These sluice boxes are the American Made version - beware of other copies as they are often made from cheap quality plastic and imported from China

SLUICE TIPS: For ultra fine Gold recovery, you can try gluing small black ribbed rubber matting or carpeting on alternating riffles. This is usually not necessary unless you are working with ultra fine gold. Always check your tailings when using any sluice box to make sure you are not losing gold. In most cases a quick adjustment to water flow or sluice angle will greatly increase capture rates of fine gold.

The Le Trap sluice is made of high impact ABS plastic and will take a lot of abuse, but should you ever get a crack or chip in it, it can be welded simply with ABS glue, available at almost any hardware store.

The riffles are a two-step design with a ramp. This allows the sluice to be self-cleaning. It has a self-cleaning tray on the left-hand side which makes it easy to tilt up into your pan and splash water into it for final quick and easy clean up. When using this sluice as a high banker or gravel bar concentrator, a spray system should be used at the upper end of the sluice.

NOTE: INTERNATIONAL SHIPMENTS: THIS ITEM MAY BE TOO LARGE TO SHIP INTERNATIONALLY. YOU MUST OBTAIN A FREIGHT QUOTE IN ADVANCE OF ORDER IF SHIPPING OUTSIDE THE USA

Operation: In order to operate the Le Trap sluice in a stream, you will want fairly fast water. The closed end of the Bank Robber Sluice can be cut out, creating the River Robber Sluice.

The flared riffle design causes the water flow to slow as it passes through the sluice, resulting in optimum gold recovery. In working this box, water should run through very rapidly, about 2" deep, which keeps the riffles clean and will leave the gold and very little concentrates behind.

An ideal sluice for times when weight must be kept to a minimum. The sluice is made of high impact ABS plastic and will take a lot of abuse, but should you ever get a crack or chip in it, it can be welded with ABS glue, available at most hardware stores. Please note that these sluice come with the only the discharge end open.

Remember, it ships with the upper end squared off so the unit can be turned into a highbanker if you wish. If you just want to use it in a creek with water flowing through it, simply cut or saw the input end off to let the water into the sluice. Simple! Have fun and tons of gold to you!

Video below shows a modified Le Trap Sluice used as a very effective clean up concentrator. We didn't build it but it looks pretty simple to copy. Video has helpful pop-ups with tips.

Instructions

Step 1 – Setting up the Sluice

Locate a place in the stream with fast water and a gradual drop. Water should run fast enough to move a 1” to 2” rock through the sluice about as fast as you can walk through with your fingers. You may have to remove or rearrange rocks to provide a space for the sluice to set so as to provide approximately 1 ½” to 2” of water uniformly at the proper speed. Rocks upstream may have to be arranged to divert water either in or out of the sluice.

Step 2 – Holding the sluice in place.

To hold the sluice in the river, it is suggested to put a 1 x 4 x 15” board or aluminum angle across the sluice at the narrow section. This board will allow you to place a rock approximately 5 to 10 pounds on the board to hold the sluice in place. Use just enough weight to hold the sluice in the stream. There are many other ways of making a rock holder for your sluice box.

Step 3 – Processing the material.

Deposit the Gold bearing material in the flat portion of the sluice and allow the water to wash it through the sluice. Feed the material into the sluice at the rate that will allow at least one ridge to be seen all the way across the sluice. NOTE: Sluice operation will run more smoothly if the bank material is first run through a JOBE ½” classifier, thus eliminating the larger rocks from blocking the riffles and slowing down the processing of your material. Continue to feed the material until the bottoms of the riffles become plugged with heavy black sands which will prevent the Gold from settling to the bottom. The amount of material that can be run will vary from one location to another, depending on the types of deposits in the area.

Step 4 – Clean out.

When you have processed the bank material, allow clear water to flow through to wash out any excess lighter material. When the sluice is ready for clean out, lift the intake end out of the water first. This stops the water flowing through the sluice and drains the excess water out. Pick up the sluice and place the lower left corner into a bucket or Gold pan. Keep the sluice tilted to the left side, splash or pour water, washing the concentrates into the container. At this time you can see the Gold laying in the riffles. If there is Gold in the lower end of the sluice, the angle or the water flow can be changed to correct this.

Next video shows a another kind of sluicebox set up - the Jobe highbanker power sluice as the main unit, with an additional Le Trap sluice added as an extension sluice. Never a bad idea to have an extended sluice set up - especially if you are trying to recover very fine gold or are planning to run a lot of material without cleaning up often.

letrap-sluice-j5106
Add Practice PAY DIRT: noneAdd 1 lbs w/ .5 gram GOLD (+$39)Add 1 lbs w/ 1 gram GOLD (+74.95)Add 2 lbs w/ 2.5 gram BIG GOLD (+189)

About the manufacturer:

"We manufacture ABS plastic gold prospecting equipment and mining equipment parts for the D.I.Y. (do it yourself) gold prospector.

We utilize today's High Tech plastics in the production of our equipment. Our production line uses state of the art thermoforming machines and we sell our products at old fashioned prices.

We ourselves are gold prospectors, with over 35 years of recreational and commercial mining under our belt. We design all of our equipment from the ground up! We start from C.A.D. drawings, then our engineers use C.N.C. mills and hand tool our molds for all of our products. Each item is extensively field tested and revised to yield the best results in your endeavors at gold recovery. Our company is based on the belief that our customers' needs are of the utmost importance. Our entire team is committed to meeting those needs. As a result, a high percentage of our business is from repeat customers and referrals."

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