How To Make A 4" Gold Sucker Pump

[Goldgrabber]

Here's a video showing how I've redesigned and made my monster 4" manual gold pump/dredge. I have a previous build version of this 4" manual gold pump on my youtube channel but due to trial & error, I have improved upon the previous design to make my 4" manual gold pump lighter, lose less material and create a smoother suction vacuum.

These pumps are great to use where you are not allowed to use any mechanical processing to remove material from rivers & streams as this is a purely manual process. One of these 4" manual gold pumps can fill a 1/4" classifier in just 3-4 draws depending on the material being worked, so they can save a lot of time compared to smaller versions of the pump which can take 5-10 minutes to fill the same classifier.

The cost to make one of these pumps is really minimal, especially if you can scavenge suitable parts because it doesn't have to look pretty as long as it works as its supposed to, I think this cost me about £15 in total to make ($25). I will be taking this pump out with me when my prospecting season starts in the coming weeks and hope to make some more videos to show how it works but if anyone wanted to make one as a project, I highly recommend it as it's a fun build with impressive results.

[tvanwho]

Why such a large diameter tube and how much weight is there in the pipe after sucking up rocks/gravel,water? Some of us are pushing 60 years old or more, can't seem to lift stuff as well as when we were young whipper snappers. I used to be able to carry a full 5 gallon pail of gravel at 80 pounds weight, now its more like a 2 gallon pail of maybe 30 pounds of rocks,if that...would like to see your invention in action....

-Tom

[Goldgrabber]

it's not as heavy as you'd think, my friend and I ran his on a couple of occasions last year and it worked a treat, filling a 1/4" classifier in 3-4 pumps rather than 3-5 minutes with a standard 2 1/2" pump.  We take the 2 1/2" pumps with us too but if there's a large area where the bigger pump fit's, then it shift so much more material per draw it's well worth the extra effort.

Here's a video of my friends 4" pump in action last year, made to the same spec as the video (minus the bend on the end) so you can see how well it works and how much material it shifts:

 

a bend on the end of the pump like in my first video will also stop all the material falling out as can be seen in this example vid

[Steve Herschbach]

This is similar Tom to the old Henderson Gravel Sucker, oldest such similar device I can recall. The goal is not to clean crevices but to actually suck up a quantity of gravel and deposit in a pan or bucket, sluice, whatever. In other words a super simple legal gold dredge. To do this you need a decent barrel size to get enough gravel and larger rock into the tube. Too small and it would just clog constantly. 4" seems to be the tickets not half because 4" PVC is so easy to get.

I probably still have the instructions for the Henderson Gravel Sucker in my pile of paperwork somewhere I should scan and post. Kind of historical at this point but you can see most of it in the link above actually on the side of the device.

This video shows one in use. Overpriced really for something you can make yourself so easily as goldgrabbers video shows.

[tvanwho]

I thought the pump looked kinda odd vs my Keene crevice sucker pump with 3/4 inch intake pipe? Never seen a contraption like this before?May have to put this on the Spring inventing/building list...sure would lessen the amount of heavy mining gear to bring on a sampling trip !!

A link on the IOWA gold forum I found just now...designed by a guy in UK it says..

http://www.iowagold.com/HOWTOPAGES/how_to_build_gold_sucker_stick.htm

[Steve Herschbach]

Actually Tom if you just pull the cap off your Keene you will have something almost identical the the Henderson device. I just looked and amazingly I still have one in my sniping stash and it is a 2.5" diameter tube just like the Keene. 4" would suck more up at a time but 2.5" is easier to get your hands around. I will post pictures later.

[Goldgrabber]

Yeah my 4" is based on the same principal of my 2 1/2" pump, which in turn is based around the Henderson pump.  for the 2 1/2" version, using a normal tennis ball works a treat to create the inner vacuum as it fits perfectly in a 2 1/2" pipe with a tiny bit of compression to get a good seal.  Really simple devices to build and make and far cheaper than buying pre-made ones as they all work on the same principal.  

Here's how I made my standard 2 1/2" version, a basic Henderson pump if you will:

 

and when in the field,  if you get inventive, you can put attachments on the end to turn it into a sniping pump like this attachment I made from rubbish I had while away prospecting: