Stansport Aluminum Sluice Boxes 50" Length

I gave this a 5 star for quality of materials and construction. I gave it a 4 for value, because I am a DIY-er and could have made it for a little less money but I had no time to do so. Thankfully Walmart had the lowest price I could find on this item. Appears to be made in the USA of quality components and materials. Large surface area should collect a lot of material. Weight is modest for what it is. Made to be portable, but not a factor for me as it will be moved in a vehicle. Does not come with instructions for storing away, but can be figured out. Hint: The bolts and wing nuts for the "funnel" end are to be putback in the funnel piece after it is removed from the main assembly (wing nuts are on the inside of funnel with bolt heads on the outside). Therefore when the sluice box is put away, the funnel is removed, its bolts and wing nuts put back into its holes, and the whole subassembly put inside of the main assembly, which is then folded around it. If all else fails, write down how it was packed as you unpack it the first time. There also are no instructions on how to use the sluice box, so if you are new to the hobby it may be a little confusing at first. All in all, it is a good quality item that was well thought out. Has expanded aluminum mesh with "outdoor" carpet under that for catching dust. There are metal "wave plates" or bars over the metal mesh so as to create the nessesary eddy currents needed to trap the material. The chassis is a single piece of strengthened aluminum sheet bent to form the walls and bottom. There are 2 sections for settling material, and one for input and one section to act as a funnel. The four sections lock together with a built in detent (bump) that snaps into a matching hole on the other section. Each section fits into the other in such a way that water doesn't easily escape between the joints. Simple to take apart and put back together.

I love this sluice box. It's a great size and perfect for a beginner or seasoned gold miner. Compact yet full size when opened. I did purchase miners moss to replace carpet but that gives me two clean outs for catching gold!

Folds up nice and has handle, but opens to a nice 50" sluice. Well built, removable riffles mat and miners moss carpet. Well constructed aluminum with anodized riffles!

The only problem with this thing is where the screws are located to hold in the riffles and that put the mouth in place. The downstream edge of the lip ends up trapping fine dirt; the screws that hold the riffles in are in the middle of the sluice, altering the flow of water. I would imagine there are more efficient ways of constructing a backpacking sluice.

Nice sluice box except it has two design flaws. First of all it has a hole in the middle of the intake Apron that will cause turbulence and it leaks water there, secondly the retaining Wing Nuts are in the middle of the box and this will cause even more turbulence and wash gold out, not a good thing.