Building a sluice box. Options

[GNR]

So, I want to start doing some sluicing, and im too impatient to wait for a sluice to ship to me from online, and no where in summit county seems to sell one. SO, im just going to have to build one.

Im thinking, 4 feet long, 1 foot wide, sides being 3-4 inches tall and made of wood

a base layer of some ribbed carpet from lowes which looks like it should work well that should cover the whole box.

Then a layer of expanded metal on top of that, but that will only be on the last 3 feet of the box, leaving the front foot of the box to allow for material to break up.

The only thing im not sure about is the riffles. Im thinking of making them out of wood, but im not sure how im going to mount them in there, their size, or their spacing.



or maybe i should just order one online.

[Goodwood2223]

In my opinion mate wood is not a good material for a sluice if your going to make it that long and want it to be portable,cause when it gets wet it will swell up and weigh a fair bit,I made one once out of fibreglass once but I prefer aluminum.that said if your in a hurry and don't want to mail order there's a place called golden detectors in golden that sells a heck of a lot of gear,but they are bout hour and half drive from Breckenridge though.whichever way you want to go there's a guy on YouTube greywolfminer who has vids on how to make riffles and various angles etc,I definately advise visiting his channel. Joe

[swizz]

or maybe i should just order one online.

I'm not a fan of wood for sluices either for the same reasons Goodwood mentioned.
If you want a good quality inexpensive sluice online and shipped fast.... check out: Angus MacKirk (I have no affiliation)
I own a Mini-Long Tom and couldn't be happier with it. Weighs about two pounds and does an extremely good job of capturing fines. Fastest cleanup of any sluices I know.... no carpet or matting. They make drop-riffle sluices and I can personally attest that they work great. I wouldn't hesitate to buy another and their pricing is low. Most of their sluices are under $100... my Mini-Long Tom was $49 and does a better job on the fines than a stock Keene A52 from my experiences.