Angus Mackirk Grubstake sluice.
- Thread starter Nugget
- Start date
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I bought the foreman model last week
Its longer than the others but i thought i would make a highbanker eventually that i can clip it on to , or just unclip it for the days when i am travelling light and still strap it to my backpack
i will make a hungry apron at the front out of aluminium lined with 2 mm rubber so i dont bash a hole in the sluice where the gravel drops down on to it if i do incorporate it into a highbanker
Its longer than the others but i thought i would make a highbanker eventually that i can clip it on to , or just unclip it for the days when i am travelling light and still strap it to my backpack
i will make a hungry apron at the front out of aluminium lined with 2 mm rubber so i dont bash a hole in the sluice where the gravel drops down on to it if i do incorporate it into a highbanker
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great to hear some info on these sluices, deciding on which one to get ? Has anyone got the AM Foreman ? Tips on setup ?
BrisJoe
Joe
Fingers crossed I can win the members draw, as I'm just starting out and am still yet to buy a pan lol so this would be a big help to get me out there as I have several spots I know that havn't been tapped out in many years
Hi people
I have been at Grabben Gullen for 2 days.
Today I gave my Angus Mackirk sluice, kindly given to me by Nugget and Prospecting Australia, a bit of a workout.
I ran 6 or 7 buckets of material through it. Hope I was using it properly :8
A couple of observations.
It's a very light, easy to carry bit of kit. Simple to set up and a breeze to do a clean out. To clean out I just put a bucket at the exit end, tipped it up and splashed a little water to wash the fine material out. 10 to 15 seconds.
After each 20 litre bucket of material I "cleaned out". The result was about a half cup of 'heavies'.
From a 20 litre bucket, after sieving 2 sizes. (Looking for saphhires as well), I guess I had 7 to 10 litres of fine gravel to put through the sluice.
When putting material through, the 'riffles' filled with gravel and sand but very quickly all that was left was black and dark material as in the photos below.
Assuming this is the 'heavies', iron and other heavy minerals, it seemed to be working correctly.
In the 2nd pic you can see water coming over the side at the exit end. I know this isn't set up correctly.
One thing I found is that having such shallow sides it needs to be set up just right to get the correct flow.
Good bit of kit but slow to process a lot of material. Excellent for exploring and testing areas to come back with bigger equipment. After all that is what it is designed for.
EDIT. Fixed video so it works.
[video=480,360]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaTS4oqVJis[/video]
I have been at Grabben Gullen for 2 days.
Today I gave my Angus Mackirk sluice, kindly given to me by Nugget and Prospecting Australia, a bit of a workout.
I ran 6 or 7 buckets of material through it. Hope I was using it properly :8
A couple of observations.
It's a very light, easy to carry bit of kit. Simple to set up and a breeze to do a clean out. To clean out I just put a bucket at the exit end, tipped it up and splashed a little water to wash the fine material out. 10 to 15 seconds.
After each 20 litre bucket of material I "cleaned out". The result was about a half cup of 'heavies'.
From a 20 litre bucket, after sieving 2 sizes. (Looking for saphhires as well), I guess I had 7 to 10 litres of fine gravel to put through the sluice.
When putting material through, the 'riffles' filled with gravel and sand but very quickly all that was left was black and dark material as in the photos below.
Assuming this is the 'heavies', iron and other heavy minerals, it seemed to be working correctly.
In the 2nd pic you can see water coming over the side at the exit end. I know this isn't set up correctly.
One thing I found is that having such shallow sides it needs to be set up just right to get the correct flow.
Good bit of kit but slow to process a lot of material. Excellent for exploring and testing areas to come back with bigger equipment. After all that is what it is designed for.
EDIT. Fixed video so it works.
[video=480,360]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaTS4oqVJis[/video]
G
Guest
Looks good mate, vid link not working but.
Balx said:
Thanks Balx. Bid fixed now.... I hope. :8
headbut
Paul
Nice one Rod , seems a bit tilted to the left , as you said. May pay to bring one of those small levellers with you, We carry one all the time.Look forward to the clanup reports mate. Hope you had a good trip & still Tuena to come
Cheers Paul
Cheers Paul
Teemore
One foot out the door
Great review Ramjet,
Just a silly question .... where does it fit both size wise and volume handling capabilities with their other sluices.
Hoping to pick 1 up next time in Bendigo.
Cheers Tom
Just a silly question .... where does it fit both size wise and volume handling capabilities with their other sluices.
Hoping to pick 1 up next time in Bendigo.
Cheers Tom
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Great review Ramjet, they're a top little unit when set up right. I especially love the quick cleanup, it doesn't get any easier than that.
The Grub Steak is designed for low flowing streams and processing low volumes of material. It requires very little water flow to operate efficiently.
Teemore said:
The Grub Steak is designed for low flowing streams and processing low volumes of material. It requires very little water flow to operate efficiently.
Teemore said:
As Nugget said. Small sluice for exploring areas to come back to with bigger gear.
Faster than panning but pretty slow compared to a high banker or large sluice.
For me it was... Dig a 20 litre bucket of gravel, put thru 2 sieves, then one trowel full at a time thru the sluice.
Can't feed it too fast as you need to give it time to clear each trowel full.
A larger sluice or high banker you can just shovel everything straight in. Or only drive out the larger rocks.
The more material you process the more gold you will recover.
joe said:
Hey Joe.
I thought it was a little fast at times too.
But... It caught a heap of 'black sand'. Very fine black material. As gold is the heaviest of all it would catch it as well.
I only had a quick pan of the first clean out and there was flour gold in it. The rest I just put in a bucket for refining when I get home.
Each bucketful I cleaned out. So each bucket full I reset the sluice. Sometimes faster flow, sometimes slower.
It still caught the black sand.
I'm only a beginner so just going buy what I have read and seen on YouTube and TV.
I was originally thinking that most set ups ran too fast but they must know what they are doing?
When I had it running slower the gravel would take a while to move from the entry of the sluice.
Thanks Joe. I knew they claimed catching flour gold. Will have to review a little to check on setup.
(Should have done that before this trip :8 )
(Should have done that before this trip :8 )
Nice report Rod, glad you had a nice day out. Pretty keen to get an AM sluice myself, hmmm might order 1 today.
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Yep, Youtube is good but learning on the job is best.
I try & run mine as level as the water speed & volume allow. It there's enough - run it near level.
1" drop per foot of the sluice length is just a rough guide/starting point. You'll get the feel for & get to know how to set it up depending on flow/drop of the creek that is available.
No need for spirit levels.
Go by how the riffles fill with heavies - too much heavies on one side then lift it gently.
Keep the exit of the sluice clear(as in the area where your waste gravels get dumped). regularly clear that as a build up will cause the water to become turbulent or slow down in the bottom part of the sluice.
The speed of the water in your video looks good. (get a pebble & drop it in the feed tray & adjust the sluice so it happily rolls out - not tooo fast & not dropping into riffles and hanging back.) Just a little much depth for my liking tho. You can feed that sluice much quicker too - no probs.
Keep your eye out on the feed tray - you'll spot bits of gold hanging back - lovely sight!
Good luck with it.
I try & run mine as level as the water speed & volume allow. It there's enough - run it near level.
1" drop per foot of the sluice length is just a rough guide/starting point. You'll get the feel for & get to know how to set it up depending on flow/drop of the creek that is available.
No need for spirit levels.
Go by how the riffles fill with heavies - too much heavies on one side then lift it gently.
Keep the exit of the sluice clear(as in the area where your waste gravels get dumped). regularly clear that as a build up will cause the water to become turbulent or slow down in the bottom part of the sluice.
The speed of the water in your video looks good. (get a pebble & drop it in the feed tray & adjust the sluice so it happily rolls out - not tooo fast & not dropping into riffles and hanging back.) Just a little much depth for my liking tho. You can feed that sluice much quicker too - no probs.
Keep your eye out on the feed tray - you'll spot bits of gold hanging back - lovely sight!
Good luck with it.
