MAKING A 10 INCH SILICON DROP RIFFLE SLUICE MAT MOLD

This is how I made the mold for my Deep Well Combination Sluice Silicone mat.
This is for 10 inch mats but it can be scaled down to fit any size sluice. Just reduce the width of the mold. Also different size Square Dowels can be used to make different widths and depths of the troughs. This is Alan Robertson's Silicon Mat idea and I want to thank him for coming up with this. Be sure to check out his channel for more Silicon mat and DIY prospecting gear.
I have always wanted a Drop Riffle mat and now I have one and these catch gold better than any mat I have ever used.
I am hoping for some warmer weather so I can show how to make the mat.

[@alanrobertson2510]

I like it! can't wait to see the new drop riffle run. Thanks for the shout out. Fantastic video as always.

[@utahavalanch]

Alan Robertson Hi Alan. My pleasure. Thank you for the technology. I think this one is going to be the best gold catcher so far. I've been testing a number of different configurations and I think this will be the keeper with the larger troughs at the top. I'm finding water flows differently over these so I'm having to watch the angle closer. Saw a mat the other day made from a window shutter that looked like it would be good for a Le Trap type Riffle. I may try one. Lots of interesting directions to go with these.

[@CandSMINING]

Thanks for expanding on Alans silicon mat system. Still working on mine. Great information.😎👍👍👌👌⛏⛏

[@utahavalanch]

Chuck Gentles Hi Chuck and thanks for stopping by. I've been having a good time experimenting with these. I have about a dozen different molds now and that is giving me a nice variety of mats to play with.

[@talldave1000]

Nice videos. Thanks for making it easy for us.

[@utahavalanch]

Hi Dave and thanks for watching. I hope it helps. I like these silicone mats better than anything else I’ve tried.

[@danhodgins4015]

Love your videos. Would it be too much to ask to see a plexiglass side view comparing each of your silicone drop riffle mats against each other - to see the vortex action, capture rate, etc. Might be an interesting idea for a future video. Either way, thanks for sharing your technique for making these molds!

[@utahavalanch]

Hi Dan and thanks for watching. I made the sluice and the mold to use with it but it's hard to see whats going on. In my last video with the plexiglass side, and the wooden riffles, there was a fairly deep water flow above the riffles and you could easily see what was going on. With these mats, the water flow drops down to the surface of the silicone and follows it closely all the way down the sluice. So there is hardly any water above the riffles, so all you see is the dirt sitting in the troughs. I'm going to have to play with this a bit, maybe try a different mat cause I'd like to watch them work as well. In my last video on the Combination sluice, you can see a little of it working from the top but it would certainly be more interesting to see a side view as well. So hang in there, it's on the list to get working. :-D

[@MichaelJohnson-ux7pe]

Once again Utah you've done another nice video good job

[@utahavalanch]

Michael Johnson Thank you Michael and thanks for watching.

[@CDCGoldProspecting]

Awesome idea. Looks like it will work great!

[@utahavalanch]

Hi CDC and thanks for watching. Believe me they work great. Far better than any other mat I've tried. The thing that makes them good is the fact that gold likes to stick to the Silicone and doesn't slide out of the trough like with the rubber. When gold comes in contact with it, it sticks unless the water flow is way too high. I have made 10 of these in different configurations and they all work like a gold magnet. If you saw my last video on my combination sluice, I've been testing this one's mate. This one has larger gold catching pockets. I made about 30 runs on the previous mat and carefully panned or Miller Tabled the tailings after each run and so far i haven't found a single piece of gold in any size. I made a square bottomed Deep V type mat like this for a finishing sluice I have. I only made it 8" long to test and that ended up being 5" too long. Yep, I really like them. I'm hoping I'll have some warmer temps here tomorrow so I can make the mat.

[@danhodgins4015]

@@utahavalanch - wow - all the gold in the first 3 inches, that's amazing.

[@utahavalanch]

@@danhodgins4015 Yippers. if you tune your equipment and you set up your material right, you can determine exactly where you want your gold to go and put it there just about every time. If you saw my last video on the Combination Deep Well, it's specifically designed to put all the gold in the top riffle. Sometimes I get in a hurry and dump too much sand on the slick plate and a spot in the top riffle will get over loaded and a piece of gold will ride the top of the dirt to the next riffle. The slick plate is designed that if gold touches it it will either stop or slide very slowly down and the nose of the slick plate will guide it down into the top riffle and if the water flow is set correctly everything but the gold will get cleaned out. That's why my sluices are only 20 inches long which is actually still too long but I have to make them long enough to fit the tote. :-D

[@piratedredger1857]

Great craftsmanship And very good talk through ☠🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿👍👍👍⛏💙

[@utahavalanch]

Thank you kindly Pirate and thanks for stopping by.. These Drop Riffle Silicone mats beat anything I have tried yet and I have tried most of the mats out there. I made the mat a couple of days ago and tried it out on my new Deep Well Combination sluice and ran some old tailings that had been run through other mats several times. Out of 2 gallons I recovered about 1 1/2 grams of fine gold the others missed. Yea, I love these.

[@piratedredger1857]

@@utahavalanch that's awesome my friend ,wish I had your skills ☠👍👍👍⛏💙

[@utahavalanch]

Pirate Dredger Thanks PD and thanks for watching. Not a lot of skill here. Here are pretty simple to make but I must say that these mats really work better than anything I have tried yet. I'm going to use this mold to make a mat for my Gold Hog Sluice.

[@utahavalanch]

Pirate Dredger And by the way, I have been enjoying your videos. Keep them coming.

[@indianagoldgetterscottie]

i see you Utahavalanc another nice build bud

[@utahavalanch]

Hi Randy, Thanks and thanks for watching.

[@MonkeyMikeOutdoors]

Wow, very nice!

[@utahavalanch]

Thank you and thanks for watching. I"m trying to get the video made on how to make the mat with it this week.

[@williamgipson6558]

Have you thought about adding some kind of backing to the bottom of the silicone mat? Just a thought. Thanks again for the video.

[@utahavalanch]

William Gipson Hi William. No, because the Silicone itself works very well as a backing. It is very tough and flexible and is hard to tear or damage. Thanks for watching.

[@brandonjackson1434]

This is really cool which style did you find to work best with the ultra fine and ultra thin flappy gold and in ultra fine dense black sand

[@utahavalanch]

Hi Brandon and thanks for watching. If you are buying precut dowels from the hardware store, this one is really good. If you can cut your own dowels, I like to make the first 3 trough dowels 3/8” high x 1” wide. The rest of them 3/8” high x 1/2” wide. The space between the dowels 3/8” or 1/2”. Most of the gold will be caught in the first 3 or 4 troughs and so I like to have enough room in them to hold a lot of material. If the fine gold comes in contact with the silicone, it usually sticks to it. So I like to have a big trough so that it has a high probability of getting stuck as the water churns them around.

[@jdub7785]

Amazing!

[@FlourgoldWizards]

Well you’ve outdone yourself again!!!! Very very informative and interesting build. In your opinion , what type silicone mat would be best to run theses 20 pails of beach sand in my shop? I really want to make some high volume high efficiency mats.... Thanks again for posting a great vid!!! ✅✅✅✅✅🍺

[@utahavalanch]

Flour gold Wizards Hey Wizard. Thanks. I just got back from your channel had to check out the good looking pup.😄👍 good video gotta find time to comment been crazy here the last 4 days. As far as mats on your sluice, It would be a toss up between Alan's high/low U mat and a1/4" version of this one I've been testing. Actually, for me, I'd go with both and alternate panels. The problem with your sand is that the black sand is heavier than the gold and so the gold won't settle out in a sluice. That's why you have to use a well set up Miller Table for it. I'd run the dirt through that mat combination to get the larger gold out and then Miller Table the tailings. I can help you with your Miller Table set up if you need. Most commercial tables are only set up for pretty course gold. There is quite a bit of gold in that sand. I just finished a 1 gallon sample last week from a guy in your state and I figure about 3/4 oz in 6 buckets. About the same as Washington and Alaska. However it's slow getting it all out. But if you have a place to run inside for the winter, it may be a good project providing you had a fridge full of good stuff to go with.😝🥂 if I can help just let me know.

[@FlourgoldWizards]

utahavalanch I’m 100% interested!!!!! When you have time to elaborate on getting say 3 pails through at a time ....I’d be MORE than interested. 3/4 ounce in 6 pails?????? What size is this gold?????

[@utahavalanch]

@@FlourgoldWizards The buckets I'm referring to are the 5 gallon size. I usually run 2 - 1/2 gallon tests back to back across the Miller Table to extract all the gold and then figure how much gold would be in a 5 gallon bucket. I have tested the black sand from 5 states and they typically run from 1/2 - 3/4 oz. per 6 buckets. If you watch my last 2 sluice videos, I showed running a little over 1/2 teaspoon in each so you can get kind of an idea of how large the gold it. The larger pieces are typically 100 mesh and the rest is about 150 mesh. so it's very small but a lot of it. The sand I show in these 2 videos has been run over about 6 different fine gold rubber mats many times to see if any of them can pull out the gold. So these are the tailings that I'm running and you can see how much gold is left. I don't have a public E-mail address and I don't have a throw away one yet so do you have an E-mail address I can contact you at? I can delete it as soon as I get notified. If not I'll see if I can get a throwaway set up.

[@heapsofspace759]

Thanks mate.

[@utahavalanch]

Gregory McCarthy You're welcome and thanks for watching.

[@jdub7785]

I also am interested in a miller table that catches the fine fine stuff. I saw you mentioned that most commercial tables are set up for coarser gold. I too want to get the fine fines. Do you have some plans or a video for that? Now that i asked..ill go look lol...thanks again 👍😎👊

[@utahavalanch]

JDUB7785 - PAYDIRT & PROSPECTING Hi JDUB and thanks for watching. Yippers I do. I have a deep Well fluid bed, Miller Table, sluice combination designed for fine gold and a premium Deep Well Miller Table, and a video on how to build the Deep Well Miller table. I am working on a video for building the Deep Well combination unit right now. Most of the gold I work with is in the 60 - 150 mesh range and so I built these units to primarily recover those sizes of course if its larger it will recover those as well.the combination has a fluid bed that I like for very tiny dirt type gold. A Miller Table that is especially good at recovering the tiny black sand beach gold and the sluice mode for running batches through like dirt samples and dredge and sluice cons. This mold is to make the mat for a 10" combination unit. I'll have a video out on how to make the mat with it.

[@jdub7785]

@@utahavalanch thanks I will probably go with the deep well miller table. Looks great thank you👍😎👊

[@utahavalanch]

JDUB7785 - PAYDIRT & PROSPECTING l Good choice. A lot of people have been building them and seem to like them quite well. For a pump, Harbor Freight has a 264 gallon fountain pump that works well. It still needs a valve in the hose for really fine gold. I use a gas valve from Home Depot for smooth fine adjustment. They also carry the nylon hose connectors for 3/4" hose. Get the one with MIP threads. Be sure to mount the valve at least a foot from the end of the hose where it goes into the Miller Table. This will cut down the turbulence from the valve when you adjust it. The Deep Well gives you a very smooth flow and you want to keep it that way. If you need any help, just let me know.

[@coptechgold]

Nice work again. I notice 100% silicone is getting high priced from what I remember. Must be all the mats being made. ha ha ha

[@utahavalanch]

Doublenotminer Hey Doublenot, thanks for stopping by. Yes it is. You want to get some shares in Silicone while you can.😄 I'm really liking these mats. They are fantastic for hanging on to the tiny gold that usually gets blown out. They say nothing catches 100% but I have not lost a spec in about 30 tests. I may quit checking my tailings with these.

[@13orangeleaf]

love it !!!

[@utahavalanch]

c shackleford Me too! Thanks for watching. Ya gotta try these they are great. 👍

[@13orangeleaf]

utahavalanch I sure will looks like a easy project, and I have seen the video’s on how effective the silicon mats are.

[@utahavalanch]

c shackleford Well after you use one of these mats, I doubt you'll be going back to anything else. You can come up with all kinds of ideas to make molds. I saw a guy make one out of one of those wood window shutters from Home Depot that makes riffles just like on the Le Trap sluices. I'd like to try that. With the way the gold sticks to these, makes them way better than anything else.

[@13orangeleaf]

utahavalanch well, hen I finish the 3 way fluid bed sluice that you posted, like you say, I doubt if the gold is going to be getting away. From what I am seeing in your video, when the spray bar and water speed are adjusted correctly, the gold has to escape the fluid bed, the blue board, and the silicone mat, pretty sure the gold is going to just sit down and stay in the sluice

[@utahavalanch]

c shackleford Well over the years, I have built some good ones but nothing like this one. I'm currently going over old material that has been processed through some good units and finding more gold. The Chalkboard deck and Silicone mat makes a huge difference. I really think you will like one of these units. I'm working on the 3rd try at getting a "How to Build" video out but I keep finding improvements to try and i have to find a way to get it into the already half finished video. Hope to get something out soon. These are really simple to build as there are only 5 parts to it.

[@steventamla2443]

What is the height and width of the dows?

[@utahavalanch]

Hi Stephen, I made the dowels 5/8” (14mm) wide X 3/8” (8mm) high please excuse my metric conversion. But I think that is close. You can make the dowels any size you want. I like to make the framework 5/8” (14mm) high.

[@justsluiceit]

What is your method of getting all the air out

[@utahavalanch]

I assume you are referring to when you start filling it with Silicone? You don't have to worry about it because there isn't any way for air to get trapped. The Silicone is not a liquid but a big ball of thick jelly like mass and you just break off pieces of it and push them down into the grooves with your fingers. As you push this kind of putty or jelly into the grooves all the air gets pushed out. If I can get some warmer weather here this week, I'm going to make a video on how to make the mat. If not I'll dig out some of my clips on making some other mats to show you how it's done.

[@justsluiceit]

utahavalanch looking forward to it I pressed and pressed and poked holes and still had air in the silicone. Your mat looked great

[@utahavalanch]

@@justsluiceit Wow. Definitely something different than I'm doing. I just squirt the tube of silicone into the water, let it sit for about a minute and then gather up all the strands and squeeze them into a ball and start kneading it for about 3 minutes and then break off pieces to push into the grooves. I don't let it set up for very long and that way it's still sticky but it molds to the grooves much better and more accurately. I hope when I get the next video out it will help.