Expanded mesh vs riffles. Marine carpet vs Miners moss the best setup

[Newbie]

Hi guys and girls,

I am looking for the best setup in my sluice box. I reckon I might be missing a little bit of the fine stuff whilst sluicing.

Whats everyone's take on the mesh versus "straight bar " riffles. I am kind of still new at this but I think that expanded mesh will be better with fine gold recovery than the bars just from the way the water runs over it. Has anyone run any trails with there own machines to see the different capture rates of fine versus course.

Whilst we are at it miners moss versus the marine carpet. I like the carpet as you get a little more riffle effect on the water. Though just thinking about it would the miners moss be better if I am using the expanded mesh for my extra riffles.

Do you have to do a clean out more often with carpet than with miners moss or vicer versa. Does Expanded mesh clog faster? Do you need more flow rate with the mesh or less?

What is best for fine gold?
What is best of coarse gold and nuggets?

 

[Nugget]

Very interesting question. I'm in a similar situation wanting to build either my own high banker or sluice.

I've got an EZ Sluice which uses miners moss and straight bar type ripples but I haven't used it enough to give a real opinion about the config. I'm taking it out for a decent run this weekend so hopefully that will change.

I look forward to hearing what the more experienced guys have to say.

 

[Dogmatic]

Mine has the straight bars on top of the miners moss.

 

[Ag Man]

I don't think it really matters which combination you use.
It's all in the set up in the creek - the flow & angle & the volume of material put through the sluice.

What ever you use - you want the sections between the riffles to clear easy enough. If they clog up - then the riffle does nothing & gold goes out the end.

The river sluice I built has rubber door matting(honycomb holes in it) & angled riffles to hold it all down. No carpet or ribbed matting. Catches fine & course gold no problems.

Had a high banker with the same set up. no problems.

Will be building a highbanker again shortly with fairly well the same design.

The main sluice I use now is an Angus MacKirk plastic one piece molded sluice with drop riffles. No removable carpets, or anything.
Catches very fine micro gold to big stuff with ease.

Quick to set up & clean. Light too.

Again, what ever you use, it's all about how it's set up in the river. Get the ideal volume, flow & angle that suits your sluice - then feed it.

 

[Aussie Detecting]

Seen a prime example of not watching your Highbanker on the weekend. On my exploratory mission, I came across a dam which someone had been using. I panned a quick pan of the exit of the Highbanker. Bingo, black sand & fine gold. 2 things either went wrong or the one of the 2. 1) they weren't cleaning out as often as needed causing the riffles & matting to clog washing their gold out or 2) they were running it too fast. Either way they only got 70 - 80% of their gold.

Watch what your sluice / Highbanker is doing. Run a small test amount to ensure you have your flow & angle set right. Don't let it clog up. Clean it out more often then less.

So what is the best? Miners moss, ribbed mat, drop riffle, Hungarian riffle, straight riffle? The answer, what you feel suits your needs & you're comfortable using. I use a lot of different ones & I can say honestly each has its good points & bad too. There's no perfect answer.

 

[Nugget]

I just returned from giving the EZ Sluice a pretty decent run and found the miners moss was clogging up due to the larger rocks getting through the 1/2" classifier, this was overcome by a little manual persuasion but I'm thinking of either getting a finer classifier OR trying out some marine carpet.

I've recently been told that marine carpet is a little better at handling the bigger material but I'm yet to test how true this is. Time for a bit of experimentation I think

 

[Aussie Detecting]

I was going to try some miners moss instead of the ribbed carpet, but if you had those issues, I won't fix what's not broken. The ribbed carpet works really good & I only classify to 1/4".

 

[WalnLiz]

Uploading a vid tomorrow that shows what we have been doing for the past 20 years....we don't miss much and have refined from our dredging experiences. ....Cheers Wal

 

[Prospector steve]

Will look forward to that wal and liz

 

[Ag Man]

Same as Steve said.

 

[WalnLiz]

Hi Marty....stuck the vid up last night....sorry about the wind noise ....Didn't factor in " Murphys Law ".....cheers Wal.

 

[Newbie]

Very helpful Wal cheers. I encourage everyone to check out the sticky note that Wal had out up supper advice.

 

[Ag Man]

Thanks Wal, will check it out in full tonight. Only watched the start b4 work

 

[WalnLiz]

Hi Marty...just shows what I've been using since i sold my dredges 20 years ago. Used the same config. in the dredges and never lost any gold. Many systems work but I've found that the one I've shown has worked best for me.....Cheers Wal.

 

[Ag Man]

Thanks for posting that video up Wal - you explained stuff well.
I got some great ideas from it

 

[JeffU]

I have 5 highbankers, from small to quite large, like Wal, mine are configured exactly like my old dredges. The largest of them has 2 interchangeable riffles, expanded metal for very fine gold and standard lazy L riffles for coarser, although I tend to run it most of the time with the standard riffles, even at Oallen.
All are set up with miners moss, except for very heavy clay areas, I have never had any clogging problems. Very rarely find any gold in the tailings.
If you set up the angle correctly and have the correct waterflow you are on a winner no matter what style of riffling you use.
There has been some very extensive research conducted in Canada by Randy Clarkson into the efficiency of sluices, very interesting reading. If anyone wants a read let me know and I'll send you a PDF copy.

Jeff

 

[WalnLiz]

That's a lot of hi bankers newby.....where abouts in Canberra are you from,..north or south...??? Cheers Wal.

 

[JeffU]

Hi Wal.

Southside.

 

[Newbie]

It looks like I am going to have a heap of left over expanded cat walk mesh of anyone need some.

 

[jml]

Hi,
Just wondering if you still had any of the expanded catwalk mesh? What size is it?
JML
Jeff