# first sluice box and i think it did a very poor job



## ericrm (Mar 28, 2016)

this is my first sluice box , and i think that all it did was a very poor job at separating lead and tin from incinerated material. 
at firt i used it with a rubber mat but all the water pooled in the middle of the sluice and made a uncontrolable water stream. after thate i removed the mat and the water was more evenly spaced between the sluice but i dont get that yellow gold line all i got is tin/lead on top of the sluice and at bottom.not evenly distributed. im king of angry right now to see such poor result when it seem so simple to build...




i think that water isnt all the way tru the sluice because it might curve in the midlle but any idea why it would accumulate on top and a bottom only?


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## mls26cwru (Mar 28, 2016)

a couple suggestions... assuming your sluice is level and straight...

wood is not the best material to use... and i say this because it is what I started with too. Take great care to keep the wood dry as it will warp and expand upon contact with water. I had one sluice where the rubber peeled away from the wood because it got to damp. Wood is fine for a few runs, but its just something to keep in mind.

second, did you try using dawn? Most plastic are highly hydrophobic, so the surface tension will pull the water in on its self. If you put a bit of dawn on the sluice to start with and add a small amount into the material you are sluicing, i think that will clear things up. You may also have to play with the water flow volume as the more water you have in the sluice the more it will 'fill up' the cross sectional area.

third, rubbers/plastics are going to behave differently with water. I tried my first one with shower surround PVC sheeting.... it didnt work so well. The solution was a can of the rubberized spray paint you can buy at homedepot or walmart... I think it was called Plasti-dip or something along those lines.

Hit me up with a PM if you have any other questions. You are pretty darn close to a working sluice... mine looks nearly identical and works just fine... i think you are just a couple tweaks away.


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## ericrm (Mar 28, 2016)

ok thanks, i will look into the plasti-dip thing, what are you running in your sluice if i may ask?


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## mls26cwru (Mar 28, 2016)

ground up incinerated computer chips.


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## ericrm (Mar 28, 2016)

pertty much the same for me


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## jeneje (Mar 28, 2016)

I have a nephew who works for U-haul, the old sides of trucks and trailers are replaced after so long. The sides are made from 5/8 plywood coated on both sides with 1/8" fiberglass. The point here is it will not warp and water can not get to the wood. It works great for mini sluice. You might want to check with your local U-haul - who knows they may give you a few pieces. It an idea anyway.

Ken


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## patnor1011 (Mar 29, 2016)

Due to the fact that bonding wires are so tiny and light I would rather go for narrow sluice but very long. They are easily carried away by stream of water. Like the one I did from rain drainage you use on roof. Even then I tend to run material 2 times at least. That is for sluice. If I would build shaker table then I would rather go for something wide and shorter. 
I do also pay attention when I prepare material for sluice. I do sieve it multiple times using several size sieves. At the end of the process I do know that I removed 90-95% of pins from it. That make it much easier when washing.


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## ericrm (Mar 29, 2016)

im not sure but maybe i dont even have the wire in wire form if i can say it like that. since i ball mill my incenerated material i think i might have broke them in even smaller pieces ... i dont have pins anymore i sleeve and what pass tru it is usualy only the magnetic pins, than those a removed by hand with a magnet. i made one 50 feet black plastic water drain sluice box (didnt made picture) but i had to empty every little space with i a brush so i ended up not a very good option . it must have been a year since i played with recovery ,that thing is so addictive. i think that i will try to make a shaker table even if i didnt manage to make an operating simple sluice box with less parts and less complicated idea... damn me im hopeless... thank you all for the input


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## mls26cwru (Mar 29, 2016)

I wouldn't give up so easily on the sluice... You are very close. Ill take some pics of my setup later, but I'm pretty sure that you just have to change your sluicing surface (that plasti-dip stuff literally sprays on) and probably increase your water flow rate. You need to keep your sluice filled with enough water to create a "sheet of water" ~1/4in. deep at all times.


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## ericrm (Mar 29, 2016)

mls26cwru said:


> You need to keep your sluice filled with enough water to create a "sheet of water" ~1/4in. deep at all times.



i was doing everything i could to make it under 1/8 of an inch. there is already a thing to get better


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## mls26cwru (Mar 29, 2016)

i was just guesstimating... so as long as you get a solid sheet of water, that is what you are looking for  Ill take some pics later of my set up and send them to you.


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## ericrm (Mar 29, 2016)

ok thanks


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## FrugalRefiner (Mar 29, 2016)

mls26cwru said:


> Ill take some pics later of my set up and send them to you.


Please share them here on the open forum so that everyone can benefit. For every person who posts on a thread, there may be ten others just reading.

Dave


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## mls26cwru (Mar 30, 2016)

I can do that.

I plans last night got changed and I did not get home until late... I will get some pics up in a day or two though.


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## Anonymous (Mar 31, 2016)

Eric 

For what it's worth I think it's a good "mk1" version. Yes it needs improvement but you made one and personally I think that's great in itself.

Jon


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## nickvc (Mar 31, 2016)

spaceships said:


> Eric
> 
> For what it's worth I think it's a good "mk1" version. Yes it needs improvement but you made one and personally I think that's great in itself.
> 
> Jon




I'm with Jon on this, it may not be perfect but you can work on it and make it do what you want it to do, even buying one will not guarantee it will work as you need it to so chin up and get it working for you.


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## mls26cwru (Apr 3, 2016)

here are the pics of my setup.


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## mls26cwru (Apr 3, 2016)

part 2


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## mls26cwru (Apr 3, 2016)

part 3


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## ericrm (Apr 4, 2016)

spaceships said:


> Eric
> 
> For what it's worth I think it's a good "mk1" version. Yes it needs improvement but you made one and personally I think that's great in itself.
> 
> Jon



thanks ,that a nice thing to say


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## ericrm (Apr 4, 2016)

wow , that is some bad ass working sluice that you got there


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## blueduck (Apr 14, 2016)

Classification may get ya a long ways too, using a screen will take out the larger chunks and not have to use a larger flow of water to recover with which will help in keeping the metal from floating down the sluice.

Jet dry instead of dawn, less soap bubbles which will also carry the metal in a floatation, though not like the surface tension can.

For really fine sizes, building a miller table may be something to look into, folks who deal with fine particles seem to recover decently from using one, very slow, but they work.uses chalk board paint to coat the sluice with.

William
Idaho


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## Youreeka (Sep 27, 2016)

Great job getting it dialed in. You've built more of a Millar table than sluice and it works great. Try placing a piece of thin aluminum or rubber just downstream of the the spray bar to maintain an even "glasslike" flow. I do the same with a blue bowl but they are super finicky. I know this post is a little older but hopefully my 2 cents help.


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