Dredging with a 8 inch in NZ

Ahhhh! now ive had my morning fix!

What a dredge! They moved so much material. I don't know a whole lot about dredging, but it seems like you would want a classifier on the end of that nozzle. I thought it would have more suction than it did, and was surprised you could stick your hand right in front of the nozzle without it pulling your hand in.

MinerMatt wrote:What a dredge!  They moved so much material.  I don't know a whole lot about dredging, but it seems like you would want a classifier on the end of that nozzle.  I thought it would have more suction than it did, and was surprised you could stick your hand right in front of the nozzle without it pulling your hand in.

Don't ever put your hand in front of a 8 inch nozzle because youll probly have a hard time removeing your arm from it without stopping the engine. that is a good way to get your hand smashed with a big rock! it appeared that he did have the engine RPMs down .

Thanks Russ, I was thinking the same thing about the engine not being at full throttle. At full throttle, with an 8 inch, I think that might blow all your gold out of the box. What do you think Russ?

I agree on blowing out the fine gold depending on how the sluice is confirgured. BUT 5 and bigger is known to lose fine gold.

Matt, Russ,

Wow................now THAT is a big ass nozzle!

Totally agree that they had it powered down, running probably as slow as they could...

Very interesting too...........most every 8 inch nozzle I've seen there's a built in safety flap on the side that normally consists of a rectangular slot cut in the side, then a couple metal rods welded cross wise in the cutout and finally a stiff section of conveyor belt with a handle built in to "seal" the cutout with nothing more than suction.

This way, IF you ever get a BIG rock jammed in the nozzle opening or your hand/arm sucked in, you can pull back the flap, bypass the water, cut the suction at the nozzle entrance...

I didn't see that on this big 8 inch nozzle. Anyways, looked like fun and a good job using a garden hose and water blaster to free up the material, blast everything into the nozzle. I used to do that in Georgia a lot when I dredged on the bedrock there. It REALLY works and helps keep your hands away from the nozzle opening and minimizes "rock slap" on your fingers.

Thanks for the video.

Randy C-17A