u/aurum_pur

One of my hobbies is gold mining. You can use sluice boxes to process more material, and dredges suck material from the stream bed and push it through a sluice so you don't have to shovel.

Normally dredges use gas engines and metal parts. A similar 2" dredge would cost 1-3k and require a gas motor to run. This weighs about 1/8 as much and runs off a battery and electric bilge pump for boats.

Printed on an A1 out of Elecoo PETG, 0.8mm nozzle, 1.2mm width lines.

https://makerworld.com/models/3189875?appSharePlatform=copy

[Previous Post](https://www.reddit.com/r/Prospecting/s/zdsJylf7sa)

[Link to model](https://makerworld.com/models/3189875?appSharePlatform=copy)

Last week, I posted about this 2" dredge/8" sluice box I designed and printed. I have now uploaded the files to MakerWorld for download. Instructions and required materials are included there.

I do plan on working on this in the future, though it will not be at a very fast pace as I intend to actually use it for a while. The biggest existing pain points are the expanded metal clamp and material usage, but there are plenty of other things that can be improved. If you have suggestions, ideas, or need dimensions for your own design, feel free to message me. I do ask that if you create any designs based on this, that you also release them (or allow me to) for free.

P.S./Self-plug: I put a lot of time into this, so downloads/likes/prints/especially boosts are much appreciated over on MakerWorld.

Designed and printed this dredge/sluice box over the past month. It's designed to hook up to a 4700 GPH bilge pump and a 2 inch nozzle (also 3D printed, using Utmost Outdoor's design.)

It runs surprisingly well, much better than you would expect from an electric bilge. Everything is printed in PETG, and is very durable at high wall counts/100% infill. Only issues in the initial design were the flare being too short/inlet too high so it washed out the top expanded metal/moss section. Otherwise, it held up to about 4 hours of dredging, and the only issues I had were the pump itself.

Obviously doesn't move a ton of material, but it's about as quick as I can shovel/process, and it works well around boulders and tightly packed gravel. Plus it was a lot of fun to build.

Feel free to ask any questions. I think a lot of people would be surprised how much you can do with 3D printing and how strong/durable the parts you can make are.