I purchased a Keene A52P sluice from a local business on a recent trip to the Black Hills, and thought I would try it out.
I bought it assembled, as it was his display, and disassembled to save space as my car was packed with prospecting equipment, luggage and tools for work. After work, I took it straight to the creek I had been to 2 times previously in the last month with an A52 and an Angus Mackirk. Same spot, same material, etc.
Anyway, I worked till 5PM and drove an hour to my spot.....so it was getting late, and soon to be dark in the valley. Got my waders on, took out my pans, buckets, digging tools etc....and started to put the sluice together. What a pain. Click this, slide that, align this, slide this. I can fix or make anything but that thing was a genuine pain in the ass, and it really never did go together "right"
The riffles are absolutely awesome......The rest, the plastic....absolute crap. The upper flare is very flimsy and very thick. Mine has an 3/8" hump or upward bend to it that I have not been able to get out, even by putting weights in it suspended on top of my A52 for 2 weeks. As soon as I pop the weight off, the hump pops right back up. I thought of taking heat to it, but the other issues make the whole package too much of a pain to make it worth my while. The riffles are glued on the flare and after the first time out the riffles are separating from the plastic. The thickness of the riffle/plastic causes an eddy current that actually pulls material close to the upper edge of the flare right back off into the river!......And then of course the hump in the middle causes all sorts of headaches..... I thought about bonding a stiffener to straighten it but it's already too thick.
It wants to float. Putting a couple flat rocks on top to keep it down in the water, the plastic side rails kept wanting to buckle side to side, and the joint between the 2 lower sections would deflect up or down, causing more headaches. By the time I was done setting it all up and flowing good I had an hour into it. After running 2 buckets of material through it the torrential downpour began so I cleaned up and headed back to Rapid. Could have been 5-6 buckets if not for the lost time.
Cleanup revealed more problems. The lower 2 sections of riffles are held into the pan with rubber nubs that stick through the plastic. They are simply a friction fit, nothing to keep them firmly in, and in the short time I used it and struggled to set it up, some of them started to pop up. This opened up the joints somewhat between the riffle rubber mat and the side rails, and deposited material under the riffle mat. The upper and lower joints also "leaked" water in and material out. Looking at it after the fact....of course it leaked, it should have been obvious just by looking but I had to have a new toy. So, rubber mat on the flare is separating, the rubber mat on the lower 2 sections pops out of the plastic tray, and the whole thing is impossible to control
The good news is the riffles did an excellent job of concentrating the heavies. I can't say enough about the riffle design and how well they worked, just such a big disappointment in the package they were installed in. I am going to "gut" my A52 and glue in the riffles to make a custom unit that I think will perform like no other.
Replies
Have had that same backflow issue on metal sluices as well where it runs out the top of the box. I think that part has to do with multiple paths of current flowing through rocks and then converging. If you angle the flare towards the back flow it usually calms down and stops.
But yeah, the whole take apart in tiny pieces thing kept me from buying the one i looked at. I have gone a complete 180 on equipment. Anything that takes time to mess with on site is stealing time from your work. The clean up on the regular A52 was stealing about 5-10 min each time and the assembly to get started was stealing 5 min. If you do that 30 times...how many hours of productive time did you lose. I couldnt imagine the wasted time on the A52P.
I to have the A52p and I know what you mean. I was thinking of having some metal cut and bent to the same specs and height as the plastic and put a hinge on the bottom so the two boxes still fold up and then just attach the flare to it maybe with a hinge or something easy. As for the rubber mats I was thinking of cutting off the rubber pegs and using 2 part epoxy to keep it from going anywhere. Not sure how it would work but its worth a try, at least getting it level would be easier.
Hi Keith,
Thanks for your review.
I experienced the same issues. I received one of the first one made. No intructions, nothing numbered or lettered. I didn't know there was a video on YouTube. The flash was terrible. I had to get a small file and knife to scrape it before I could get everything together. First time, it took me 45 minutes to get it together and ready to go. I took a paint marker and lettered everything as where they went. (The Side Rails.)
I have had people tell me that they have broken the "ears" off that hold the said rails when they have taken it apart. I'm really careful to clean it really well, prior to dissassembly. I also had the same problem of the mat popping out of place. (I had one "lug" that just refused to stay in place! I think a little silicone sealant might help. Also would help with the leaking. (I didn't know if this was I had an early one, or if they all did this. I guess I got my answer.) It's very important that you "overlap" the matting between the flair and the sections.
But on a positive side, I'm like you. I'm really impressed with the Keene Matting. Next to Vortex Matting/Rough Top Conveyor Belt, it works very very good. (Keene Matting is expensive to buy. WOW!!) The other feature I like of the A52P is that you can add sections. It comes with 2 sections and the flair. But you can add as many sections as you want, (and your wallet can afford.) You can go from a normal stream sluice to a long tom if you want. AND, fold it all up at the end of the day!
At around $100, it's a pretty affordable stream sluice as well. (Compared to some of the metal ones out there.)
I think this is Keene's way of getting back some of the customers they lost to Angus Mackirk. JMO.
Good Hunting, Brian (Charlotte49er)
Ok, I bought 2 of these direct from Keene. I actually got off the phone yesterday with Pat Keene to talk about the sluice and and something that was backordered for me. The reasonI bought 2 was I wanted to be able to add a section, like they show in Marks blog and they did not sell the sections seperately yet. Pat told me they will be doing so in the near future.
I love the design and agree and disagree with your points. Yes it is a bit flimsy after assembly, and when it is full of water it wobbles quite a bit when picking it up. What I did to fix the situation was go to lowes and buy some metal strapping out of the electrical department and make supports accross the box about 1/3 up and down on each section. I drilled a few holes and used a few bolts with butterfly nuts to secure it. Now it is like their standard box that has clamps holding in the riffles. It is pretty sturdy now. As far as material falling out, I have not had that issue practicing with it. I have a wave pool I built out of a plastic yard pond to work out issues. I found it better to lean a few decent size rocks against the outside to hold it down instead of on top of it right where I have it strapped. For me it catches the gold and fine gold at that. One thing is to make sure that the airbubbles are not showing behind the ripples. The video of the super concentrator talks about them with this matting. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QMm9rlbAhY
Now you can buy the rubber matting direct from keen, it is the same matting just in black and they use it in their new super concentrator cleanup sluice that they sell for $395. The matting sellls for $8 per inch width and it comes in 36" lenth only. So you get 36" long by how ever many inch you want wide. that is $80 for the matting alone if you want a 10" sluice.
I would call pat or Mark and talk to them and tell them of your issues. Pat is pretty proud of himself having designed that matting and he loves to talk. I bet they would help you out with any problems you have.
How do these mods affect portability? Does it still fold up and fit in the bag? If not, sort of defeats the whole purpose, and makes it a non starter
I did not have any issues with collection of any materials, but the joints are in fact open, you can see air, thus water will come in and/or material will flow out. Water coming in the side of the sluice is not a good thing.
I appreciate your input. Please update us on your luck once you put it in the creek.