Hello all,
I will be building a beach box to ship up to Nome so when my mom visits she can try her hand at prospecting. I will be doing extensive sampling to get her into a good spot, but I need help on the design of the beach box. I will be making it out of aluminum. It will be 5' long by 2' wide. It will be powered with a 2" keene pump and 4hp honda motor. I plan on having at least 30 feet of normal 2" rigid dreging hose going out to the foot valve so that 4 wheelers and trucks that use the beach as a highway can roll over a 20' portion of the hose that will be buried. The box will have v-matting and unbacked miners moss held down by 1/2" expanded metal and some magnets at the edges.
So I have the general idea I think, but I have these questions:
-How far does the foot valve (is this also called a stinger?) have to go out into the surf to get constant water?
-How do you keep the foot valve off the sand so you don't ruin the impeller by sand blasting it to death?
-What size classification screen have you found to work the best?
-What angle does the classification screen have to be to make sure all the bigger rocks slide off on their own?
-Do you have any links to more inforation of DIY builds?
-Is 30' rigid hose enough?
-How much total length of hose should I ship? I have 70' of layflat.
Thanks a lot guys and gals.
-Kevin
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Hi Kevin, you really don't need a high pressure pump, a trash pump will work and if you suck some sand it won't hurt it either. The stingers are the foot valves for beach boxes you see being dragged by beach miners that move all their gear to the spot they are digging in. Others haul dirt/material to one set spot where they have their beach box or highbanker set up. There's a trough in the ocean just off the beach that dips down then rises back up again. That's why many beach miners use a long stinger,30' or so to get out past the ditch where there's less turbulence and less dirt floating around. This gets stuck in your spray bar/bars so having clean outs for sand and small gravel makes sense,good luck Dan
elevate your pump like 30 inches, to avoid the waves they move around, and salt spray.
on the footvalve set it up on a tee with a base several feet wide and block off and fill with sand ballast
you will also have to stake the foot valve or the current will break it and turn it on to the beach.
some add wheels to make getting in the water easier and then the sand locks the wheels down pretty good
use 30 feet hard pipe to pump from footvalve, then a 6-8 foot suction hose to connect to elevated pump
Spike
I have many more ideas for you, I spent 7 summers up there mining everywhere.
I can't answer all of the questions, but I will take a shot at a couple or three.
"How do you keep the foot valve off the sand so you don't ruin the impeller by sand blasting it to death?"
I would recommend using PVC pipe to be in the surf and a 90 degree elbow/tee so the footvalve is positioned in an upright manner, you can get a 4 way PVC fitting that is a 3 way Tee but the 4th part of the fitting is at 90 degrees, using this fitting you can use 2 pieces of PVC pipe capped off at right angles to the PVC pipe coming from the beach to help keep the footvalve upright be sure to add some heavy wight to help with the surf action, connect your layflat or rigid hose to the PVC at the edge of the surf, here is a link to a youtube video on Lake Michigan using a highbanker with a footvalve setup as I described...
"What size classification screen have you found to work the best?"
Since you are only wanting to run the sand from the beach, I would go no bigger than 1/4", I would use 1/4" some use 1/2", most people classify while shoveling into the bucket, you may want to check the classified off materials for the very rare picker/nugget, but don't waste to much time doing so, if you plan on taking a metal detector you could check your tailings with it.
"How far does the foot valve (is this also called a stinger?) have to go out into the surf to get constant water?
What angle does the classification screen have to be to make sure all the bigger rocks slide off on their own?
Do you have any links to more inforation of DIY builds?
Is 30' rigid hose enough?
How much total length of hose should I ship? I have 70' of layflat."
I can't give you exact answers to these questions, but the afore mentioned video and this video maybe of help to you, I will try to find some more videos or answers if I can..
Gold Seeker > Gold SeekerDecember 12, 2009 at 5:01pm
The first half of this video shows a beach box setup being ran, you may want to turn your sound down, unless you want to revisit your childhood, I will let that part be a surprise!!LOL
This video is made by "popandsonsminers" who is also is the same one who started and perfected the "popandsons sluice" this is not a "beachbox" per say, but it does answer your "stinger" question...
Here is another video by "popandsonminers" of "Peluk's" operation, Peluk is a well known and fulltime nome beach prospector and what he runs is not your typical "beachbox"...
Replies
on the footvalve set it up on a tee with a base several feet wide and block off and fill with sand ballast
you will also have to stake the foot valve or the current will break it and turn it on to the beach.
some add wheels to make getting in the water easier and then the sand locks the wheels down pretty good
use 30 feet hard pipe to pump from footvalve, then a 6-8 foot suction hose to connect to elevated pump
Spike
I have many more ideas for you, I spent 7 summers up there mining everywhere.
I can't answer all of the questions, but I will take a shot at a couple or three.
"How do you keep the foot valve off the sand so you don't ruin the impeller by sand blasting it to death?"
I would recommend using PVC pipe to be in the surf and a 90 degree elbow/tee so the footvalve is positioned in an upright manner, you can get a 4 way PVC fitting that is a 3 way Tee but the 4th part of the fitting is at 90 degrees, using this fitting you can use 2 pieces of PVC pipe capped off at right angles to the PVC pipe coming from the beach to help keep the footvalve upright be sure to add some heavy wight to help with the surf action, connect your layflat or rigid hose to the PVC at the edge of the surf, here is a link to a youtube video on Lake Michigan using a highbanker with a footvalve setup as I described...
https://www.youtube.com/user/ok2co
"What size classification screen have you found to work the best?"
Since you are only wanting to run the sand from the beach, I would go no bigger than 1/4", I would use 1/4" some use 1/2", most people classify while shoveling into the bucket, you may want to check the classified off materials for the very rare picker/nugget, but don't waste to much time doing so, if you plan on taking a metal detector you could check your tailings with it.
"How far does the foot valve (is this also called a stinger?) have to go out into the surf to get constant water?
What angle does the classification screen have to be to make sure all the bigger rocks slide off on their own?
Do you have any links to more inforation of DIY builds?
Is 30' rigid hose enough?
How much total length of hose should I ship? I have 70' of layflat."
I can't give you exact answers to these questions, but the afore mentioned video and this video maybe of help to you, I will try to find some more videos or answers if I can..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXCi6OhCbTk
Skip
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-g4PBjJyXmw&feature=related
This video is made by "popandsonsminers" who is also is the same one who started and perfected the "popandsons sluice" this is not a "beachbox" per say, but it does answer your "stinger" question...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NVHIV5lv9E&feature=related
Here is another video by "popandsonminers" of "Peluk's" operation, Peluk is a well known and fulltime nome beach prospector and what he runs is not your typical "beachbox"...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4HiCu2vb9g&feature=related
You may want to check out some of the "related" videos on all of the links posted for some more input.
Skip