Gold Mining with a Hand Suction Tube.wmv

How to build and use a 3" x 5' hand suction tube along with feeding it into a sluice box and finding gold. I should have described the insert a little better in the video so - For the seal Tom & I first used standard ½" black poly foam pipe insulation & tied it on with 20lb fishing line for a solid core. It is the preformed round tube style hard foam insulation. Then we covered it with the ¼" yellow cheap foam and made it long enough to stick 2"over each end and used standard 2" pipe clamps that I had here to secure it totally to the black foam and give it a great seal. Then I wrapped the clamps with electrical tape and tied the yellow foam over the pipe insulation with fishing line. The 45° is only glued to the main tube so we can change out the tip when it wears out. Everything on the plunger is glued up to the handle where we used a 1½"x 1" slip to threaded bushing so that we could make the swivel handle. The 1" nipple under the handle is 8" long threaded sch80. I did use plumbers tape on the threads. I didn't glue the 3"x 2" bell reducer on the tube for the plunger guide and this works great because I can pull the plunger completely off of the tube and add the extension on to it and I can still use the guide, which is pretty much stuck on the tube and can't be taken out from between the fittings. All in all, it worked great and neither of us felt like putting on our wet suits & going underwater that day, hehe. Long Johns & rubber boots were warm enough and we got good gold and some nice pickers. Good Luck to you & I hope that you guys you always have gold in your pans. Reed Lukens

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• Gold Mining
• Suction Tube
• Placer Mining

[mtlassen1992]

@21:12......gold is actually 4 times heavier than black sand!

[ReedLukens]

@mtlassen1992 Yes it is 8°) 

[paystreak]

great vid ..i'm a firm believer in suction tubes big and small ...mickeyminer

[ReedLukens]

@paystreak Yea, I just watched some of your videos and I really like the idea that you have with the bottle. I think I'm going to build something like that for this one to take it down to 1" to finish out that crack in a big way. I was going to throw on my wet suit and go for it but with the water all frozen over again today, I hate cracking through the ice just to go underwater anymore. When I was younger I would do it in a heart beat but staying on top as long as possible works in the winter.

[ikhanmobile]

@ReedLukens , it sure is, hope you are doing well fellow prospector!

[ReedLukens]

@ikhanmobile This has to be Imran 8°)

You are very welcome my friend. It was a great trip.

[ReedLukens]

@TheDeserdog - You're welcome, you make the best ones that I have seen for sale. Yea, the chair is a must for a long tube, and you can work all day without getting too worn out.

[MtDew167]

Another fine video Reed, Nice chunky gold for 3 hrs lol.

[TheDeserdog]

@ReedLukens Thanks for the plug too, Reed. I will have to try the chair idea. And making a longer super sucker to work some of the hole I make at Cajon Creek. Somewhere in Ga or AL a guy was going to try and get a super sucker set up on a boat with a swivel.

[ReedLukens]

@TheDeserdog , Yea I liked your 90° handle on the ones that you sell. I just put an outer shell on mine so that it would rotate and it was a big plus, go with it. I thought about buying one of your's because the prices are great, but I had most everything sitting around here already and it gave us something to do the day before when the river was frozen over. 15° difference the next day is what makes California nice. I liked your plunger but the foam worked great also.