Using the new Autofeeder and modified A19 concentrator. set it up and walk by every once in a while and open the tap a little more. All done spooning for hours!!!
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O. K., yesterday I hooked up the feeder like you are showing in the picture, with the “Y” on my Cal Bucket Sluice, and it worked some better. My pump is an electric submersible that I bought a couple years ago to build a lawn fountain (still haven’t) I don’t know it’s output, but probably less than the 500 GPH bilge pump. I put my Garret gold pan under the front legs, and got it to flow from 4 sets of holes, and dripping from the 5th. I’m thinking about soldering my holes closed, and re drilling to 1/16th”. Can’t hurt to try, and I can always open them up if it doesn’t work so well.
The 25 is the front where it feeds and the back is the 22. I tend to grab whatever pump is laying on top but it does fine with the 500 and the 600. Have the pump hose going into a Y with on and off ball valves on each. Then the Y goes into whichever concentrator and the branch into the sink tap. I start the concentrator with the feeder off and dial in the pressure to concentrator a little lower than it would normally run to make up for the added water of the feeder. (off of the Y). Then with the sink tap off, open the branch about a third and then the sink tap for fine adjustment. When its running, I just walk by and open the the sink tap a little at a time. Had a power supply for the pump but it wasn't a good one and didn't last long. Got it used at the thrift. Now i just swap and charge between the two batts. With batts, as they draw down you have to adjust the volume/pressure at the Y so the sink tap keeps its standard pressure. Its more of a hassle. Will pick up a good power supply when I get a chance. That really helps over the batts. When you have the incoming pressure from the Y to the sink tap set properly it can be opened from beginning to end and slowly bring each hole of the drippers online without spraying over the sides. It looks like a spray bar but its actually a drip bar. The angle and hole spacing allow the water flowing down the lower half of the bar to build up past each hole as you open that fine tap. Where as a spraybar is under pressure, your only allowing enough pressure for each hole to come online. You should be able to bring each set of holes online from front to back as needed.
I made the feeder like the plans call for, back legs 25”, and the front 22”. It seems to be too steep of an angle to me. The spray bar only flows from the bottom 3 sets of holes + the one pointing down, and if I turn up the water, then it shoots over the side. Thinking of cutting an inch off the back legs. So far I’m not liking this feeder all that much.
My biggest mistake was trying to open the tap and let enough water through to eat away the piles fast. Its all in that very thin narrow layer of slurry that's flowing down the tray. In this pic its 3/4" to 1" wide so its actually losing some flour off the end of the concentrator. 1/2" to 5/8" wide and thin slurry is the best run. Now I don't fill it all the way full of cons and leave the front portion empty of the feeder to monitor the slurry flow. Thats where i focus for the best results.
Jim, that's right for hole size. any smaller and they will plug and larger and too much comes out of the feeder at once. these are 2 and 1/4" apart. If you look at the drain hole there is also one hole at the end of the pipe pointing down into the drain. This didn't make sense at first but its dead center bottom at 90 degrees and isn't drilled through. This is to clear silt that gets pumped up into the tube. You can see it coming out and going straight down at the capped end. I bring back between 1.5 and 2.5 gal of cons from an average sluice day. Just wait long enough for the cons in the sluice to build black to 3/4 of the way down , then pull and rinse the deposits without breaking down the sluice. seems like that's the sweet spot to pull and rinse without losing too much fine. Both concentrators seem to catch best when there is a regular, thin flow of slurry coming down the feeder trat at about 1/2" to 5/8" wide. At 3/4" both concentrators will let some fine skip through. For screening I have good luck running 3 sizes. 1/8" down to 20 mesh. 20 down to 30. And then im usually too lazy to do a 50 mesh so I run it through everything -30 for the last size and run the drop riffle concentrator for that. If I try to run -30 on the A19 some of the real fine bounces out without sinking in the black. It needs a slower feed and the 50 mesh screening for a 4th size to really work well. There is going to be a learning curve but your closed loop so laugh it off and fine tune your work for the concentrator your running.
Flour Mike, I have my auto feeder pritty much made except for mounting it to the frame. I'd like to ask, what size holes did you put in the spray bar? I used a 3/32nd inch, and spaced them 2" apart. May have to open them up after testing.
If your Ok using a tubing cutter pop riveter and a drill, they sell the special angle tub blanks and basic instructions for $9.95 plus shipping. I have the process down so i can give the basics if anyone gets one or builds one and then has trouble. (yeah i put the nugget next to the second stream of water for effect) I had some bumps getting started because i acted like a stupid kid instead of thinking things through. I have it on a Y and both devices are running on a 500gph 12v bilge. I have some larger ones but a 500 works fine. One thing. You need a real tap like the picture to get your fine stream adjustment. cheap ones wont cut it.
I think this is the best $60 you could spend if you run a lot of cons. Not sure how it would do on a bowl but for riffle concentrators its the way. When I think of all the time i wasted spooning and course panning.....
Comments
O. K., yesterday I hooked up the feeder like you are showing in the picture, with the “Y” on my Cal Bucket Sluice, and it worked some better. My pump is an electric submersible that I bought a couple years ago to build a lawn fountain (still haven’t) I don’t know it’s output, but probably less than the 500 GPH bilge pump. I put my Garret gold pan under the front legs, and got it to flow from 4 sets of holes, and dripping from the 5th. I’m thinking about soldering my holes closed, and re drilling to 1/16th”. Can’t hurt to try, and I can always open them up if it doesn’t work so well.
The 25 is the front where it feeds and the back is the 22. I tend to grab whatever pump is laying on top but it does fine with the 500 and the 600. Have the pump hose going into a Y with on and off ball valves on each. Then the Y goes into whichever concentrator and the branch into the sink tap. I start the concentrator with the feeder off and dial in the pressure to concentrator a little lower than it would normally run to make up for the added water of the feeder. (off of the Y). Then with the sink tap off, open the branch about a third and then the sink tap for fine adjustment. When its running, I just walk by and open the the sink tap a little at a time. Had a power supply for the pump but it wasn't a good one and didn't last long. Got it used at the thrift. Now i just swap and charge between the two batts. With batts, as they draw down you have to adjust the volume/pressure at the Y so the sink tap keeps its standard pressure. Its more of a hassle. Will pick up a good power supply when I get a chance. That really helps over the batts. When you have the incoming pressure from the Y to the sink tap set properly it can be opened from beginning to end and slowly bring each hole of the drippers online without spraying over the sides. It looks like a spray bar but its actually a drip bar. The angle and hole spacing allow the water flowing down the lower half of the bar to build up past each hole as you open that fine tap. Where as a spraybar is under pressure, your only allowing enough pressure for each hole to come online. You should be able to bring each set of holes online from front to back as needed.
I made the feeder like the plans call for, back legs 25”, and the front 22”. It seems to be too steep of an angle to me. The spray bar only flows from the bottom 3 sets of holes + the one pointing down, and if I turn up the water, then it shoots over the side. Thinking of cutting an inch off the back legs. So far I’m not liking this feeder all that much.
My biggest mistake was trying to open the tap and let enough water through to eat away the piles fast. Its all in that very thin narrow layer of slurry that's flowing down the tray. In this pic its 3/4" to 1" wide so its actually losing some flour off the end of the concentrator. 1/2" to 5/8" wide and thin slurry is the best run. Now I don't fill it all the way full of cons and leave the front portion empty of the feeder to monitor the slurry flow. Thats where i focus for the best results.
Jim, that's right for hole size. any smaller and they will plug and larger and too much comes out of the feeder at once. these are 2 and 1/4" apart. If you look at the drain hole there is also one hole at the end of the pipe pointing down into the drain. This didn't make sense at first but its dead center bottom at 90 degrees and isn't drilled through. This is to clear silt that gets pumped up into the tube. You can see it coming out and going straight down at the capped end. I bring back between 1.5 and 2.5 gal of cons from an average sluice day. Just wait long enough for the cons in the sluice to build black to 3/4 of the way down , then pull and rinse the deposits without breaking down the sluice. seems like that's the sweet spot to pull and rinse without losing too much fine. Both concentrators seem to catch best when there is a regular, thin flow of slurry coming down the feeder trat at about 1/2" to 5/8" wide. At 3/4" both concentrators will let some fine skip through. For screening I have good luck running 3 sizes. 1/8" down to 20 mesh. 20 down to 30. And then im usually too lazy to do a 50 mesh so I run it through everything -30 for the last size and run the drop riffle concentrator for that. If I try to run -30 on the A19 some of the real fine bounces out without sinking in the black. It needs a slower feed and the 50 mesh screening for a 4th size to really work well. There is going to be a learning curve but your closed loop so laugh it off and fine tune your work for the concentrator your running.
Flour Mike, I have my auto feeder pritty much made except for mounting it to the frame. I'd like to ask, what size holes did you put in the spray bar? I used a 3/32nd inch, and spaced them 2" apart. May have to open them up after testing.
Man, you spared no expense making your frame from copper tube. Nice looking setup, think I need an auto feeder for my setup.
If your Ok using a tubing cutter pop riveter and a drill, they sell the special angle tub blanks and basic instructions for $9.95 plus shipping. I have the process down so i can give the basics if anyone gets one or builds one and then has trouble. (yeah i put the nugget next to the second stream of water for effect) I had some bumps getting started because i acted like a stupid kid instead of thinking things through. I have it on a Y and both devices are running on a 500gph 12v bilge. I have some larger ones but a 500 works fine. One thing. You need a real tap like the picture to get your fine stream adjustment. cheap ones wont cut it.
Sweet. Going to have to take nots for sure.
I think this is the best $60 you could spend if you run a lot of cons. Not sure how it would do on a bowl but for riffle concentrators its the way. When I think of all the time i wasted spooning and course panning.....