Bunnings timber sliuce

Hi all this is my timber sluice and blue bowl I made a couple of days ago it came in at just under $100 for both not including materials I had at home rubber mat, araldite, pop rivets & chopping board.

the pictures say it all

I could have made the whole thing out of one sheet of ply if I took the over all length down slightly

Nice work

That's a beauty mate, when are you taking it out for a test spin?

ok now for its first use

behind this rock

riffle spacing's too close? too high? too much pitch 45 degrees? I had to get the water raring through even to get it to clear this much. help please

the spots I dug behind the rock


obviously worked a ok It caught some slag looking stuff large black sand and what looks like clay target shot and one tiny bit of flour gold I don't think you can even see it in the photo I panned everything that went through the blue bowl and found nothing else

Nugget said:

That's a beauty mate, when are you taking it out for a test spin?

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haha already done the seatbelt straps are great easy to carry

Great work on the sluice, love the use of the pop rivets to hold it together and the cutting board slicker plates.. hope it catches some yellow for you!

Cheers, Tone

TenOunce Tone said:

Great work on the sluice, love the use of the pop rivets to hold it together and the cutting board slicker plates.. hope it catches some yellow for you!

Cheers, Tone

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the rivets where the only thing I could think of that would end up near flush I did have to countersink the ones for the straps to get enough length from them. yeah I figured after a while the wood will get a bit fury and sticky from all the rock abrasion also nice loud colours if I hurt myself out in the middle of know where makes me easier to see from above apparently I owe the Mrs a couple of new cutting boards

Ryan J said:

https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/img/member-images/2758/1397096244_imag0347.jpg
riffle spacing's too close? too high? too much pitch 45 degrees? I had to get the water raring through even to get it to clear this much. help please

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Going by that photo I'd say your problem is lack of water flow. A sluice that wide requires a lot of water passing over the riffles to operate efficiently.

Nugget said:

Ryan J said:

riffle spacing's too close? too high? too much pitch 45 degrees? I had to get the water raring through even to get it to clear this much. help please

Click to expand...

Going by that photo I'd say your problem is lack of water flow. A sluice that wide requires a lot of water passing over the riffles to operate efficiently.

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I estimate that there would have been 500+ l/m flowing over the top of it seamed to me like the riffles where working too well by sucking everything right up under them and keeping it there is this possible? there was still a definite eddy behind each but bugger all exposed matt I'm thinking of reducing the height of every 2nd one by 1/3. I did have about half the flow over it before the photo the riffles where almost covered completely.

Hey mate looks the goods like nugget said more water required in fall as in faster water maybe try creating a wing dam with some good drop.

Wing dam as mentioned and get the end out of the water so it can't influence flow. Keep digging 'cause that sluice is going to produce yellow.

Could be the photo but it looks a little submerged. Id be looking for the flow to be really skipping over the top, creating some solid vortexes, but it may be just the pic. If I ever get into trouble I just pick up a 3/4 inch cubic rock and if it won't skip through time to up the flow and/or pitch.

Nice sluice. I agree with the other guys, more water flower needed. The way I tell is by the water flow creating a nice V pointing to the first riffle.

Sweet looking gravel bar there too buddy, id hit that if the midstream boulder/bedrock protrusion is a no go, plenty of nice build of decent rocks in that bar with an inside bend persuasion. Big area take many samples and rock that sluice box.

you could try dropping the riffle size down from 25mm (1") flat bar to 16mm (3/4") flat bar, if this is out of your budget then drop every 2nd riffle out give a chance for heavies to settle and lights to get a smooth run over the riffles, there is no real law on riffle height, any piece of gold bigger than .3gram is not going to climb a 10-12mm riffle,(unless it gets a smack in the mouth from a larger rock), after many faild experiments i found that spacing out riffles has a better cleaning effect on your box than closely fitted ones,your aiming for most of your gold to get trapped within the first 2 riffels after that the rest are basicly back ups, unless your running 10-20 yards an hour through your box and cleaning up once a week. also try and spot weld your riffles from the inside, makes for a smooth water flow of the leading edges.
If you have enough riffle material knock up yourself a couple of trails and test them in the field for yourself, you will eventually find the one that suits your ground/water speed/and feed rates, everyone is different.
Nice job mate and good luck

Looking at the pic of the sluice in the river, the water entering is all choppy, try to get it so the water is creating a V over the slick plate, this should be the right amount of water in most cases.

Go deep in that wash bar and behind the big rock!

Cheers, Tone