Thinking of Building my own Sluice

[Kingsy]

Hey guy's thinking of building my own sluice but I'm after some advice on the layout. I'm planning on making it out of wood (mainly to keep costs down + keeping it within my skill level) and using some honeycomb rubber matting from the hardware store and either marine carpet or that non-slip matting people use under rugs and things. I'm also unsure as to what height the riffles should be or how many.

Here's a photo of how I'm thinking about laying it out

Any advice will be appreciated.

 

[Colin&Lee]

G'day Kingsy,

Mate sluice looks good, I'd probably put the honeycomb matting over the marine carpet and leave the top as a skid pan or buy a small bit of ribbed matting and put that in up the top. You can normally see the gold hang for a second before it goes down into the sluice proper. Here's a pic of one I prepared earlier as well as a few of the other guy's ideas. Hope you get some inspiration and some yellow

https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=1190

Cheers

C&L

 

[Kingsy]

Thanks for the reply. I notice you don't have ribs across yours, does the honeycomb do the same job? Or keep the ribs and move them down and shorten the honeycomb?

 

[BrisJoe]

Instead of using the marine carpet, go to burnings in the doormat section and grab a black mat for $30 that looks just like miners moss. This will help trap the gold.better then marine carpet.
If you look at the "wal high bankers build specs" sticky thread there are pictures of this mat.

 

[ChrisM]

This is the stuff i use.
Bunnings $15 [or close to that price]

As Col said, some ribbed matting with a bit of a skid pan and you're ready to go.
Cheers
Chris

 

[Dogmatic]

I use similar to what Chris has above. From Bunnings but it is unbacked matting that you can get at $39.90 per meter. I bought a meter and that was enough for both my highbanker and river sluice.
it is thicker and more open weave than miners moss. Probably cheaper as well.

http://www.bunnings.com.au/products...&searchType=any&searchSubType=products&page=5

 

[Colin&Lee]

G'day Kingsy,

I forgot to mention I use the same ultimate as Chris uses above it's great stuff I don't have rib's or riffles in the classic sense as your right the outdoor mat acts like a set of riffles, I also have the flat bar ally bolted across the sluice which act a bit like riffles themselves.

Cheers

C&L

 

[TenOunce Tone]

Kingsy, in all honesty mate, have a good look at the cost and time spent on making a sluice as opposed to buying one ready made.. I have made a couple and they work, but with all the running around etc I think I would have been better of saving the $100 or so dollars and buying an Angus Mackirk, I was loaned one for a trial and found it worked well in the stream i was in with very little flow. There is a model that will cost you about $60.00.

The type of sluice also has to be somewhat tailored to suit your target stream.. a lot of things make it work in different ways, size of gravels, water flow etc.

I am in no way linked to any retail or commercial venture associated with MacKirk Sluices, but have a look around, give the site sponsor http://www.detectaden.com.au/ a call and discuss what you need with Brad or one of the boys, or call into your local prospecting equipment shop, they will guide you what is best for your area and within your budget and experience level. Mackirks are light and strong and trap the finest of gold.

Just my two bobs worth..

Cheers, Tone

 

[Ag Man]

I made a sluice before & after hours of mucking around I ended up with a sluice that works fine but awkward to use. It is very satisfying to recover gold using your own gear but I got to agree with Tone, for a river sluice, buying one is the go.
I've since bought a McKirk sluice & haven't looked back. Light, strong, simple to set up, use & clean. Catches it all with no carpets or riffles to pull out & clean.

I generally don't test pan anymore - much simpler to use the McKirk as you can straight away see if your on the gold.

 

[Dogmatic]

I bought a river sluice and thought it would be great. On my last trip realised I was loosing a fair bit of the precious.

After some consultation with Wal I ended up ripping everything out of it that the original manufacturer put in and refitted it.
Removed the black ribbed mat, small expanded mesh and hungarian riffles. Now sporting a longer skid plate, bigger expanded mesh
and of course the trusty bread crate. Had I built this myself it would have cost me half what it now has

Making a river sluice really is pretty easy and cheap, certainly a lot easier than the highbanker. A sheet of aluminium with the sides bent up.
Half a sheet of aluminium (around $45 ?), some scrap expanded mesh (free or up to $15), old bread crate (free) and a Bunnings rubber matt ($15)
You now have a sluice that should catch all your gold, hopefully.

 

[G0lddigg@]

hey Kingsy

Sluice design looks good mate, i'd try to get some speed at the start of your box though maybe put the honeycomb towards the end after you've created some turbulence with a slick plate and riffles. I would put clark rubber v mat in the flareto watch the gold whilst your loading material alwasy feels great when you can see gold coming out of your dirt.

I use a mat from bunnings thats backed by rubber so you dont need to worry about getting heaps of water through like you do with the miners moss, either way looks like your on the right track mate hope you find lots of gold.

 

[Kingsy]

Thank's for the suggestions everyone. If I do make my own I'll definitely be adding a skid plate out of ribbed rubber matting (although I think seeing the gold at the top would have me stopping too often haha), using that rubber backed matting that looks like miners moss in place of marine carpet and changing the riffles for fly screen framing stuff (unsure of the name). Probably looking something like this but not the same scale...

But after looking at the MacKirk I'm starting to lean toward's buying one for the price they are, I'm not sure whether to look at getting the Grubbstake, Recon or even the Foreman if it's worth the extra $$, which model do you guys own?

 

[Ag Man]

I got the Explorer.

http://angusmackirk.com/product_pages/sluices.html

Two of my friends have them as well.

Like it's been said before - they catch the finest of fines but no probs stopping nuggets like this lovely 1 gram beauty!
Shoveled unclassified material in & found it sitting in in the feed tray

 

[Kingsy]

I don't know how you managed to take clear photo's, if I saw that the photo's would be blury from shaking with excitement :lol:

Is there much difference between getting one of the AU Trap series to one like that?

 

[Ag Man]

No steady camera hands - the iPhone has some anti shake thingo I thinks.

Is there much difference between getting one of the AU Trap series to one like that?

The AU traps have a flared entry & flared out exit to change the flow rates in different sections.
Also the feed tray/entry has a down angle.

The AU is supposed to catch the colour even better than the stream sluice series coz of the different flow rates.

The regular stream sluices are straight & flat.

I liked the idea of straight & flat. I believe they are easier to set up than the AU series.

I have used a Boss before but struggled to get it to run well with low water flow. The flat straight sluices seem to cope better with varied water conditions in my opinion.

There's heaps of different sizes & they all work - it's just up to you to figure out the size you need.

I wanted the widest one that'd fit into a standard bucket & have decent production capabilities. Flat so it's easier to store & put in a back pack etc.

 

[Kingsy]

Would he Recons smaller size help in regards to low water flow compared to the Boss? I can't find the Explorer on any local suppliers sites I've checked, was the postage a lot from the US?

 

[Ag Man]

Would he Recons smaller size help in regards to low water flow compared to the Boss? I can't find the Explorer on any local suppliers sites I've checked, was the postage a lot from the US?

Yeah, a smaller sluice would be easier/more able to be set up in a tiny stream but wouldn't handle much volume.

You got to figure out what you want. If you're going bush bashing for a few kms with your gear then you prolly want something compact.

I Googled MacKirk reviews & the Explorer came up as the best all rounder with excellent reports. Haven't seen anything negative about them.

The size & volume suits what I want.

I did ask a local distributor about getting an explorer in & they tried to tell me it'd work out too expensive & take some time to get in seeing it was a special order. Encouraged me to buy a different model they had in stock.

Anyway we got ours direct from MackKirk. Was too easy! Worked out cheaper to buy from manufacturer & postage - compared to getting a local place to get it in & then posting it to us.

From making payment to it turning up was 8 days.

[video=480,360]http://youtu.be/0V5GDwY3DDE[/video]

[video=480,360]http://youtu.be/QHd-KriR7SE[/video]

 

[Kingsy]

It works out about $100 with the current exchange rate but I'm a bit worried about the postage, was the postage more than $50? Thank's for all the info, it's been really helpful, hopefully I'll be out sluicing for gold soon .

 

[Ag Man]

$89 for sluice & $38 for postage from memory.

I understand some distibutors need to make up a minimum order before they place it. But I would have waited about 5-6 weeks when I inquired. 8 days turn around + I saved a few $ & got a free hat. :8

I'd get a quote inc. postage from both local & direct from MacKirk

 

[Kingsy]

Nuggetsdownunder has them listed but no price so I'm giving them a ring tomorrow + emailing Angus MacKirk at the moment, It sucks that the AUD has dropped below the USD at the though :/ .