Saturday, October 31, 2009

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A friend and I have recently developed a passion for gold prospecting -- not simply the act of finding gold, but also the engineering behind gold finding methods, building custom equipment that's lighter and more efficient than the expensive specialty gold prospecting equipment found online. Though it's definitely an odd hobby :) there's nothing like hiking down to a river with a pick-axe, shovel, and random lightweight plastic home-assembled gold prospecting tools, and spending the day in the beauty of nature to see what treasures wait to be found. But more on that later. For now, lets get down to the basics of gold prospecting equipment.

The most common types of gold prospecting equipment pieces are the sluice box and the gold pan. Your average gold pan is very cheap, usually about $10. Black plastic is what I prefer. The gold shows up perfectly against the black. Sluice boxes, on the other hand, can get a bit pricey. Building a sluice is actually a lot simpler than it sounds. Using pieces of plastic cut into simple geometric shapes (squares and rectangles) we build a very lightweight sluice box from plastic simply by gluing the pieces together with plastic cement and waiting 24 hours. To find plans for building a homemade sluice box, a person has only to type in the phrase "sluice box plans" into the Google search box to find literally dozens of step by step plans for one of the oldest and simplest gold harvesting contraptions. A sluice box has a very simple design. It's just a box, after all. Who can't build a box? A lot of outfitters will try and sell you on lightweight, expensive aluminum, wanting top dollar for a simple sluice box. I say why pay the money when you can easily build a sluice with common materials.

But back to the sluice box for a moment. Lightweight plastic is easy to work with. As long as one doesn't buy sheets more than a quarter inch thick, it can be reasonably cut with an exacto blade. Add the cost of a can of plastic cement and you'll quickly have a homemade sluice box in a matter of hours.

The only thing left to do is find a river that has a reasonable amount of gold still hiding away. In California, that's pretty easy to do. Gold infested rivers are scattered all throughout southern and northern California. Different places have different levels of gold, but I'm assuming that those reading this already have a spot picked out.

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[Via Recreation & Sports]

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