sjmpainter

Steve, dredge is at the creek - Any time your ready. LOL

Jim, I actually thought about taking chainsaw in this winter. Then I came to my senses. I got to ask did you end up dredging under the ice? And was it worth it?

Glad to know this brings back good times for you guy's.

One thing, With dredging banned in CA. And we are talking a large dredge here. I can't imagine that being a hot seller. I wouldn't hesitate to negotiate the price to a point that you just cant walk away.

From what you said about buying a new Proline for triple the money, well your not there yet!

Well got the dredge fixed up as much as I'm gonna! Springs here and I got the fever. So in we go.

Took the dredge in assembled just skidded it in on the float and pulled it with a snowmobile. That was nice with all the snow it was about a mile in.

Getting the dredge into the canyon was another deal. Although not to bad lowered it in with a rope and a pulley.

Made for a long day but I was glade we got it in before the snow melted, skidding everything was a lot easier than packing in.

Went up the following weekend to try out the new six inch dredge!

Had big plans to get in early Saturday and work late, figured I could get 8-10 hours on the nozzle. LOL! Well its been a long winter and seems I'm a bit outta shape. After four hours of dredging in the cold I was done!

All in all I had a blast. The new dredge really put out compared to the four inch I've been using. Even got a few grams for the effort.

May not seem like much but after being cooped up all winter and seeing all the gold post from down south and across the pond........ I was getting Bitchy ;-)

P.S. Hope the snow pics helps you down in Texas.

Goldgetter, That setup will pump dirt!

If you are getting a good deal on the dredge don't worry about it. You can always add a second pump if you find you need more power.

What I would be concerned with is the condition of the floats and hose. If they are brittle or dry rotted you will need to replace them and they are spendy.

The way I see it it's just a matter of what you are going to pay for the dredge verses a new one and what that leaves for replacement parts or upgrades if needed.

I got an excellent deal on my dredge at 5300.00 but two weeks after I bought it one came up on Craigslist, year old and sold for 2000.00. If I had waited just a bit longer I would have purchased that one for 3300.00 less and I would have plenty of wiggle room to do any repairs necessary, Go figure!

As far as the clean out on my dredge, not an issue I pull the large pieces out of the upper nugget trap area and the rest of the cons get stockpiled for running thru a Gold Cube during the winter months.

Looks like you are in California, can you dredge there?

Yes it has the triple sluice. Looks to be the same as yours with a different motor - jet setup. 

I like the way the single is set up. May be harder to pack in but it looks really clean without all the extra hoes and what not.

I would be curious how that set up does in rough water. I would think with the motor up high it would be less stable???

Dahlke makes the Tri-Jet log. I don't have any experience with them but The claims is they are more efficient than a standard side induction jet.

Last weekend I fired up my new Keene six inch dredge for the first time, it has two Keene P180 pumps rated at 250 GPM and Honda GX200 engines rated at 6 HP.

I ended up running at 3/4 throttle and had plenty of suction and the box cleaned out fast.

I would imagine with the more efficient tri-jet you will be just fine. Might need to run it at full throttle but that Honda will handle it.

Good Luck............

As Steve said any small pump will work well with the two inch jet. Keene P90 with the Honda GX 50 0r Proline HP 100 with the Honda GX 50. I would spend the money to set it up with a good dredge pump as I'm sure that set up will hold the value at the used market.

This may be of help?

Probably too hot for down south but Muck brand boot for me.

http://www.muckbootcompany.com/

I wear Filson broad brim hats myself, more for the cold and rain but they do make an excellent hat for sun. I don't believe they put any metal in them. Worth a look.

https://www.filson.com/men/hats-caps.html

I use a Filson Packard hat that is insulated with fold down wool ear flaps. Best inclement weather prospecting hat ever.

For metal detecting with headphones I use a insulated ball cap style Filson hat.

Can you tell who is follicle challenged. LOL.

17 minutes ago, Steve Herschbach said:

I have found a number of copper nuggets in Alaska while detecting for gold. They are very common in some areas. I have intended to go detecting specifically for copper nuggets but somehow the quest for gold always takes precedence.

 

Can you recommend any places that would be good in Alaska. I think copper is  much prettier than any other metal, having a few nuggets to put in the display would be neat!

Years ago I found a small copper nugget about the size of a 22 bullet at Matanuska glacier, sure liked that little nugget. Ended up putting it in a small vial of gold,

Sometime later I sold a spiral panner to a lady with a handicapped son. He really liked prospecting and she thought it was really helping him with his disability. She told me they were not having good luck finding gold and didn't know the difference between gold and fools gold. Well I marched rite into the house grabbed a vile of gold and gave it to her!

She really appreciated that and I felt good about myself until I realized that 1/4 oz of gold also had that little copper nugget in it. Still irritated about that!

You can make floats from PVC pipe and fitting. Cheap and easy.

Use deep cycle batteries. They are designed to be discharged many times.

FYI - You can use two 6 volt batteries in series to make 12 volt.

How much PSI - GPH dose your pump have?

Have you settled on a design yet?

So I've been working on my new dredge and its turning into a chunk of change. That has me thinking I need to plan a bit. Been lucky to date I have only lost a GEO pick but even that is 60.00.

I'm looking for ideas as to deter people from getting into my stuff and vandalizing or stealing. What are the rest of you guy's doing?

So far I have cables and locks for the dredges and I ordered security bolts to secure the motors. Looking at a game cam to post on a tree at the main road to get a picture of any driving in figure i'll get a license plate that way as well as a profile. Anyone have a favorite camera? Maybe some" smile your on camera signs"?

I am looking at some camouflaged tarps and I did paint up some steel lock boxes for hand tools and small gear.

Anyone use GPS tracking devices?

Not looking to set up booby traps to hurt people but if anyone has a landmine that blows out crap, I'm listening

Here are the lock boxes I painted.

Like you said Steve anything you can do before dredging in cold water is worth wile. And if all else fails you can have a hot sandwich.

I can see me using this every day I dredge cold weather or not. So for 36 bucks and 5 min. of install probably one of the better additions to my dredge.

Not sure how I managed to order the FTI version verse the Muffpot but good call on that I feel its a bit better unit.

Thought this might be a good add. Now I can have a hot sandwich wile I'm dredging. 

Looking forward to that thread, all the advice you guy post is a big help to me to get things going this season and I'm picking up on a few things that I ad no clue about.

Ok, looking at my P180. It looks to be a newer model. 

The pvc fitting can only go into the alluminium housing so far as it is machined with a stop on the case.

Looking down the ejecter port you can see the aluminum casing matting close to the impeller.

The new impeller has a nose cone instead of the aluminum intake on it. Looks like Keene took that off the impeller and added it to the case instead of using the pvc fitting.

Hanging out with you guy's is getting expensive?

Got the jet back from the welding shop. Good to go!

LipCal, with the increased PSI were you able to run your motor at a lower rpm and have the same performance? I'm thinking this may be a good tweak to help save fuel. Anything I can do to keep from hauling in fuel is worth looking into.

36 minutes ago, LipCa said:

Steve,

I believe that "plastic cuff" you are referring too on the P-180 dictates the pressure of the pump?

I had one P-180 setup that I had a pressure gauge on the outlet side of the pump. (4" dredge)

New, I think it was about 38 lbs. of pressure.  I filed off the "stop ring" on the plastic inlet fitting and tapped it in towards the impellor until I felt it start to drag.  I now had 54 lbs. of pressure at the outlet.

I can see that having some effect. Took the pump housing off to install some drain plugs and I was surprised to see how rough the casting on the inside is. I wonder if porting and polishing would make a huge difference? Also I found large globs od silicone inside at the 3/4 side port. I cut that out as it was just sloppy install work.

Steve, those T handle clamps are the best! I use em on anything I take on and off a lot.

For the pressure fittings I use Bandit center punch clamps. The only way those fail is with a hack saw.

The only bad part it takes a clamp tool to install and they are a bit pricy.

I thought installing quick disconnects to the intake was going to be straight forward and a simple PVC slip fitting with a threaded end! Well that Keene fitting is not standard 2 1/2 PVC pipe.

I googled for any info on the intake with a Cam Loc fitting, looks like I'm the only one looking to do this. I did figure out you can replace the Keene fitting( Armadillo Mining 18.00 ea.) With that I decided to get creative. Reality set in and being we are looking at a low pressure suction connection I figured id just glue my 2 1/2 inch Cam Loc fitting to the PVC nipple. I ended up using Sikaflex 1a to do this.

Here is what I ended up with, hope it holds.

Bear, didn't even know there is a gasket in the jet log, learning something new every day

My welding sucks so..........Jets in the shop getting nipples welded on.

Next issue, anyone figure a way to add cam locks to the pump intake. That black PVC nipple appears to be a custom piece.

Two issues with vac hose. 1. cant see though to see plugs. 2. make sure the inside of the hose is smooth.

If you want to use vacuum parts...........here you go! http://www.ruwac.com/accessories

Don't worry about the gold half dollars! I grantee you won't need a suction dredge to get those out, LOL.