Of sluices and pans and misc meanderings

My first home made "traditional" sluice was made of aluminium scraps hand-beaten into shape, and some some chicken wire to hold down the automobile carpet which a car accessory shop tossed out (was having them replace a faulty alarm in my truck when I saw it in the pile of discards), and some rivets and screws holding it together. She ain't pretty, lacks hungarian riffles (or any riffles for that matter) but works in a fashion.

Am now wondering about those fluid bed sluices (eg that name-brand Bazooka sluice) ....the thought of not having to classify material is most tempting. Less gear (no classifiers) to carry into the hinterland is also a plus. Been looking at the DIY fluid bed sluices online....doesn't seem too difficult to build one. I know these sluices require a faster water flow, but a temporary dam or lines of rocks to direct more water flow to the sluice is not hard to construct. I think this will be my next project.

About 2 weeks back I had ordered a Batpan with grizzly screen from Pastor Bruce Southerland. Alas the powers that be at the post office today deemed that it would only arrive on this thurs or fri...effectively putting paid to my plans to play with it on labor day. Will post a review of it if & when (fingers crossed) it arrives in one piece.

And what happened to my aussie-invented Turbopan? Long story short: I was sitting down to my favorite dessert stall for a bowl of sweet mung bean soup and noticed that the seller looked kinda down. I asked her what was wrong, and she said that a customer had chipped a tooth from a small pebble that was in the soup, and she had to compensate him for dental work. I immediately ate slower, and felt for any errant pebbles with my tongue on each spoonful. Then I had an idea. Got the Turbopan from my truck, found 6 small pebbles from the roadside and asked the seller to toss a handful of uncooked mung beans. Worked the pan in her washsink and came up with SEVEN small pebbles! She insisted I sell her the pan, which I did at cost plus shipping. Maybe there's a place for the Turbopan in every kitchen? I can imagine how the informercial will sound like!





Linkback:

You are not allowed to view links.
Please Register or Login

http://www.thunting.com/smf/index.php/topic,46884.msg257256.html#msg257256

I use a couple of drop riffle sluices, a short Angus MacKirk, and a longer one made by another company, I only have to classify to 1" with them. The drop riffle forms a mini fluid bed in every riffle, clean up is a breeze, add a magnet bar and black sand is automatically separated. The black sand standing up on the flux lines even combs micros out of the flow.

Linkback:

You are not allowed to view links.
Please Register or Login

http://www.thunting.com/smf/index.php/topic,46884.msg260955.html#msg260955