DIY Gold Prospecting & Mining Equipment Plans

First off, many thanks to carpetjohn over at the GPAA forums for compiling much of this list! I've added a few of my own bookmarks and added some descriptions where needed, but he posted a great list over there before I even started putting mine together over here.

Also check out these great books of DIY prospecting equipment plans:

Equipment Plans - Volume I
Equipment Plans - Volume II

Also be sure to check out the projects section for project pics, etc.

Shaker Tables

Shaker tables do a great job of cleaning classified concentrates.

The British Geolocical Survey designed this hand-powered shaker table. This is definitely on my must build list.

Rocker Boxes

Rocker boxes are cheap and easy to build, cheap and easy to operate and good at getting gold. They're also a lot quieter than dredges, highbankers and other power equipment.

Rocker Box - PDF file of rocker box plans hosted at the GPAA site.
River Rocker - Another PDF, but of a totally different style of rocker.

Gravity Dredge

The gravity dredge is basically a suction dredge with no motor, no pump, no moving parts, etc. They rely on gravity to build a head of suction. They aren't all that portable, but they're quiet, relatively inexpensive and they work really well.

Gravity Dredge - plans, schematics and tons of information for more advanced/semi-permanent operations.
Gravity Dredging for Placer Gold has an explanation on keep-it-simple (and quite a bit more portable) gravity dredging. This is the way it was first explained to me.
Simple Simon is another take on building a gravity dredge, this one with bucket header box and sluice.

Sluice Boxes

This Wet Willie sluice combo unit is one of the slicker pieces I've seen in a while. Not sure why, but I really like the simplicity of it.
Several sluice box designs from lightweight to folding to wooden.
Two more sluice projects described and with pictures.
A poop tube (Henry Henry) and a wooden sluice can be found here.

Hand Dredges/Suckers

Several sucker plans can be found at miningold.com, as well as a pretty nice tip diagram.
Simple looking sucker
Floating sucker classifier attachment thingy with multiple screen sizes, etc. Yep, it's a mouthful...

Highbankers

If anyone builds one of these mini highbankers, please drop me an email with comments and pics. I'm curious it works. With the minimal flow discussed, I wonder if it'd work with one of those drill powered pumps I mention on the small pumps page.
Here are some plans for a larger "highbanker/sluice" for those looking to move a little more material.

Vac Pacs

Classifiers

More DIY Equipment Sites

Misc Prospecting Equipment

Send advertising inquiries to eathan {at} gmail {dot} com, trades welcome.