Happy New Year Everybody.
I am looking for feedback on 2-inch suction dredges. Who here uses one and are they worth the price?
How much ground can you realistically move. Could a man with a shovel and sluice process more in a session? I am guessing they are great on bedrock crevices but curious about general processing volume on blue clay/ papa. Any thoughts appreciated as to why they are better than a manual sluice, cheers.
Happy New Year all.
Hi Westlander.
I have two 2’ Keene dredges, 1 of which is up for sale on trademe also on Paydirt.
The beauty of these is its portability. Processing pay dirt in my opinion is much easier than the shovel method, clay is always a problem, but in small quantities should break down through the suction process.
The down side of 2" is having to continuously clear the nozzle, but when you get in the swing of it, it’s not a big issue.
These are a powerful machine, and I run mine at just over half throttle. Fantastic in shallow ground.
You are welcome to call me if you want more info, my number is on my Paydirt listing.
Cheers
The 2 inch is surprisingly good. It’s especially good at getting the flakes of gold sitting right on the bedrock that you might otherwise miss shoveling, etc. as you can easily clean the bedrock spotless so you know you haven’t missed anything…
Just had a 1 day play with @PablosGold and his 2 inch a few days back. Hit a nice spot of bedrock that was fairly shallow that produced nicely…
I kinda poo poo’d the 2 inch as I’m used to playing with my 4 inch. But I was surprised at how much overburden we managed to clear with it!
Thanks Pablo and Gav, very interesting that you rate the 2-inch capabilities. Thats some nice corn flakes you got there. Certainly, looks more enjoyable being able to sit down while you hoover up the gold.
yeah there alot of fun i had a 2.5 inch venturi nozzle made so i shift a bit more can get into the real shallows and it dosnt clog as much , . certainly portable great little crevicing dredge , i use the pontoons to float a compressor for sniping the really deep pools on my claims , and the motor powers my highbanker, really handy bit of kit and lots of fun , will catch super fine gold .
I like that idea a lot! Might have to try something similar myself.
ill post a pic when i get time , happy new year
