The "Prospecting" Forum

For those of you who want to build your own sluice. One of the best materials I've found for both making Hungarian ripples and for helping hold down any miner's moss, ribbed carpeting or rubber ripples is to use aluminum carpet edging. It comes in various widths and lengths which is called either high or low profile edging depending on its width. By using it the normal way, it makes for a great Hungarian ripple ___/ and you can use either high or low profile edging to determine the height of your Hungarian ripple. I use a 1/4-20 hex-head bolt mounted in the center of my ripple, tightened down with washers and a wing nut on the under side of the sluice to both hold the ripple in place and any carpeting, miners moss or ribbing that is going to be held in under the lip of the Hungarian ripple. No doubt pop rivets could be used if you want to permanently want to mount it to a metal sluice. On the lower end of your miners moss, ribbed carpeting or rubber ripples you can reverse (turn over) your piece of aluminum edging and use it to hold your material down by once again drilling a hole in the middle of the edging and tightening it down with another 1/4-20 bolt, washers and wing nut. I usually cover any ribbing, moss or carpeting over with either 1/4" expanded metal or 1/4" sq. mesh for extra support between the pieces of edging and as an extra means to collect any fine gold, not to mention help classify the materials flowing over it. If you are using an exceptionally long piece of ribbing , carpeting or moss and it is bowing in the middle, mount a piece of 1/16"x 1/2" wide aluminum trim across the middle, mounted the same way as above to eliminate any bowing of materials.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/03/2012 11:44AM by Mtnmn.

Mtnmn,

Thanks for the tips !

If possible, some photo-views would be a nice addition to your post.

ToddB64

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Gamma 6000, Bandido ll µMax and Compadre, Classic ll, Ace250, Vibra-Probe 570, Harbor Frt. Cen-Tech Pinpointer, Lesche Digger, Tabdog Hand Digger Replica, RatphonesMax headphones, Janster Coin Probe.

Realize pictures would be of a great help, but I still don't own a camera. Hope to rectify that this year and hopefully a friend or relative will show me how to display them on this and other forums.

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Mtnmn
Realize pictures would be of a great help, but I still don't own a camera. Hope to rectify that this year and hopefully a friend or relative will show me how to display them on this and other forums.

Mtnmn,

Attaching photos to a post is easy !

There are several types of equipment and methods you can use. I use my Hp computer scanner to down-load images to a files folder I have setup in my computer and then I up-load the images individually to this website. Notice the "Upload File" click-on right above the left top corner of the posting window......after you click that, it will inform you of the maximum kilobyte file size (currently 420 KB) and the acceptable file extensions, or types of files, like gif, jpg, png and jpeg. If your image file meets these requirements, click the Browse button, select your image file and then click the Upload button.....Voila !

Hope this helps

ToddB64

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Gamma 6000, Bandido ll µMax and Compadre, Classic ll, Ace250, Vibra-Probe 570, Harbor Frt. Cen-Tech Pinpointer, Lesche Digger, Tabdog Hand Digger Replica, RatphonesMax headphones, Janster Coin Probe.

I see
This stuff every time I walk into the hallway where when my jack was a pup he chewed up the carpet to tile. Mine has little ridges on the face of it. I don't know if that's good or bad. I like the wing nut through the bottom sounds slick. I am gonna check that out. I made my first one. Used MDF which will fall Apart when wet but I fiberglassed mine 2 coats so it mostly sealed except screw holes. My thin aluminum "L" brackets ended up BENDING from 2-3 inches of water and a couple yards. Need either a new spot or new sluice. Didn't find even a speck.

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Mtnmn
Realize pictures would be of a great help, but I still don't own a camera. Hope to rectify that this year and hopefully a friend or relative will show me how to display them on this and other forums.

Mtnmn......Do you have a camera yet ? Your post was good, but as the saying goes "A picture is worth a thousand words.".

Thanks,
ToddB64

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Gamma 6000, Bandido ll µMax and Compadre, Classic ll, Ace250, Vibra-Probe 570, Harbor Frt. Cen-Tech Pinpointer, Lesche Digger, Tabdog Hand Digger Replica, RatphonesMax headphones, Janster Coin Probe.

I've eliminated the Hungarian RIFFLES in 2 of my homemade sluices in favor of heavy expanded raised aluminum mesh with carpet and moss underneath. To hold it down, I am using 2 studs in the center line of the box with an aluminum flat maybe 12 inches long between them and drilled out for the 1/4 inch studs. Wingnuts and washers hold the flat bar in place. I also use large fender washers sometimes instead of the aluminum flat bar. Deep V black mat before the carpeted area to catch pickers. Caught 2 little pickers last week with a sluice like this in a fast moving creek. They were both in the Deep V groove mat.
Both my digital cameras met an early death this year when I sat down in the Wabash river in Indiana to cool off in the 105 degree heat and fergot about the cameras in my pockets? OOPS !!! EXPENSIVE mistake. Camera makers don't cover water damage I found out the hard way !!! I bought 2 cheap Fuji waterproof cameras for gold sluiceing expeditions now, 10 bucks a camera at Walmart, waterproof to 15 feet, get the 35 mm film prints put on a CD ,then transfer to your computer or upload to this forum.

-Tom V.

Thanks for the info. Tom. I"m going to get my brother to take some pictures of how I converted my EZ-sluice over for trapping finer gold.

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Mtnmn
Thanks for the info. Tom. I"m going to get my brother to take some pictures of how I converted my EZ-sluice over for trapping finer gold.

Mtnmn.....That's good news ! Look forward to seeing your EZ-sluice.

ToddB64 (Now 71 )

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Gamma 6000, Bandido ll µMax and Compadre, Classic ll, Ace250, Vibra-Probe 570, Harbor Frt. Cen-Tech Pinpointer, Lesche Digger, Tabdog Hand Digger Replica, RatphonesMax headphones, Janster Coin Probe.

Another good idea for those that want to trap the fine flour gold is to incorporate fine white felt in the hood. I did not want to spend the 10$ a foot for miners moss so I used burlap bags(sand bags) and deep V matting beneath.
Another good idea is to use steel banding strips with 3 small flat super magnets on each strip down the sluice works wonders! Any and all ways to trap more black sands is the key!
Good luck