recycling sluices

Dave just keep those pics of my fine gold in your mind as that sheila said " it wont happen over night but it will happen"" Ha! ha!

Dave, welcome to the world of alluvial gold prospecting. The advice that James and Murachu give is second to none. These guys will set you on the path to success as the gear they use is well tried and tested and they know "how to prospect". The knowledge they share you won't find in books. Good Luck.

Are the riffles in the MM sluice now a removable type or still just the moulded straight type . If they are the straight moulded ones they are not Hungarian riffles and are very prone to damage from rocks and tend to wear easily as well .
Ron

The riffles are moulded Ron
All the guys on this forum are great rivergod it's a great forum better than any book by far

I have been sluicing for a lot of years now and found loads of the yellow stuff, i am all for the clay as mentioned but what i am saying is keep it out of your pump.
would you put dirty petrol into your tank? i hardly thing so can't be good for the carby or injectors for that matter
Eagle653

A little point to consider with your M&D Marks sluice. I am assuming it is still the tapered design? This is what is known as a pinched sluice. Dave, you mentioned that most of your gold is in the first ten riffles. The difficulty with a pinched sluice design is that as the water and gravel moves down the box it accelerates. Thus any gold that is fine enough to go past the first ten riffles may in fact move right through the box. As a safeguard place a pan below the outfall of the sluice and check every 15 minutes or so to see if any gold is lost. You are doing the right thing though by keeping the box fairly flat and letting the water do the work so it should be o.k. Just a few hints i have picked up over the years. Cheers.

Marty as you were the original poster and we have some how covered a lot of other ground let me say that you will have to weigh up the estimated returns for your recycled water as in your case you dont have any option but to wash your dirt with silted water so how many hours will you get to a seal i think your impeller will be ok for quite a while but you will be replacing your seal first -- but you will have to work out the pay off of such an endeavor.

Marty,
Clear water is, of course, the very best to pump, but when recirculating my water I always try to discharge into a settling pond as far from the pump input as possible. By allowing the water to slowly travel along that path the solids progressively drop out along the way, allowing clay-only muddy water to be picked up and pumped through the pump. No gravel, no sand but only muddy water.
In my experience I have never seen a pump seal fail through 'muddy water wear'. THE worst wear situation is to run the pump , even for a second, without water in it. That is the "kiss of "Death" for any pump seal. Many pump manufacturers claim to make a 'self priming' pump which some gents mistake for 'you can start dry and it will start pumping water soon'. Kiss of death!
Since priming a pump has always been frustrating for me I finally came up with a simple system that works 100% of the time.
My pumps have either a garden hose port built in, or, if of a different style, I have put a plumbing fitting at the discharge end of the pump that has a garden hose port in it. I went to a boating store and was able to buy a small, hand operated, bilge pump / air pump. Taking a short section of salvaged garden hose I attached the hose to an inexpensive garden hose ball valve shut off and attached that to the pump 'port '. Briefly standing on the pump discharge lay flat hose (to pinch it off) I begin hand pumping the bilge pump which pulls air from the water pump, pulling water through the input hose and into the water pump chamber. After I start getting water from the bilge pump I shut off the ball valve and start the water pump engine. Failsafe priming 100% of the time and never a second of dry time on the seal.
I have never had to replace a pump seal. (although I do carry a spare).

now that is a top post KAEOJ

Guys, thanks very much for all the information i think i'll just lash out and have a crack at it! The first patch is only 4 kms from home so i can take the trailer out there and bring back bucket samples of different parts of the patch and use clean mains water for starters,then start experimenting from there.There is a lot of old rubbish out there tin, wire, pull tops etc i can see dramas with any of that going through the pump now that you guys have opened my eyes to the importance of careing for the pump!Thanks again MARTY

ajj the best Marty and do please give us an update soon!!

Yes, sir,

Stand and Deliver -- A full report

yep i agree and we want pics as well ha ah !

Righto thanks fellas, will do. MARTY

To be an alluvial prospector the prospector must be prepared to work in and around all kinds of situations. If the prospector has a mind set by thinking pumping dirty water is too much for their pump well what can I say? But I do know that prospector will never find any gold of worth that’s what I do know no matter what they claim. If you have the knowledge which we have passed on a good deal in this line of post the prospector will have no trouble at all in working such areas.
There has been a lot of talk about pumps, that is not where the real trouble with pumping dirty water lays. As people who work in such ways well knows. Steps must be undertaken when you have finished working the hole and cleaning the work area up .
 To fully flush your pump out with clean water.
 To fully flush your hose out with clean water. This is done to stop the clay drying in the hose then flaking off on your next trip an blocking your jetting.
 To fully clean out your jetting pipes on your Banjo/highbanker.


Remember to get this



At times you will be required to work in and pump out of areas like this.



These photos are a few years old now but they show what it is like.

marty wrote:Hello ,i'm a bit of a greeny to this type of prospecting but i want to know if i could use one of the small recycling sluices on old detected nugget patches in arid areas of WA? Has anyone had a go at this,and also some suggestions as to which ones would be best for the job if it can be done.Any advice pos. or neg. would be appreciated. Thanks MARTY

Marty here is a new post on just what you were looking for and by all accounts it is a beauty
https://golddetecting.forumotion.net/t5359-australian-desert-sluice-the-old-blokes-would-have-loved-this

here is a you tube link --https://youtu.be/pPPEe0ghVVY