose? Any ideas? Please help.

Click to expand...

i think the hose is too long and put a restrictor on the end of the hose so if the hose is 20 mm ID , put a 16 mm tip on the end of the hose

which could be a bit of 20 mm steel tube an inch long and bur the ends of that tube inwards by peening it with a hammer

i think you also have the Y piece facing the wrong way , you want the incoming jet of gravel to drop down into the collector tube

the hose on the left of the photo , is that the one you're sucking with ?

i would cut it down to 2 metres or less

" here is a nozzle i made earlier " except mine is aluminium which is easier to peen over



ps . where did you get your pump and how much ?

Thanks HeadsUp. I will turn the y pice around and cut the hose shorter. Easily done. The hose on the left is the one I was sucking the gravel with. I will get a piece of pipe as you suggested and see if that stops the blockage. On the picture is the size of the gravel that was inside of the tube but mostly in the hose. Do you think the gravel is too large to be sucked up? I will let you know if that works. I like the design of this pump and hopefully I can make it work well.



BTW the bilge pump is from ebay and cost me $35. Works well but the hose is the issue.

35 bux for the pump is awesome , the ones I looked at were $130+

You might need a mesh screen covering the hose that goes to the pump , and / or put that fitting higher up towards the highest part of the 4 inch pipe to reduce blockages or restrictions

The nozzle only has to be 20 % smaller than the hose ID and should help a lot

Good luck with it

Agree with Headsup, collection hose is way to long. The size of gravelblooks ok. I also agree with uding some kind of nozzle. 16mm or smaller will work better.
Cheers, Tone

I'm interested in making one of these... do you reckon those cheap 35 lpm manual bilge pumps on ebay would do the job well enough? Can't seem to find anything in-between.... it's either the Jabsco 100 LPM or the cheap 35 LPM.

Thanks for the posting the idea btw!

navieko said:

I'm interested in making one of these... do you reckon those cheap 35 lpm manual bilge pumps on ebay would do the job well enough? Can't seem to find anything in-between.... it's either the Jabsco 100 LPM or the cheap 35 LPM.

Thanks for the posting the idea btw!

Click to expand...

Below is the link to the same pump. It should be good for max. 80 l/min. When I make it work properly I will post all the parts etc you will need with photos.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Water-Pu...d=100005&prg=1088&rk=2&rkt=5&sd=400495451843&

Thanks for that Beagleboy, I appreciate it!

Wow, what a nifty little bit of kit. Hope it works well for you!

A couple of things I can see and foresee with this.

It is a suction device and by all descriptions is a dredge as it uses a separate pump which sucks water and gravel into a storage device and would be illegal to use anywhere in Australia for the purpose of prospecting/ fossicking. You can not even use an eductor dredge in Australia which is one that relies solely on water suction power via gravity siphoning so I can't see this being legal!

Those pumps, even the good quality Jabsco and similar will not take any solids or sand thru them for long. This apparatus would see quite a lot of solids getting past the 'pipe' and into the pump itself.

Has anyone yet seen how much gold actually made it up that long pick up and into the PVC catch tube? Unless you are able to pump more than the volume of water which is in that hose on each stroke so that the wash is moved from the riverbed to the catch device in one continuous movement the weight of the gold will have it fall back down and out the hose.

Cheers Ric