Will 3D Printed Riffles Catch Gold ? Like Silicone mats?

Just playing around with some 3D printed riffles.
Will they catch gold like the silicone sluice box mats?

[@blacklabelonthebedrocks]

Belated Happy Birthday Alan! I've got a suggestion for an improvement: Theoretically, a nearly round piece of gold could roll down the hole mat on one of the vertical strips (like on a catwalk). Diagonal notches (a slightly zig-zag pattern) on these strips could direct the gold in one of the grooves. Best regards from Germany!

[@allansgoldmining]

Hey Alan, I think you raised the bar another notch higher !! Those printed mats look great. I like how they're modular as well. Makes it easy testing. I'm sure the paydirt was all chunky shiny. Will be interesting to repeat the process with fine gold material. I think you're onto something here. 🤠⛏⚒👍👍👍

[@alanrobertson2510]

They did work well. The only problem is some of the smaller rocks get stuck in the riffles. I think silicone is way better for clean outs. Thanks Allan

[@aaronhenderson8502]

Thanks for posting. 👍 Greetings from Bozeman, MT.

[@alanrobertson2510]

Thanks for watching!

[@ronheflin7848]

Mining magnets is doing something similar to that. Love to see it in the stream sluice and high banker. Keep up the good work

[@alanrobertson2510]

Yes he is printing some sluices now.

[@clintdoolittle1576]

ALAN I watch alot of your videos and don't usually comment but ever now and then you just blow my mind with these Sluice's and Mats and everything else you make THANK ALAN FOR A AWESOME VIDEO. P.S STEPHEN HAWKING should be ALAN HAWKING LOL 👍😎🇨🇦👍😎🇨🇦👍😎🇨🇦

[@alanrobertson2510]

Glad you like them! thanks.

[@toddcooper4152]

Very awesome video! I think the new sluice mats work great!

[@alanrobertson2510]

Thanks Todd

[@danhodgins4015]

Great to see more innovation from you Allan. In an industry of people who are resistant to change you just barrel in to any new idea that catches your attention which is very refreshing. For a first test the mats did a good job. A few issues to iron out, but it's worth pursuing further testing at a minimum! Good job, I enjoy your videos : )

[@alanrobertson2510]

Thanks Dan you never know unless you try it out. More testing for sure.

[@ChasingGoldAustralia]

Happy Birthday mate, great idea, will be interesting to see what your tests come up with

[@alanrobertson2510]

Thanks 👍

[@Subeffulgent]

Dude I love those ripples those are awesome!

[@bobcansee]

Happy birthday Alan! The mat raw works as good as silicone Im thinking. Thanks for puttin out!

[@alanrobertson2510]

Cool, thanks

[@jaminoes_]

The flexibility of silicone should not be underestimated during cleanup. From the video I can tell that there is a real struggle to cleanup the rigid plastic riffles.

[@alanrobertson2510]

I agree the silicone is far superior to the hard plastic.

[@a.b.c.adventures3484]

I noticed the same thing, hard plastic will get jammed with rocks. A flexible mat makes it much easier.

[@NeuzeitNomaden]

yeah what a great looking mat. respect!

[@alanrobertson2510]

Thank you.

[@buffalokrisgoldprospecting]

Looks awsome. That dang wind was blowing 35mph all day yesterday here.

[@alanrobertson2510]

thanks Chris.

[@puertoricanprospector]

So Cool Need to make me some!!!

[@jeffersonstategold8349]

Happy birthday Alan! Very cool sluice technology you got there.

[@alanrobertson2510]

Thank you

[@FlourgoldWizards]

Looks legit to me !!! One less step in the process maybe…

[@alanrobertson2510]

Like you said. Maybe. We shall see.

[@brianmcvicker829]

Damn cool for a home creation!

[@alanrobertson2510]

Thank you. I just printed some flexible mats. Now to try them out.

[@CandSMINING]

Very interesting concept of 3d printer ?? mats?🤔 Seems to work very well. How hard is it going to be to get materials out of them? Just thinking out loud. Keep up the really great research.😎⛏⛏🔥🔥

[@alanrobertson2510]

Yes, exactly. Some of the little rock did get stuck in the plastic riffles. Not sure how far this project will go. Thanks Chuck.

[@johnr.8723]

I think it will be easier getting small rocks out of the silicone mats because it is flexible, but still fun to watch Mr. Robertson tinker! ✅👍🏻

[@GeorgiaDogScrapper]

Hey Allen, I do believe that you might have something there. I would even think that a straight hard riffles would work for material that has been classified done to either a 30 mesh all the way down to 50 mesh. All in all I would say it is a success for people like me, my state doesn't allow a sluice or anything like that to be used in the river. You can have it at home. Congrats and love the videos. Happy hunting when weather breaks. Can't wait for the next video

[@alanrobertson2510]

Thanks. Can't wait to get out there.

[@copter1doc]

I’d buy it. Could be a good back up if a mat tears or goes bad in the field. Keep the ideas coming. And happy belated birthday.🎂🎉🍺

[@alanrobertson2510]

Thank you. we will see where it goes.

[@isaacjanzen2346]

only problem i see is the hard plastic will wear out before the rubber or silicone mats try printing your mats with ninja flex or tpu filament

[@glentimmins7560]

They look like they will work fine. If you can just shovel on them without classifing will be awesome.

[@alanrobertson2510]

The ones made out of silicone i know work very well to just shovel onto.

[@davevan1928]

Yup you got your fair share of nay sayers today Lol. Hell anything may or may not work. You just have to try it. After all last time I checked (this past weekend ) I'm not out in the mountians looking for and digging on top of silicone looking for the shiny. This past weekend I just threw my sluice together and I tried some hairbrain idea and what I found was completely amazing. I will take a video of it this weekend and send it to you see if you can work into what you got there. Great job Alan as always

[@alanrobertson2510]

Sounds like it worked well for you. Have fun out there.

[@kengilmore4384]

Looks pretty damn good to me

[@alanrobertson2510]

Thanks

[@SirHumboldt]

Im currently designing something similar for my printer. What I plan on doing to get similar results of silicone is spray a silicone spray paint on top of the mats. Hopefully it works!

[@alanrobertson2510]

Never know until you try. Good luck

[@aumetalmental8403]

Did you rerun the tailings with silicone mats to check loses? Cool video and kinda fun as well.✌️😎

[@alanrobertson2510]

I never checked the plates hold on to too many rocks when you clean them out.

[@mr.grotto]

I'd love to see this done with flexible filament.

[@alanrobertson2510]

I just tried some mats printed in TPU and I will say they don't catch gold like silicone mats do. I will do a video on them soon.

[@StratRider]

the tailings should have been panned also. Just because the lower plates were empty doesn't mean all of the gold was stopped at the top.

[@stevehansen2367]

Happy Birthday! Hope it was a great day!

[@alanrobertson2510]

Thank you!!

[@markcampbell262]

That was nice of Bob and Debbie. I’m guessing you caught all the gold there was catch. Hope to be down soon.

[@alanrobertson2510]

Thanks Mark. see you soon.

[@wakeupidiotsnow2611]

As far as I’m concerned you did it right and the nugget trap caught it all! My question is “What’s left in the sluice box tray and the cloth or moss liner?”

[@alanrobertson2510]

probably some.

[@robertwolfe2971]

Need some more runtime out in the field.

[@alanrobertson2510]

You are right. I tried it and over it for now.

[@adamlong54]

Look good sir 👍

[@erichaxter665]

Try changing the printer filament to Tpu instead of Pla the plastic shore hardnesss of Tpu is slightly less flexible than silicone and slightly less less stiff than Rubber its kinda like the happy medium it still retains the stickiness of silicone.

[@alanrobertson2510]

Funny you should mention TPU I have been thinking of trying it out. I probably need to go with a direct drive extruder. Thanks for the comment.

[@KODArunner]

Happy Birthday Alan, So how many different style of mats have you made and will you test a set of each? Also, did you run the leftovers through a set of silicone mats to see how much gold was missed? AND YEP, Alan does think OUT OF THE BOX ALL THE TIME!!!😇 Keep on thinking . . . .

[@alanrobertson2510]

Yep wat out there. Having fun just playing around.

[@KODArunner]

@@alanrobertson2510 In your next video, you might want to show how much gold was missed and recovered by using your silicone mats. Then again, figure out which of your plastic mats captures the most amount of gold and use it at the top of your sluice followed by your silicone mats to finish cleaning the run. I am still catching up from Christmas but I will soon be making more deposits.

[@murrayels]

Alan great setup. Where did you get the stl file to print from???

[@ryoran9545]

If you want flexible mats print them out of TPU instead.

[@johnsaucerhunter]

Hi Alan, If the silicon mats which act sort of like "fly-Paper" for holding small gold works..... then why try ti re-invent the wheel?

[@alanrobertson2510]

Just playing around.

[@MountaineerMichael]

! _Happy Birthday_ ! =%/÷ _Alan_ ÷\%= Always enjoy your videos, thank you sir. I'm still having a tough time looking for your website. Could you maybe add it to your KZbin about channel? Around 10inch mats is what I'm looking for, also different traps styles you got on them. Thanks again.

[@alanrobertson2510]

Thank you. The molds and mat are all 10 inches now. The website is. printingprospectors.com

[@MountaineerMichael]

Thank you very much! From Eastern WA.

[@48thstateprospecting]

Looks like it worked did you lose any in the cracks? Check the bottom of the box and tailings and let me know very cool addition and the silicone mat in the one I purchased catches 100% of fine gold I put a pan at the end and ran the heck out of the non grizzly bar side it was heavy with clay and even though I could see balls of classified material roll down the sluice (classified to 3/8ths) I didn’t lose one micro speck I even checked with 10x magnification lol love my hobby miner sluice box 🤩 thanks for sharing see you on the next one👍🏻👊🏻p.s. I sent you an email to your old mold/mats gmail I need you to read please thanks 👊🏻

[@alanrobertson2510]

I didn't check the tailings. Just playing around. You made my day. I am not surprised by the results you got from the mat but I sure like to hear that from others. I hope you get some run time on the new sluice. Have fun out there. Thank you.

[@scootsn]

Try using high flow tpu-95a

[@alanrobertson2510]

I did that and I was not happy. Sticking with silicone mats

[@scrapyardprospecting3855]

Nice

[@ThirrinDiamond]

Printing with tpu may help the flexibility ^__^

[@alanrobertson2510]

I bet tpu would work. I will be sticking with the silicone mats.

[@robertwolfe2971]

Need a nokta lithiaium battery from auto zone and lithiaium battery charger.

[@donmoor4e974]

I like it.

[@alanrobertson2510]

Thanks Don

[@matthewmclean9583]

What's the best material to use for making sluice plates??

[@tonyblea6829]

Seems to me the plastic is hard to clean compared to silicone

[@alanrobertson2510]

You are right about that. Thanks Tony

[@brianthayer9784]

Nice but true test would be a gram of flower gold and see what it does very good idea

[@alanrobertson2510]

Yes, you are right

[@prestongriffin416]

how wide can you print the mats?

[@alanrobertson2510]

The molds i make are 10 inches wide

[@larrykasiah8852]

It works except the cleaning of the plates might be to hard no flexibility Have a good day and prospect on

[@alanrobertson2510]

You are right about that. Some of the small rock get stuck in the riffle

[@terryschrecongost2894]

alan what model of 3d printer do you use

[@alanrobertson2510]

I use Creality printers