Not Enough To Be " Just A Letrap "

[johnedoe]

Here's another shot of the sluice ..... 

 

[Swampstomper Al]

NOTE: Posting this reply incomplete to show johnedoe & I are following the same train of thought as far as a possible solution posting time-wise.. Remainder to follow.. Swamp

Question: Is that V-mat or U-mat..? I blew the photo up as large as I could and still can't really tell.. Reason I ask is cos one time I'd ordered some V-mat and what was sent was this extreme U-mat, closer to a T-mat really.. The stuff was basically unusable (at my water-flow rate at least) for exactly the same reason and under the same condition(s) you describe.. No punch plate involved either..
 

[Swampstomper Al]

-- continued:

Two possible solutions / suggestions -- one more along the lines of a johnedoe approach, pre all of Doc's many new matting designs, tried and shown workable; the second following along with delnorter and his usage of doc's new mat designs..

I ended up ripping out that T-mat and going with a conveyor-belt type mat / design, which at that time was extreme as far as traps and/or trapping areas were concerned but with no scientific testing proof-of-concept to back it up.. The one thing I found I needed to do to achieve the best gold recovery was further classification and not running 20+ and larger through due to this matting's depth / shallowness.. It was the disparity of weight between the fine gold and larger black sands together that was causing gold loss both after it had been captured and also due to flowing over already loaded up traps..

The second is basically the use of Doc's new high flow rate matting designs, and/or in delnorter's case the use of Doc's new river sluice and its matting combination / pattern..

The second isn't what you're after though.. I think " a " solution is as simple as no need for the punch plate, a different mat design and further classification due to the black sands volume.. The stacking of screens + dry material = hardly any add'l time in order to get to both a higher capture return and clearing rate..

Swamp
 

[LipCa]

JD, that BS looks about like mine....   I do have 24" of slickplate prior to punchplate/V mat(Yes, it is V mat, not U plate)

I think there is just too much BS and it is overwhelming the V mat.

The distance between the punchplate and V mat is twice the diameter of the punchplate(or, 3/8")

More later....

[johnedoe]

When I do run punch plate on my beach sluice I have it at least an inch above the slick plate... Even then it can stall and stop flowing... I have since adapted it to more of a high banker where I have the water available.

[GB_Amateur]

On 8/27/2017 at 6:03 PM, LipCa said:

I think there is just too much BS and it is overwhelming...

Now I'm confused.  I thought this thread was about a sluice box but now it appears to have degenerated into a discussion of detector manufacturers' pre-release hype.

[Steve Herschbach]

I believe BS equals Black Sands and not what you are possibly thinking it means.

[LipCa]

Right

 

[gambler]

not trying to derail this thread, but you can highbank in california. you just can't discharge directly into a water course.  I usually set up far enough away to allow the sediment to drop out before the water makes it's way back to the river. if I'm too close to the water to do that, I use a mortar tub to allow the discharge to settle.

[LipCa]

Gambler.....

True you can highbank but you must be 300' away from the stream.  No motorized equipment within 300' for the purpose of recovering minerals. That includes pumps.

Very hard to do that on most streams.