Does Anyone Know Anything About Vacuum Pumps?

[Crankit]

Not a bad idea. The solution turned out to be a small auto vacuum (wet shop vac), which worked like a charm except it is noisy. I put it in a foam wrapped box which works well, except I question how long it will last as it runs for about an hour at a time. Eventually it will need a more robust model I think. It was more of an experiment; if any of his contraptions extract enough gold, money won't be a problem LOL. In the spring when he goes gold hunting again I'm sure I'll be building more stuff for him. Kind of a cool hobby. Too bad there is so little gold in Alberta; I can totally see myself getting sucked into this for fun.

haha....yup! Slow production days in the sluice box will leave you thinking up ideas to make things better