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Post by ywevis on Jun 18, 2014 18:17:03 GMT -5
     The traditional sub surface dredges suffer from a lot of issues and only a couple of strengths. First and foremost is that the recovery section is very small. Hard to get things to settle and sort out before it gets spit out the end. The twisting and changing angles that are occuring adds to the problem. The "original" subsurface dredges were all in one with the nozzle and the "sluice" connected so if the diver tilted the nozzle into the gravel everything got tilted. Very hard on recovery. Later on the subsurface dredges switched to hanging the recovery and suction jet from pontoons and had a flexible hose for the diver. Worked better but the recovery section was still painfully short. The dynamics in the tube are different too because its actually a column of water moving through a tube and not a "river" flowing down a channel like a regular sluice. They did/do have the advantage in being able to move material quickly and with less horse power that a same size surface gredge and can operate at any depth so reall deep dredging it sometimes gets the nod. Some operations use the subsurface dredge with a smaller pump to move overburden as cheaper to run and having a nugget trap then they switch over to the surface dredge when they hit paydirt. Have seen several setups like that that use two pumps to drive theoir surface dredge but devot one pump to running the subsurface dredge when needed. |
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Post by indyme2 on Jun 19, 2014 18:22:54 GMT -5
They are a little strange to use but move a ton of material and grab a lot of gold. See this link if you want a closer look.
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Post by ywevis on Jun 19, 2014 20:55:14 GMT -5
I heard it does a poor job on the super fine gold, but it's very portable and I think they make longer ones. Did ya all get video of it running? I got alot of questions lol.
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Post by ywevis on Jun 19, 2014 21:16:51 GMT -5
indyme2 ya got access to that dredge anymore?
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Post by indyme2 on Jun 20, 2014 6:38:04 GMT -5
It belongs to Nugget. Does well with fine gold. He and Danny ran it behind the 4 inch Keene one day and got a lot of fine gold. I didn't get video though. Danny said it would suck the creek clean in "a minute" but found it difficult to use as you have to hole it mostly flat so the fluid bed worked best.
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Post by ywevis on Jun 20, 2014 7:02:49 GMT -5
Can ya ask nugget if you can use it?
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Post by Gold Seeker on Jun 20, 2014 14:34:48 GMT -5
I think you could connect a short piece of suction hose on the Schmidt so you could leave the dredge semi-stationary while you dredged, similar too the Gould dredge, but with out the suction nozzle. Here's a photo of the Gould dredge.  |
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Post by indyme2 on Jun 21, 2014 20:27:01 GMT -5
We considered modifying it to be like Reggie's equipment but that got tosses along with a lot of other ideas. It's not as portable as you think, Ywevis. The motor is 6.5 hp as I recall and really heavy. Would be a good DIY project for someone. I have more pictures if anyone wants to try. Prefer not to ask to use Nugget's. We are still friends but except for occasional days when he is great company, he is generally a pain in the butt to deal with. BTY, the small plastic tubes feeding the sand trap were changed in later models and used pvc pipe instead.
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Post by ywevis on Jun 21, 2014 23:15:52 GMT -5
LOL, I know about that weight thing.. I was looking at a few ideas.. Like pack mule, or some other options.
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Post by Billy on Jul 8, 2014 14:25:27 GMT -5
That picture is of mine the first three what questions did u have?
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