Angus MacKirk Sluice questions, information and questions

[Ag Man]

I have the Explorer & set mine up so the black sands/heavies fill the riffles evenly/not more on one side & that say half of the riffle backs are clear.
No need to classify down too much with them big sluices. 1/2" is heaps small enough.
Yep, as long as a 1" rock happily rolls out & not fly out, then the speed is about right. Run it as flat as you can whilst still achieving that pebble test.
If your gravels are small enough - try feeding it straight off the shovel(unclassified) or straight out of your yabby pump.

 

[Guest]

I have a Foreman but have only got to use it once unfortunately as the creeks around here are pretty dry at the moment. I did find it easy to use/set up though. Get it as level as you can with a good flow & reasonably even water depth of about an inch. Like Rod says it is surprising how little the flow they need to still work. The thing I really liked was seeing the gold sit up on the first section. Made it easy to tell that the material is good. Don't be scared to put the material in - don't worry about slow feeding it too much. Once you get it set so those about 1" stones skip through you'll be laughing. I would probably put larger material through a sieve though, 1/2" to 1", to have fairly consistent sized material going through.
For a first up try with both it & also at sluicing I was impressed especially after being pretty unsure of it. Didn't look too impressive but they certainly work well. Easy to clean out, reset & keep going too + very portable.

 

[Teemore]

Thanks all,
Sounds almost too easy, will be interesting to see how it goes.
As I said I know the area has been hacked to pieces but most pans should show 'colour' albeit very fine (and flat) so will be interesting to see what it picks up.
Will be impressed if it show colour from the area as the stuff is extremely fine (but it IS there).
Will pass on my feedback when we return on Friday arvo.
And thanks again for your responses, much appreciated.
Cheers Tom

 

[Tige]

hi I have the explorer model, very easy to use, you definitely have fun... just make sure when u take it out of water that it is level otherwise all your hard work runs out. good luck

 

[Ramjet]

As Ag Man says... Even flow. If material is collecting on one side then try level it up. When I used mine the first time I think it was a little fast to catch the tiny gold. But if I left it a couple o minutes to clear all that was left was black material. Check my post . You can see in the pics it is mostly black stuff caught in the sluice. By the way it is a grubsteak model....

https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=2910

 

[gavfromoz]

Is it advisable to use a pan under the end of the sluice as I've seen in some footage on the net or is that overkill? I'm referring to when picking the sluice up after all the processing is done.

 

[Ag Man]

Gav, for the first couple of times you clean out it might be good but after a few times you get the hang of it fairly quick.

 

[gavfromoz]

Thanks Marty, I can't believe how quick it processes the goods and how portable it is

 

[elbowgrease]

One of these day's I might get around to doing an instructional video for how to set these things up. I've got a "Boss" and have been using it over 12 months and I'm now pretty confident on how to set it up to maximize its capacity throughput.

A few easy pointers to follow which might help you out a little;

1) Where possible try and follow the rule of 1 inch drop to 1 foot in length of your sluice. Its not so critical that you need to get out the tape measure but by getting the angle somewhere close to about right will really help it clear. (To achieve the angle you can't just bury the outlet end deeper in the water as you will find the end will just clog up)

2) Make sure the sluice is level from left to right. Easy way to do this is get the sluice in position, run a couple of scoops of material through it, let it run for a minute or two with just water going through it and see it the stuff that caught in the riffles all moves across to one side. If it does you need to prop up that side to level it out. What you want to see is a even spread of material over the whole width of the drop riffle.

3) More depth is better than less, which will vary depending on what Mackirk you have. Either way you want to get good depth of water flow into the inlet. By getting the depth you get volume, by getting volume you have more water to push the rocks along, this massively helps clear the sluice and a secondary product is the sluice becomes a lot less susceptible to turbulence in the inlet, so if you are standing in the water in front of your sluice or digging close by and disrupting the water, the waves or changes in flow you cause have far less if any effect on the sluice itself and helps prevent blowing out the stuff caught in the riffles. Depending on the height of the walls on your sluice you want to aim for about 3/4 wall height in depth.

4) When taking the sluice out make sure you have good footing and something close by to empty it into. The bigger models have a lot more water running through them and therefore have a lot more resistance when trying to lift them out. Not something you want to have a bad grip, or lose your balance or need to carry it long distances to dump it into a bucket.

Hope you might find these tips helpful,

Cheers
Adam

 

[Hunting the yellow]

they are for me lol E grease i might buy one some time next year

 

[Danielkrupski]

Elbow grease I really hope you put up an instructional video. I too have the boss and earlier in the year I took it out but for the love of god I just couldn't get it to work. I know that in slow flow you have to dam up. My dam was exceeding 2 meters. And I still couldn't get it to work. Everything I threw on the slick plate so to speak just stayed there. I had 2 days of trying to get it to work but no joy. I'm not sure if it was the angle or flow? I pretty much tried everything. Changing this and changing that. All the riffles would fill instantly and not exchange at all or the slick plate would run full after 1 scoop and take ages to clear with still some dirt holding towards the back. I know the angus products work I have the predator 3 clean up sluice and that holds everything but in a controlled environment with regulated flow. I now have this down pat to a tee but sadly the boss is causing me the curry. I would really like to get it to work as me and my brother are planning a trip at the end of the year to a remote spot . We took the highbanker last time but almost both died in the process. We needed some donkeys or maybe not so much alcohol the night befor. The donkey idea sounds better but getting the angus to work would be the best idea. In writing this post I wonder why angus mackirk don't have a vid tutorial for their products there instructions are pretty basic anyways hopefully some members could help me out. Thanks everyone

 

[gavfromoz]

I'm sure if someone were to contact them and suggest this, they may just do it

 

[Teemore]

Thanks everyone, your comments have been taken on board and will be utilised for session 2 tomorrow.
Noted from today's effort .......
Level OK even filling right across the width of all riffles.
As mentioned by a few people ....... heaps of force on the unit through the flow of water wanting to keep it there. Note to self more caution required when lifting it.
Fine wash being accumulated in the 1st 3 or 4 riffles but stuff around quarter inch accumulating in the bottom few (is that how it's supposed to work??).
Only about an inch to an inch/half of water flowing through it ..... Should this be increased??
It's the Foreman, 5 or 6 inches shorter than the Boss.
Would be better if the 'feed' area was longer, think it is on the Boss.
Will try to get in a couple of photos tomorrow.
Thanks again, Tom

 

[Beagleboy]

Elbow grease I really hope you put up an instructional video. I too have the boss and earlier in the year I took it out but for the love of god I just couldn't get it to work. I know that in slow flow you have to dam up. My dam was exceeding 2 meters. And I still couldn't get it to work. Everything I threw on the slick plate so to speak just stayed there. I had 2 days of trying to get it to work but no joy. I'm not sure if it was the angle or flow? I pretty much tried everything. Changing this and changing that. All the riffles would fill instantly and not exchange at all or the slick plate would run full after 1 scoop and take ages to clear with still some dirt holding towards the back. I know the angus products work I have the predator 3 clean up sluice and that holds everything but in a controlled environment with regulated flow. I now have this down pat to a tee but sadly the boss is causing me the curry. I would really like to get it to work as me and my brother are planning a trip at the end of the year to a remote spot . We took the highbanker last time but almost both died in the process. We needed some donkeys or maybe not so much alcohol the night befor. The donkey idea sounds better but getting the angus to work would be the best idea. In writing this post I wonder why angus mackirk don't have a vid tutorial for their products there instructions are pretty basic anyways hopefully some members could help me out. Thanks everyone

It sounds like you dont have enough water flow. It is a big sluice and needs a bit of water through it. Mine works really well but in some spots with less water flow it can be bit frustrating to set it up right. Also make sure you are not digging or obstracting the inlet of the sluice as that will slow the water down.

 

[Ag Man]

I've used a Boss MacKirk before & found it tricky to set up in slow or a fairly flat creekbed because of the drop angle flare.
I'm guessing any of the sluices with the down angle flare/inlet would have the same issues.

In ideal situations they would work magnificently & all the benefits of the tapered sections etc. would be awesome.
But I found, that to find the ideal place to set up one of them sluices is not usually the same place I want to dig.

Hence going for a flat/level/straight MacKirk "Stream Sluice".
The flare/inlet part of the drop angled (Boss, Foreman, Recon, Grub etc.) sluice needs to be level, then the riffle section of the sluice will be at the ideal angle.
If you level out the riffle section because of lack of water flow, then the inlet will angle downward into the flow of the creek, meaning, if you feed gravel onto the feed tray, the material needs to travel upward first(hence not clearing quickly or not at all) before going along the riffle section.

I guess if you do level it out too much, you may need to feed it directly into the rifle section...

Their flat sluices are much more easy to adapt to water conditions, flat, fast, or slow.

The drop angled flare sluice:

The flat/straight stream sluice:

You can see, looking at the top picture, if the riffle section is too level, the material in the feed tray needs to travel uphill first.

A list of all the MacKirk sluices is here: http://angusmackirk.com/product_pages/sluices.html

 

[Heatho]

Great post Ag Man, thanks.

 

[elbowgrease]

@danielkrupski with the "Boss" \ "Foreman" or really any larger sluice be it mackirk or otherwise you do need a reasonable amount of flow. If you are in an area that has a naturally slow flowing creek you nearly need to dam it up completely to lift the water level, build up some back pressure and just bust a small hole in the wall for your sluice to sit in and hopefully funnel the bulk of the water through your sluice, not only do you achieve an increase in flow and volume by doing this, but by building a wall you'll also give yourself some angle to play with to get your sluice sitting right (the old 1 inch of drop to 1 foot in length rule)

@teemore how you were describing fine wash in the first few riffles but bigger stuff down further is exactly how it works. the heavier material (black sand and gold) drops into the riffles along with small rocks etc but as more black sand and gold collects it in turn pushes the lighter material up. eventually as more and more of the heavier stuff collects the light stuff gets pushed up higher and higher until it gets pushed out of the low pressure zone and back into the water flow and continues its journey down the sluice. the efficiency on the mackirk sluices are pretty good so that very little if any black sand and gold makes it past the first couple of riffles (basically what you are describing) however you will find that it you don't clean out your sluice and keep running more material, as those top riffles pack out it will start to fill the 3rd riffle, then 4th riffle, then 5th riffle and keep packing out each riffle down the sluice until the whole thing is chockas. I'll run mine until all the riffles are packed out to about 2/3 the way down the sluice.

as for how much water you have running through your sluice I have definitely found more is better. its not so much about the length of your sluice as you mentioned, but more the depth. If you have a "foreman" you need to try and base the amount of water on the depth of the side wall, not the length. Its definitely something you will need to get the "feel" for. I ran mine too shallow for a long time after I bought it. In fact in the couple of youtube videos I put up, in the first video my sluice was running way to slow and in the second video its running better but still not what its really capable of. Remember you don't want a raging torrent of water, you want nice smooth even flow with good depth.

@Agman spot on, any newbies to the mackirk brigade agman makes a very good point. the stream sluices tend to be a little more forgiving in slower water or where you aren't able to achieve the correct drop angle for all the reasons mentioned in his post. the "Au trap" series have the angled flare which is awesome in some situations but makes them more difficult to use in others. For the type of areas I do the bulk of my prospecting in my "Boss" is perfect but it really comes down to where and how you want to use it as to which one might suit your needs best. Either that or buy one of each

Cheers
Adam

 

[mdv]

Very good advice from Elbow Grease and others.

I run the Grubstake, and use a pump to generate water flow when/where the creek is not running ... as per photo.

If using a pump to generate water flow, carefully remove the sluice before stopping the pump ... otherwise the sudden stoppage of water flow will cause the riffles to empty themselves and captured gold could drop down a few riffles or even drop off the end altogether. I learnt that one the hard way.

 

[Guest]

Great set up there mdv. Will look at setting something similar up for the Foreman.

 

[Teemore]

Thanks EG, AM and others, seems my first effort was pretty spot on albeit with probably less flow than it can take, was only an inch or so up the side. Today's effort had water almost to the top (2.3 - 3 inches approx) but being in a different location was hard to find a 'straight' run of water, ie was going in at an angle, rearranged to something more like a straight run and settled much better. Also tried a slow flow but ended up with the cons sitting on the feed section for too long.
Now at home and will do a clean up to see what's there, kept some wash that I didn't put through the sluice for comparison.
As previously mentioned a very very cleaned up area but should have some very fine 'colour' based on previous tries.
Thanks again guys, good info much appreciated.
Cheers Tom
Meant to add is there a best way to stop sluicing to empty the sluice, there's a fair bit of water pressure there when running almost to the top??