Forum

To Bolt or Not to Bolt

Posted by Steve Orth on March 9, 2017 at 9:31pm in Dredging

So in the next month or so, after 15 years of panning and sluicing, I'll be ordering a brand new 2.5" Proline dredge/highbanker combo for use mostly in the smaller creeks of Southwestern Ohio.

I'm looking for the pros and cons of drilling a couple of holes in the nozzle and inserting a bolt to restrict the size of the rocks I dredge. In my online reading I'm finding disagreement. One camp says, "I don't care how small or large a dredge you have - why would you do ANYTHING to restrict its effectiveness?" while the other leans more toward, "Why would you want to suck up bigger rocks and risk plug-ups in Ohio when the gold is so fine?" The no-bolters say most plug-ups are due to operator error and if you learn not to bury the nozzle in sand and to toss flat rocks before they get to the nozzle, you'll have very few plug-ups, while the yes-bolters say there's very little learning curve when your nozzle CAN'T grab those rocks that tend to cause plug-ups.

Are there any other considerations, either pro or con, when deciding whether to bolt or not to bolt?

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Replies

  • paul conroy March 12, 2017 at 7:16pm

    also another idea that is cheap is to put on a pvc size down ie 2 inch to 1.5 just for an example yes you are now making it a 1.5 inch dredge noz but nothing ever will glog till you get used to running it :)

  • Orrin Haberman March 11, 2017 at 7:58am

    I had a similar problem with the river gravel, tried a nozzle guard and still had clogs, but most were in the guard itself not the nozzle or hose.  What I eventually did was to take a standard 3" u-bolt one size larger than my 2 1/2" nozzle and two hose clamps. I clamped the u-bolt to outside of my nozzle and have been very happy with it since. If something jams in the gap, it is much easier to clear and there is less restriction to the nozzle itself. Price wise was only few bucks at Lowe's or Home Depot.

  • kchacha March 11, 2017 at 7:24am
    Putting a bolt through your nozzle essentially cuts your nozzle size in half. You are better off to not put a bolt through it, just learn how to manage the end of your nozzle. The engineering and design is built in. Don't change it! Good luck!
  • Keith N-NC March 10, 2017 at 10:37pm

    Keene 4" hardly ever plugs up with out a guard............it just eats anything 4" or smaller!!!

     

  • Tim G (Creator) March 10, 2017 at 5:43am

    all I no is since I put a guard on mine I have had no plugs

    • Steve Orth > Tim G (Creator) March 10, 2017 at 10:21am

      Thanks, guys - as I hadn't looked into nozzle guards - and like how you can take them off and on instead of making permanent modifications to the nozzle. Here's a video I found showing one of them.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umrGFOlgWas

      Also found a funny exchange where one guy said to NOT use one - again with the argument that all you're doing is reducing the productivity of your dredge and causing you to have to remove a LOT of rocks by hand. Another guy replied that if he's spending 20 minutes every hour shut down to remove plug-ups, he's losing a lot of productivity too ;)

  • Gilbert Cantrell March 9, 2017 at 10:55pm
    I practiced on an old nozzle that exact idea once. Don't waste your time. It actually reduces suction and causes more plug ups.
  • Keith N-NC March 9, 2017 at 10:05pm

    Start by pulling your nozzle backwards that will help you out and you can pick up a nozzle protector cheap that keeps you nozzle tip from wearing and getting out of round as well get you a poke stick if you hammer on the nozzle you will flat spot it like I did my first one.....see here::::::https://www.carolinaprospectors.net/Martin_Dredge_Classifier_Reduce...

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