Folks,

I'm looking to make a spray bar for a home-made miller table-like gizmo.

I've tried drilling holes (7/64") evenly spaced along a pvc pipe, but can't cut the turbulence down far enough.

Is it better to cut a channel clear across, as opposed to holes? Or maybe larger holes?

And if a channel is better, how do you cut it without it being all wobbly and such? (I don't have the steadiest hands for this sorta stuff.)

I'm using a 500GPH 12VDC pump (which seems good enough), but the water flow out of the spray bar is uneven, even though there's a plate that is supposed to 'defuse' the turbulence.

So, if you have any experience or better processes, would you please share them ?

Thanks,
Dave

i did the slotting of this spray bar and i didnt like the results i get from it. the slot will close up on you in the middel of it. instead try the drilled holes with them pointed up to help even the flow out.dont increase its preasure by having the pump wide open but put a valve on it so you can controll the flow of it to the Miller table or whatever device your using.you want a even,no riffel,no bubbles,no cresent shaped waves in the water stream going over your cons. also i found that makeing a autofeeder of any design will help recovery a lot! keeping everything the smae size and the feed of screened cons even will go a long way in fine gold recovery!~

Thanks for the advice! Since I posted, I added a small piece of closed-cell foam under the spray bar -- it certainly helps even out the flow.
Now the problem is the crescent-shaped waves in the water stream. I'll cut the flow down and see what happens.

Again -- thanks for the input!

Hootsmeister - way back when: Did you have any success in solving the crescent-shaped waves in the water stream problem?

This may sound funny but try sliding a stocking and I mean a whit sports sock( not a nylon ) over the spray bar This cuts down on the tturbulance and splashing but doesnt cut the flow down. Just a thought.....

when trying to reduce the flow some people use a valve to cut it down but that raises pressure and that is what you dont want to do! depending on the size of your Miller table, useing a smaller bilge pump is my prefered way to lower the water flow. or reduce(12/6vdc) the voltage going to your pump.to remove the "waves/ripples" in the water i ended up haveing the spray bar point up with the lower water flow and it ended that problem. remeber to get the most out of your table, keep the water flow smooth as glass and for every finer mesh of gold either lower the angle of the table or slow the flow down and let the water do the work! this works for me!

I've found the best way is to use a pwm speed controller,you can reduce the flow without increasing pressure,your battery will last longer than if you use a valve,you can increase or decrease flow to your preference and also it means you can have just one pump for a variety of uses... Just my two cents mind

very good point!! in essence, this is what i did by switching to the 6vdc instead of the 12vdc on my battery charger.but the speed controll is the better of the two ways!!!!

I use it on a power sluice I made, and have an adaptor so I can use the same pump for both my power sluice and my old cleanup sluice