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How to Build Your Own Homemade Gold Dredge
Author: Chris Ralph
No question that many folks interested in prospecting for gold would love to own
a dredge. No question that dredges are very cool pieces of prospecting
equipment, but the prices for new ones are really high. You could easily spend
many thousands of dollars on such a purchase, and that is more than many can
afford.

Don't forget however, that in the earliest days of dredging, there were no
manufacturers, and all small suction gold dredges were handcrafted units made
in someone's garage. There's no doubt that a good dredge can be built by the
home craftsman, and I know you can save some significant money doing it,
because I've done it myself.

For those who might ask, a suction gold dredge is basically a device which is
designed to suck gravel underwater from the bottom of a river, pull it up through
a hose and run it over a sluice box. In the sluice box, any gold which is present
becomes trapped and the lighter materials such as sand and gravel move down
and out of the sluice box and back into the river. The operator guides to the
nozzle of the hose to suck the rocks and gravel which he desires to process off
the river bottom.

A small "lawn mower" type of engine is used to pump water which creates the
suction that pulls the sand and gravel up through a hose and into the sluice box.
The gravel does not go through the pump, the suction in the hose is actually
created through a Venturi effect by pumping high pressure water through a jet.
The fast-moving water creates the suction in the jet. This way the sand and
gravel does not actually go through the pump, which would quickly wear it down.

In addition to pumping water, the small engine also produces compressed air for
the diver to use while working underwater. In cases where the water is shallow,
the gold diver may simply use a snorkel.

Most modern dredges are made to float on the surface of the water, allowing
the operator the greatest level of flexibility to move from place to place while
working small gold deposits. Most flotation systems are made of rigid plastic
pontoons, but there are still a number of units in use that employ other flotation
systems such as truck inner tubes.

Building a dredge is a big project with a lot of plans and decisions to be made.
Take your time and think about what you really want to build. Think about what
materials you have on hand or what you could easily acquire, then build a list of
what you need to construct your dredge.

Unfortunately, a simple set of dredge plans that would work for all sizes of
suction dredges is just impossible, so I've not tried to prepare any such thing.
However, you can do it for your project. If you really sit down and think about
things, and use measurements taken from the commercial dredge makers you
can design your own set of plans for your specific dredge project.

Of course you will be building on the cheap, but you don't want to shortchange
yourself too much. You don't want your dredge to be rickety, or to fall apart, or
to fail to function. Dredges need to be functional, durable and sturdy. The time
you spend sorting through design concepts, deciding what you will build and
how you will build it will be well spent.

Think about what you want and what you need then weigh those together with
what you can afford. Do up some drawings and lists. Perhaps the best thing I
can suggest is that you study the designs of the well-known dredge makers like
Keene and Pro-line. These manufacturers have done quite a bit of research
studying their products, they have tested different options and have developed
efficient pieces of equipment that do the job well.