"There's gold in dem dar hills"!

[245dlc]

Yesterday we went with some friends for a drive to the Rocky Mountains for the day with some friends I brought with us a spade and a couple gold pans and after stopping alongside the road at a little stream and panning for less than a half hour I found this little picker. I also found some teeny tiny little flecks and managed to get them in a little bottle for safe keeping. I have a plan to make my own sluice box after seeing a video from a guy that made one out of a corrugated flexible plastic drain pipe I also have to get a permit to do any sluicing but its pretty fun, however I'll keep my day job. lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYcrtHKaZlw

[Wee Jim]

We got gold here now too apprently!

So so will wait and see what come of this! It's just like 10 miles from me but the seam runs to damn near my door I was told!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...ous-metal.html

[245dlc]

Get yourself a pan Jim!

[245dlc]

About a month ago my wife and I went camping near an area popular for gold panners in the Rocky Mountains a couple hours west of here. I didn't strike it rich when we were there but we did a fair bit of panning and from what it appears most of the gold is flour (fine) gold, I did however bring back several pail fulls of gravel so I could try my own home made sluice made from a corrugated plastic drain pipe that I had cut in half along it's length. The pipe is about 4 or 5" in diameter I put the bottom end in a tub so I didn't end up with gravel all over the lawn and so I could retrieve most of it in case I had any problems with the pipe. I found right off the bat I need a bit of a screen at the top for the oversize rocks as they would plug the sluice. I did however find some very fine gold after I emptied the pails so bloody fine you almost need an electron microscope to see them. lol So the other day I decided I'd finally build a proper sluice box based on some dimensions that were given to me from a fella I met through a facebook group that did much the same. He had built his with 6" high sides which I thought was a little overkill so I built mine with 4" high sides. I cut up a sheet of 1/2" plywood for the floor and used some boards that were lying around for sides. I screwed everything together as well glued them with some high strength glue. I'll eventually seal everything with some urethane based goo so the wood doesn't fall apart or warp right away. I'll build a second shorter box with an open bottom that will have a screen on one half kinda like a grizzly on a crushing plant it will also have a spray bar so the gravel gets washed over the screen. The sluice box will also have some expanded metal screen with some kind of matting for catching the finer gold particles. I'll attach some pictures of that guy's 'highbanker' set up so you can get an idea of what I'm building.

[245dlc]

This is what I've built so far...

[245dlc]

I also bought a roll of 1/4" galvanized mesh for the grizzly and some of the fines from the drain pipe set up.

[v8druid]

quite amazing to think that there are still places that you can go and just 'try your luck' !!
I believe I am right in saying that there are still parts of Canada that are yet to be explored Bert?
It must be a vast country!

[245dlc]

quite amazing to think that there are still places that you can go and just 'try your luck' !!
I believe I am right in saying that there are still parts of Canada that are yet to be explored Bert?
It must be a vast country!

Aye Graeme longest coast line in the world, second largest country in terms of land mass next to Russia. And yes still large pieces of the country that are hiding their riches. For me it's just for fun there are guys spending hundreds even thousands of dollars on sluicing and panning equipment I can't afford that but I already have a couple of petrol powered pumps one is 3h.p. with a 2" suction and discharge. It use to belong to my dad and he used it to do the same sluicing for gold. He had it in storage for many years until my brother and I got a hold of it and brought it back to life, but it's quite heavy and awkward as the pump and impeller are made of cast iron where as my 2.5 h.p. 1" suction and discharge pump is quite light as it's almost all aluminum and despite being Chinese made it runs very nicely and puts out good pressure which will work good to help wash the gravel. Many guys are using 6 h.p. 2" pumps and it's kinda overkill unless your running a larger sluice box that might require it.

[v8druid]

neat lil' unit that Bert

I've gt a Loncin, Honda copy, with a 2" on it - runs a dream !!

Interesting figures for/about Canada Bert!!

[245dlc]

neat lil' unit that Bert

I've gt a Loncin, Honda copy, with a 2" on it - runs a dream !!

Interesting figures for/about Canada Bert!!

I think I've seen those Loncin engines here, I looked at the Honda equivalent to my pump which is slightly more powerful and has an 1 1/2" suction and discharge and I think it was close to $500. A bit pricey for the amount that I would use it.

[v8druid]

the 2" Loncin pump cost me 120 quid with 6m pick up and 20m discharge hoses Bert - delivered, new in a box. It's the equivalent to the 5.5hp Honda engine and starts as well too - I'll see if they're still doing 'em on ebay and put you up a link.

[245dlc]

Sounds good Graeme do you know what kind of pressure a pump like that puts out?50-60 psi maybe?

[v8druid]

Dunno Bert, but that 2" hose takes some hanging on to
Never tried putting a reducer on it?
I've got a 2" to 1/2" nozzle here somewhere - be interesting to see what it'd be like
Make a hell of wash down unit !!
You'd want a lorrawatter though

[245dlc]

My 2" pump maybe develops about 30 psi on it I do have a reducer to reduce it down to 1 1/2" which is a standard attack hose size for firefighting and did actually use it for that once. But even then you can hold it with one hand no problem I think because it only has 3 h.p. it can't generate any more pressure it's strictly a volume pump which it performs quite well as I used it several times for dewatering my backyard when I lived in Manitoba during the spring thaw. I also made up some reducers so it would pump through garden size hose and it could power two sprinklers fairly well and three sprinklers not so well.
Maybe your pump has multiple impellers on it? When I was still living under my parents roof I was a member of the local Fire Brigade there and we trained a lot for forest fires as the town was surrounded by forest, we had special high performance pumps that had 3 or 4 impellers and were designed to produce high pressure over long distances like up to a mile! As a decent water source could be quite far away. The engines were a two stroke design to be light and portable and used rotax engine technology to perform at higher RPM's. They cost about $5,000CAD brand new but are used by many firefighting agencies in Canada and the U.S. due to their high peformance and portability they are simply known as the 'Mark 3'.

http://www.wildfire-env.com/eng/waterax_pumps.php

[v8druid]

My 2" pump maybe develops about 30 psi on it I do have a reducer to reduce it down to 1 1/2" which is a standard attack hose size for firefighting and did actually use it for that once. But even then you can hold it with one hand no problem I think because it only has 3 h.p. it can't generate any more pressure it's strictly a volume pump which it performs quite well as I used it several times for dewatering my backyard when I lived in Manitoba during the spring thaw. I also made up some reducers so it would pump through garden size hose and it could power two sprinklers fairly well and three sprinklers not so well.
Maybe your pump has multiple impellers on it? When I was still living under my parents roof I was a member of the local Fire Brigade there and we trained a lot for forest fires as the town was surrounded by forest, we had special high performance pumps that had 3 or 4 impellers and were designed to produce high pressure over long distances like up to a mile! As a decent water source could be quite far away. The engines were a two stroke design to be light and portable and used rotax engine technology to perform at higher RPM's. They cost about $5,000CAD brand new but are used by many firefighting agencies in Canada and the U.S. due to their high peformance and portability they are simply known as the 'Mark 3'.

http://www.wildfire-env.com/eng/waterax_pumps.php

Rotax are brilliant engines Bert. I have a SWM Gori 325 trials bike with a Rotax disc valve motor in it. One of the nicest engines I've ever ridden.

I think my 2" pump is only a single impeller though.