Gold Hog Mats

[DigginForGold]

Yeah Ive got three batteries totalling 123ah I think.

Whats the deal with charging them from the car? Like, what do I need to get to do that? Hadnt really thought of that as Im not really familiar with it.

 

[Occasional_panner]

The alternator in your vehicle produces dc power to charge the starter battery in the vehicle. All you need to do is use that.
Modern vehicles don't have a high enough output, so you need a special dc to dc charger, but for older vehicles that output 14.4 ,14.8 v then you can use that.
Ideally you should use a dc to dc charger for optimal charging, but if you can get a hold of a cheapish deep cycle then no need to get to fussed about it.
Often you can find second hand deep cycle batteries on ebay from decommissioned UPS units that banks etc run.
I got some 100ah for $75 each. So at that price if they don't get optimal charging rates that potentially limit their life then I really don't give a stuff.
So if you have an older than 2015 vehicle or so your alternator should put out a decent voltage you can use. In that case a VSR or voltage sensitive relay can be used, that is hardwired to the vehicle, it charges the starter battery first, when that reaches full power it switches power to the secondary battery and the alternator will charge that till it is full too. That is what I have, the 100ah in the back has anderson and cigarette connectors to draw from it. Last weekend when I used a separate battery sitting in the tray I connected it via the anderson connector to the aux battery hardwired in the tray to charge that up, basically when the vehicle is started, if it senses a low voltage in the system it will start pumping out power.
One very very important thing to do is have fuses at the junction of any battery, or connection with any device. If unsure get an auto elec to inspect.

 

[Occasional_panner]

Or a very basic way is just use jumper leads strait to your battery you want to charge, just do one polarity at a time, neg to neg and pos to pos, being careful not to allow a pos lead to touch any of the car as it has negative grounding.

 

[DigginForGold]

Cool will have to look into doing something like that.

Id still like to get a petrol pump though.

 

[Occasional_panner]

Yeah I understand, just having that noise spoils the experience for me. Have a look at my vehicle, it's ultra simple.

 

[DigginForGold]

I agree. Probably wouldnt say spoils, but its not as nice. But was also thinking that if Im with others and they've got petrol pumps going then I may as well have one too. Ideally I'd be able to run both ways on my highbanker.

 

[Occasional_panner]

I was more thinking if I were out alone, a nice quiet bilge is better. In a rowdy atmosphere no difference with one more petrol pump. If out alone in a nice spot I wouldn't want to run a petrol unless too far from the vehicle, just my thought, no right or wrong there.

 

[DigginForGold]

Yep I agree. Hence why I said I agree I suppose lol, and that it would be ideal if I could run both ways. So I'll be persuing both methods I could just run my highbanker with the two bilge pumps I've already got with expanded mesh and miners moss so maybe it'll be okay with these mats too. Hope so, but we'll just have to wait and see I guess.

 

[vic]

looks awesome

 

[DigginForGold]

Latest one done. Not the best. It warped a little and finished weirdly only doing half of the final surface I had to make it 2mm thicker and 4mm wider because of the way my highbanker is put together (see the pic below) so maybe the increased thickness causes the warping on the underside. Its nothing too extreme and is still usable as the riffles are unaffected. Cant really tell its warped from the pics.

And here you can see how its all coming together. Some minor gappage (im pretty sure thays not a word but whatever haha) along the sides...very minor. Might just put a thin layer of silicone down the sides and it should fix that up.

Disregard the aluminium angle bits as theyre from my previous setup. I dont think there will be any need to hold these down with anything. So far they fitting in nicely and I cant drag them up or down its length once theyre inserted so I think they'll stay in place on their own.

Here you can see how my sluice run widens out in the middle hence why I had to make the latest one a bit thicker and wider.

 

[Occasional_panner]

That's great, where did you get that printer?

 

[DigginForGold]

I got it a kit from ebay. $285 inc postage. Was literally the cheapest one I could buy.

It doesnt look like that when its running. Since its an open design Im going to have to build a cabinet for it to keeo in the heat while printing. Otherwise the print cools unevenly and warps. For now I just put a big cardboard box over it which keeps the interior temp at about 40c which seems to have mostly stopped the ABS warping. PLA is much easier to print with but has less favourable properties for a sluice mat.

 

[cecc]

Wow that's nice alright. Can't wait to see it all working.

 

[B5MECH]

I got it a kit from ebay. $285 inc postage. Was literally the cheapest one I could buy.

https://www.prospectingaustralia.co...s/4298/1473821307_20160830_201045-600x800.jpg

It doesnt look like that when its running. Since its an open design Im going to have to build a cabinet for it to keeo in the heat while printing. Otherwise the print cools unevenly and warps. For now I just put a big cardboard box over it which keeps the interior temp at about 40c which seems to have mostly stopped the ABS warping. PLA is much easier to print with but has less favourable properties for a sluice mat.

What a bargain I always thought they were in the 2000 buck range, looks like a awesome investment

 

[DigginForGold]

Yeah thats what I assumed until I actually looked into it and was surprised at what I found.

Its going to take me a long time to figure it all out properly sonce theres just so many different print settings and programs that give differeing results. But once I do get it down I should be able to match it with the best of em with this unit, $2,000 printers included.

 

[B5MECH]

Those mats look sweet, does it hook up to a normal computer?

 

[DigginForGold]

I think so too

It does, but I've never hooked it up to my computer. It also has an SD card slot. Just load the gcode file on to the sd card and print direct from that, so thats what I do...easier than moving the laptop to the printer whenever I want to print (which has pretty much been 20 hours a day since I got it lol).

 

[B5MECH]

Nice, SD card sounds easier than I thought it would be, I,ve got to get me one of those.
I'll be watching the progress carefully, thanks for the info.

 

[DigginForGold]

Ugh. So annoyed right now. So I ordered more ABS the other day from the same place I got the last roll of green ABS from. It arrived today, which is good becuase I needed it today. But...its the wrong green! Check it out below. Its much brighter. Ugh. So now I can wait a week for the correct colour, or just go with it. I dont think I'd be up for waiting to be honest. I just want to get it done and tested...so Im just going to go with it. So now its going to look weird with the top mats being a different colour (assuming theres enough left on the spool to complete the one thats printing now. Otherwise itll be top and bottom). I can be pretty OCD about stuff like this and I know I'll never feel comfortable about it haha. So I'll have to eventually get the correct colour and re-do them. What a waste lol. Oh well...

So yeah I got another one printed over night. Thats four done so far with three more to go. Getting there...

 

[Occasional_panner]

The gold doesn't know what colour it is.
I wouldn't give a stuff personally.