ribbed rubber matting question

[IzNoGood]

Hello guys i found company in my country that making rubber products and have ribbed sheets. Can anyone tells me dimensions of matting? How tick its need to be? How tall ribs? How much space betven ribs? Pls tells me mesures in european metric system

[Hoser John]

Rubber mating has 1,000 of configurations. Most important thing to know is-flat thin flakes just flip,flop and run right out the end of your concentrator. You want the deepest V you can get as the larger the V the bigger the flake it will hold. Round,rough and such no big deal but flakes yet another deal completely- John

[Au Seeker]

I agree the deepest you can get.

Also make sure it's rubber and not vinyl, both look the same, but both will not work the same for catching gold.

To save money you can also look for old car floor mats with a ribbed pattern that you can get for free maybe, they will work well if it has the right pattern, even square blocks patterns works well for catching gold!!

Another thing you can try to use for fine gold is Astro-turf, fake grass, the taller and wider the blades of grass the better it will work, look for fake grass types like in these pictures the bigger and wider blades of fake grass work much better than fake grass that is real fine like hair.

[IzNoGood]

i find some antislippery thing that its looks same as nomad matting, and this its real rubber ribbed thing. i thinking maybe to make few hand feed sluices to sell.

[GlennM]

Most of the ribbed mats used for gold catching, that I've seen, have the following dimensions (all are approximate, I used 2.54cm = 1 inch where cm are stated)

~30cm wide

cut to length

ribs are:

~2-2.5mm tall

~1.5-2mm thick (front to back)

~3 mm void between back of one rib to front of next.

The fake grass mat is a good idea. it will capture all sorts of different sizes. The goal is simply to give the gold a good peace to hide.

What ever you use, make sure you clean it very well prior to use. All plastics have mold or intruder release on them, which will let gold slide right off.

I would use the grass in the field and the rubber mat at home to clean up the concentrates, as I know you have to be careful about your activities.

Edited January 27, 2013 by GlennM

[lotsa luck]

The ribs and valleys need to be as close to a square wave pattern as possible or they hold less gold. The square creates small areas of low pressure behind them similair to a sluice riffle whereas the "V's" allow the water to spill right into the bottom of the groove and flushes most small gold and flakes right out.