Expanded metal over deep V matting

[Next1m8]

where as in my riffle assembly it's 10mmX5mmx with a rise of 3mm

 

[BJ Bates]

Looks similar to one of my old dredge boxes, looks good

 

[Next1m8]

It's in at my mates engineering shop getting about 12 modifications done, as it was for quantity process and ease of use was atrociously crap, excuse the pun. Now I'm getting it so it's easily dismantled and cons are washed into a bucket moss/carpet I have 4 of each cut to length so when clean up comes, I shut down the system add a pan to the end when i shut off, quick wash cons into two separate buckets, one for the moss's and one for the carpets, do a full day digging and processing and bring home the cons run it through multiple seives for grading so I can run each classification through my clean up according to mesh size that way I'm not blowing out fines when I procces for larger pieces and so I'm not waisitng more time cleaning out black sands from blondes and what not

 

[G0lddigg@]

It looks ok and should do the trick, what you should remember is the smaller the expanded mesh the slower your feed rate will have to be, also the smaller the mesh the more likelihood of bogging and losing gold,
Remember if your way out in the woop woops like me carry plenty of spares of everything.
What's your thoughts guys?
Here are a couple of pics I have of the beast and for me it's saves panning, with the new mods I hope to get a lot more time sluicing.
BJ

i remember this beast! awesome glad to hear you and the missus are getting some good gold. i cant imagine why you would classify before feeding the highbanker? that just doesn't make sense to me at all, the whole point is the hopper will do that for you so you can process 100 x more material. I'm sure your adjustable issue will sort itself out with a few beers

 

[BJ Bates]

Hi GOLddigg@, I probably had a plan three fold in mind???? I was hoping to score some dirt on a disused corner of my mates lease and the grand plan was to load it with a mini excavator.... that plan went down the river like everything else and I have what I have.... my theory has been for many years, that if you give the gold an opportunity to settle it will... the setup works fine, but is a bit of a brute to haul about without wheels (this years project) and also being quite large means I need to assemble and reassemble if I am too far from camp like I was up north, probably a small 6x4 trailer would do the trick????

 

[G0lddigg@]

wheels are awesome mate ... i added a set early this year they make a huge difference. do it right and you don't need to cart everything pieces, make the wheels strong like a wheelbarrow

 

[BJ Bates]

I was thinking of a couple of Motorbike wheels, thinking of the rolling circumference and the rocks I have to negotiate, I tried some wheels from a shed trolley but they bogged in the sand and I eventuated in carrying the lot by hand...

 

[Next1m8]

So I ended up doing my grooves like this for two reasons, 1st being the first section will cut the clay and what not as well as wash it and the forward facing ones should help get more flow into the bottom sluice

 

[BJ Bates]

Mate you'll find if you are in clayey material you will need to do a lot of hand washing otherwise the dreaded gold sticking like ***** to a blanket will occur and there's nothing worse than your hard earn't going down the gurgler.
I like H/banking and sluicing and a tip was passed on to me many years ago and that was to have the cleanest water possible to work with, otherwise the fine gold will ride the dirty water out the back...cheers

BJ

 

[Next1m8]

Ended up putting my miners moss<- edit aside and went for noodle mats with rubber backs I found the moss and carpet made my riffles sit ridicoulsy high.

 

[G0lddigg@]

this stuff is the goods, especially in the colder months in Ballarat, blue matts gets real hard.

 

[Next1m8]

Reject shop sell them 5$ has to be wendouree tho Golddig, one in the cbd don't have any, I used to use them in my other banker and found them to be little beauties

Edit-> there's about 20 of them left

 

[G0lddigg@]

yeh i grab a few when i see them, managed to snag a green one last time from big w i love seing gold on green. the black ones you bought are much better quality, the other stuff is cheap **** and you lose fine gold inot the pores of the rubber underlay. get what you pay for

 

[Next1m8]

How much are the ones from BigW? I love te look of gold on green to its beautiful and gold on blue idk why just tickled my funny bone a little makes me excited

 

[Next1m8]

I managed to get two sections from the two I bought cut and put together fits all snugly together

Edit-> now I just need a pump with enough flow to run this bad girl

 

[SCROUNGER]

Next1m8, i use a detector, not up with this method of getting gold at all, but i gotta say that i've been following this from post number 1 and it's like following your favourite show on telly. I can't wait (same as you i imagine) to find out how it performs. Good luck and keep us posted when it's about to fire its first shot in anger!!

 

[Next1m8]

PA is one of my favourite sites I check this more than I do Facebook. I totally understand where you are coming from. Updates will most certainly be following once I've had a chance to get out and test this in my spot I'm pretty excited like a little kid

 

[Next1m8]

So ran a couple test today with the old 2000g/ph (apparently) bilge pump didn't even come close to supplying enough water now it's official I have to wait for the bigger pump :-(

 

[Next1m8]

Ok so results are in from the Highbanker maiden voyage after modifications, firstly the expanded up the top (boiler) section works a treat captures nearly all heavies sadly not big nuggets today but as I get deeper in my hole then they shall appear, second the riffles are doing as they should dancing blondes and creates turbulence and draws material in under the riffles, black Matt also works perfectly, and the pump is a bit of a pain in the rear to prime and get running but once she's up and going there's no stopping her until she runs out of fuel but thankfully gives me a warning so I can set my pan underneath and start my shut down procedure.

I want to take a min to thank all who have me ideas on modification and whom have me advice to what I should do. It's now a pretty neat unit that does well

So thank you Wal, MJB, Doug, Golddig, DWT & anyone else who gave me great and helping advice.. One day In the field I'll surely repay you with a few drinks and cook us a great feed

Ps thanks again fellas, I'll upload a picture of my results today In my show and tell after dinner and once I've panned it off

 

[DrDuck]

Congrats Next1m8

Looking forward to seeing some picks of your finds, and thanks for starting an interesting thread.