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HOW TO
SET UP YOUR SLUICE BOX
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Basic equipment use and
setup isn't hard unless you
don't have an instruction
manual or someone to show
you how. All wet
recovery equipment is based
on the principals of the
gold pan. A sluice is
simply a long gold pan with
all of the same principals
of specific gravity, water speed and
angle. Each larger piece of
equipment that employs a sluice box
will be set with similar
instructions, so when you have
learned how to set up a hand sluice,
you will have the basics of how to
set up ALL wet recovery sluice
boxes.
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One of the first pieces of equipment
most people buy after they have
their gold pan is a hand sluice
box. Now, setting up a hand sluice
box correctly will mean the
difference between keeping gold and
running it off the end of the
sluice. Water speed is one of the
most important things to get right
when using any sluice box. Every
other water type of equipment uses a
sluice box in one way or another,
and learning how a sluice box works
is important to every other piece of
prospecting equipment. A dredge,
highbanker or dry washer will be set
up in the environment they work the
best in, so these instructions will
deal specifically with the hand
sluice.
After you have done your testing to
find a likely spot to find gold,
you will need to find a spot in the
water that is running enough water
to move material down the sluice
box. Not too fast, or you will be
chasing the sluice box down the
river! Not too slow, or you will be
building rock diversions to get more
water into the sluice box. (When
water is limited, you can do this).
A place between two large boulders
can work, or along a river or
creek's edge will do nicely most of
the time. How to tell if your water
is too fast or too slow? That will
take a bit of practice, but really
isn't too hard to learn very quickly
when you get the sluice box in the
water. BEFORE you put the sluice
box in the water, find a large rock
that can be placed across the box to
help weight it down so the water
does not carry it away.
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The slope of the sluice box
is the next thing you will
need to adjust.
Experts recommend beginning
with a slope of 1 inch of
drop (pitch angle) for each
foot the box is long.
This can be adjusted to help
the speed of the water going
down the sluice box, but
worry about that later and
get your basic setup done
first. Place the
sluice box into the water,
adjust it so that you have
the proper slope and place
the large rock across the
top of the box. Next
you will want to throw a
couple of handfuls of
material into the sluice box
to see how fast the material
runs
through the
box. If it is not
moving too well, you will
need to increase
the
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amount of water
going down the box by slightly
increasing the slope of the box or
increasing the amount of water
coming into the box. We will
usually try increasing the angle
first, as more water can be hard to
find or can bring water depth into
play. Likewise, if the material
moves too quickly and does not catch
black sand and the pebbles are
zipping along, you will need to
decrease the amount of water coming
into the box, or decrease the slope
of the box. There again, we play
with the slope first and amount of
water second. The ideal is when the
material classifies down the box
keeping the black sand and some
blonde sand, but eliminating most
rocks and sand. Flat rocks will
hang up in the box no mater what the
water speed, so watch the rounded
ones more. Getting this right will
take some practice, but there is a
lot of room for error. You can
adjust the box any time you want to
achieve the desired catching
ability.
Another item to consider is depth of
the water in the box. This needs to
be watched as too much water
running into the box can increase
the depth of water in the box. Also
placing the sluice box too deeply in
the water to begin with will do the
same thing. You want a depth where
you can see the water slightly
jumping over the riffles. It should
not be a smooth stream of water, but
hopping some. That's about it.
Practice makes perfect, and always
test the material running off the
end of the box with your gold pan to
see if you are losing much gold. If
you are, readjust your sluice box by
decreasing the slope or slowing down
the water so that you keep more
material.
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Equipment needed to run your sluice
box: Shovel, hand spade, 2 buckets
(one can always be a seat),
classifier, leather gloves, gold
pan, vial, pipette or sucker bottle,
first aid kit, lunch, drinking
water.
One last thought about using your
hand sluice. Resist feeding too
much material into the sluice and
overloading it. If you do not allow
the water to classify the material
by complely mixing together, the
heavier material will run out of the
box and your gold with it.
Specific gravity works if you give
it a chance to do the work, and this
is true with any type of water
prospecting equipment you may use.
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Now go out there and FIND SOME
GOLD!
Copyright 2006-2008
Shirley Weilnau all rights reserved
Check out our Panning Tips and Do It
Yourself Bucket Classifier
Instructions on our form page |
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