Randy's Sluice Box Mod/Vibrator Unit -- January 2018

Hey Gold Adventurers,

Trying to start 2018 off right.............and by that I mean recovering MORE gold in my 2 1/2 inch and 4 inch Keene sluice boxes...

I hit on the idea of a 12-volt battery powered vibrator to clamp onto my sluice boxes and "vibrate" to help any fine gold settle in, thru the black sand and not tumble, wash out the back.

Here on the Ark about 80% is all -50 mesh to 200 nano specks.  Little flakes can just keep tumbling down the box and out the back, especially if the matting is full of black sand.  We have insane amounts of heavy Magnetite and Hematite black sand here...

So, I installed a VIBCO DC-20 unit onto my 2 1/2 incher recently.  I drilled bolt holes that will also allow me to bolt it onto my 4 inch Keene sluice box as well. The VIBCO vibrator is often used to keep various materials "flowing" in chutes, pipes, etc., like sand and salt out the back of a snow plow truck, or grain flowing inside an elevator, etc. This little unit only weighs 4 pounds and pouts out 20 pounds of force at 3600 RPM and only draws 3 Amps.

Here's some pics FYI
 











My YouTube video here, showing it in operation on my garage floor:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEPwWUBjPoQ

SO, no idea IF it will work, help me get a better recovery, but I'll let everyone know come Spring, when I get back to dredging!!!  

Randy  C-17A  

Hi Randy:
I like that mod and it may well work for you. You may have to put a variable speed control to adjust the vibrations to conditions. By putting it in the middle of the sluice the max force should be just under the vibrator and at the top end the force should be less... same at the outlet. That may be just what you want. The early gold should settle right off the bat and the fine may well get caught just after that, then the heavies should get help clearing the lower riffles and then out of the sluice. Those black sands should never get the opportunity to lock up tight and allow the nano to flow out of the box.

I hope it works like that and gets the fines for you.

Come on Spring. Looking at the calendar today and looking to plan a trip to SC this April.

Good luck.

Dickb

Randy, back about 15-20 years ago I (along with guys over on goldminers on yahoogroups ) built a water powered ( V-P as it came tobe known)version of this device you got. picture of it is in the photo section of that site. I made it out of UHMW plastic with a internal Pelton wheel to drive it . I made several of these and installed one of them on my older 4 inch dredge BUT I installed it to give the vibration direction of up the sluice towards the feed. this way it gave (in essence) the same as a tapping of the side of the gold pan effect. I could add or take away the vibrations direction by turning up or down the force of the water that came from my p180 pump. The way you have yours installed it gives this device a sideways motion. I preferred the back up the sluice action to settle the fine gold and help keep the black sands in suspension and OUT of the box. JFYI !

Russ,

VERY cool what you did back in the day... Water powered too! I understand your "up the box towards the feed" rationale.

I mounted my VIBCO cross ways to yes, give the vibration a side to side effect. It's also how the instructions said to mount it, plus with only 20 lbs of force and a 4 foot long box that will be FULL of water weight and a lot of material weight, side to side will give me the best chance to "shake" the sluice box...

IF I have to change the location of the vibrator I can easily for best effect.

IF I have to try and change the direction of vibration, like you did, like length wise, that will take some reengineering effort...

We'll see!!!

Randy C-17A

Randy,

I am very interested to see how this works for you. I am going in a different direction with the sluice in my dredge and a vibrator like that may be just what I need to keep rocks moving. Since I have a mini 4" I don't have a lot of extra flotation so I'm concerned about floating a 12v battery along with everything else.

How long do you think it will run on a typical car battery? Maybe a motorcycle battery would be good for 8 hours.


Tony

Tony,

Thanks for looking...

I can't wait to try it out, but that won't be until very late March or into April depending on the snow/melt and when all the ice here unfreezes...

This vibrator is designed to "keep things moving" like grain, sand and other materials. Maybe the "vibration" can help you keep material flowing and not pack up?

No idea yet how long it might run on a fully charged car battery, BUT it only pulls 3 Amps, which isn't much. My big 2,000 GPH 12-volt bilge pump pulls about 7 Amps and I can run a good 4 to 5 hours straight before the battery get a little low (powering my Gold Cube).

Not sure how long a such smaller motorcycle battery would last, but I think it's gotta be a LOT less.

I'll be back posting an "update" after my first uses/tests and let you and everyone know how it goes, or not.

Stand by!

Randy C-17A

Randy,

I've got to say that this idea has me intrigued. Is there anyway you could post a short video showing how hard it shakes the sluice? Maybe you could put a few pennies in the bottom and show how they move.

I've got to tell you that I like your videos and I want to make a trip out west so badly I can't stand it.

Tony

Tony,

Here you go: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEPwWUBjPoQ&t=6s

The best I can do for now. It seems to "vibrate" O.K. on the garage floor. Won't have any really good idea until I get it out onto the river, the sluice full of water and material...

Randy C-17A

Your vibrator seems to be working good BUT when your dredge is in the water , the water WILL dampen the action of the vibration. I don't know how much it would , you could tell quickly when your on the river!! I'd like to see what the difference would be if the vibrator is turned to send the vibration wave effect up stream (like tapping your gold pan OR a wave table. It would be a good comparison between the two!

Russ,

Very good comment... I am sure the water WILL dampen the vibrating to some degree.

Can't wait to try it out, see IF it helps at all or is just an epic fail.

I'll be sure to let everyone know!

Randy C-17A

Randy, we have had spring...did you get a chance to try out the vibrating unit? You many have mentioned it in a slucing/dredging post, but I, haven't had time to read all the threads and I am way behind due to medical problems. Haven't had a change to even get my feet wet yet. Probably won't until fall at the earliest.

Dave,

GREAT to hear from you again!!!

Yes. In March & then in April I tried the VIBCO DC-20 unit out on both my 2 1.2 incher and later on my 4 incher...

Nothing "scientific" but I think it worked out real well...

It seemed to vibrate the smaller dredge box better, BUT it also made the huge 4 inch 7-foot long box vibrate too... I think it's a winner, especially with all the insane amounts of heavy black sand and super fine flood gold on the Ark.

Here's some videos I made, posted to my YouTube Channel. You can look for yourself. 24, 25 & 26 March with the 2 1/2 incher. Then, 27 thru 30 April with the 4 incher.

https://www.youtube.com/user/C0017A/videos?disable_polymer=1

Is your sweet wife doing any better? How you doing???

Randy C-17A

Hi Dave:

Really good to hear from you and I hope things are doing well at your house. Best regards and take lots of good care of yourself.

Dickb

ALCON,

I felt like giving "you all" a stuck indoors, deep wintertime follow up post here on my 12-volt DC-20 VIBCO vibrator I have used numerous times now on both my little 2 1/2 inch and bigger Keene ultra mini 4 inch dregdes, here in High Kolorado on the Arkansas River.

Overall, I am VERY pleased with how this little, lightweight vibrator can and does "vibrate" the sluice box and help settle fine to super fine gold into the matting, thru all the black sand.

Nothing is ever 100% when dealing with this fine a gold and the insane amounts of heavy iron based black sand, but the mods I've done to both my dredges.....extending the boxes, removing all factory riffle/mats/carpeting, installing just Vortex & Vortex-like conveyor belt matting and the vibrator is as close to 100% recovery as I think I'll ever get...  

Sample pans of the tailings for both dredges show next to nothing as to loss, in the big picture anyways.  A few nano flakes or specks, but nothing worth frustrating over...

SO, VERY happy with my dredges and this vibrator.

Now, COME ON SPRING!!!

Randy  C-17A  

Well it's no fun being stuck indoors for the winter, but Spring is coming and that a good thing for sure. Glad to hear the mods are working for you. Too bad you can't put a heated ice fishing shack on the river and work all winter long. HA LOL
Stay warm and keep the faith.

Dickb

Dick ,good idea about the heated fishing shack