High-Banking Simply Stated

[richo966]

ridged shovel is the best I use them for a living 8.( 8.( 8.(

 

[fhammer]

A very well laid out list. Well Done.
One I must add,
Do not discharge directly into a water course. Setup a distance from the water's edge then build a settling pond/race to filter your discharge.
That way you will not cause excessive turbidity of the water course attracting the ire of an inspector.

Spot on agree with that!

You'll also get less stick from any ranger's in the area if they see you've done that.

 

[fhammer]

What your pumping station should look like.

1= have a level platform for your pump to sit on. If your pump runs at an angle the oil cut off may stop your pump or you could bugger the motor completely.

2= I consider 2..5 meters of pump pick up hose plenty you dont need a longer peace. Spend a little extra and get smooth boar any irrigation shop should sell it.

3= out of a bit of shade cloth make a sock that will fit over the pumps pickup hose foot valve. This will stop any junk getting into the system.

4= try and keep the foot-valve off the creek/river bottom by an inch or so.

5= from the pump to the lay-flat I run a short length of 1 inch ribbed flexible hose. This stops any kinking at that point and I can run the lay-flat in any direction.

Good Tips! I've just bought a new pump & some lay flat, so I'll try those ideas.

In the past, I've cable-tied coarse scrubbing pad around the input to the hose, and then cable-tied the hose into a bucket full of sinkers. Has worked quite well so far.

 

[Jemba]

Yes indeed i do agree with Tathradj, Thanks Fhammer you will do ok of that i am sure.
Jemba

 

[Marked]

On the subject of shovels -

One mistake many people make when using a long handled shovel is in technique. A shovel is not a lever.

If you expect to be able to shove your long handled shovel straight into the ground and pull back on it with all your weight to loosen hard packed material, you are going to break your handle at some stage. Sooner rather than later if you are soaking timber in a creek while you are working with it.

Go easy on any levering action - little forward/backward motions to get the water in the hole rushing in and out and helping to loosen the material if digging in a wet creek bed before trying to pull out the whole lump will see your shovel last forever.

Used to dig holes for a living - broke one shovel early on using it as a lever. Altered technique saw the second shovel last until the end of that career, plus 11 years of home use and now three years of digging in creeks and counting ... and when the wife uses it she insists on leaving it out in the rain too, so no special care given to it at all.

 

[Smoky bandit]

On the subject of shovels -

One mistake many people make when using a long handled shovel is in technique. A shovel is not a lever.

If you expect to be able to shove your long handled shovel straight into the ground and pull back on it with all your weight to loosen hard packed material, you are going to break your handle at some stage. Sooner rather than later if you are soaking timber in a creek while you are working with it.

Go easy on any levering action - little forward/backward motions to get the water in the hole rushing in and out and helping to loosen the material if digging in a wet creek bed before trying to pull out the whole lump will see your shovel last forever.

Used to dig holes for a living - broke one shovel early on using it as a lever. Altered technique saw the second shovel last until the end of that career, plus 11 years of home use and now three years of digging in creeks and counting ... and when the wife uses it she insists on leaving it out in the rain too, so no special care given to it at all.

Sounds like the handle is now classed as petrified wood...lol?Just kidding mate...Good advice...And advice i will now use...Cheers

 

[blisters]

Definitely guilty of trying to make a bow and arrow out of mine.
Jon

 

[Kiwi digging]

Council shovels last two or three times longer the bloke using it to prop himself up from falling over

 

[Bluecurrant]

Another great read full of information. Does anyone one put a float on the suction pipe to stop it sucking the bottom up. Also we used to flock the dam with gypsum to clear the water. Im not going to make mess. Just wondering if anyone does to help leave the area how it was before. We had yabies and silver perch in our dam. It never affected them. We ate them all the time.

 

[Jemba]

A sock or bucket works great over the end of your pickup hose. . Quote {Just wondering if anyone does to help leave the area how it was before.} End Quote The answer to that is easy it is called back-filling your hole. :Y:

 

[FullofSchmidt]

Good useful information!!! Something I will be looking at very soon and hope to get as much as possible out of this thread.

I traveled out to Oallen yesterday and I could not believe the amount of rock piles out there and trenches left open.

 

[mudgee hunter]

On the topic of shovels, maybe have a look at the wet shovel article, and throw the timber handle away altogether. No splinters in 2/3mm alloy tube. And weld up the frog underneath, and spot weld the spline. This will let you get away with heaps more levering than a stock shovel. Hard to break.

 

[madhatter]

On the shovel topic.....
What i have found is, fiberglass long handled shovels are fantastic :Y:
Extremely light weight and super strong!!
Although they are more expensive than regular shovels they are worth every cent.

 

[Dragon Man]

Fantastic informative thread, but what I find missing in here for banker beginners is 'Size' of Highbanker.

I'm sure many highbanker beginners like me would love to have a 12" model and probably with an extension. Bigger looks better, right?
But, I can't find any threads or even single posts about benefits/pitfalls of different sizes of Highbankers.

- Is 8" too small for a healthy energetic person wanting to feed it bucket after bucket all day long?
- Is 12" too big for the occasional hobbyist?
- Is 12" only for a LOT of material?
- Is 10" the nice medium to start with?
Regardless of Pump size and water flow which IS covered in here (obviously a bigger banker needs a bigger pump).

These are all samples of the type of questions about 'size' from the Newbie to highbanking.

I personally have no idea what size to start with or what benefits one has over the other. I'm sure others don't know either.

Any help would be greatly appreciated regarding the Size of Highbanker to use

 

[7.62marksman]

To me it came down to a few factors

1 do you intend to carry it into a location ....... no
2 can you fit it in your vehicle with the pump and hoses ......... yes

So from that i got a gs21 and a tornado pump
A few small mods and it suited what i needed to a T
Now it is gathering dust but its there if the laws change again

 

[iamagoldenoldie2]

the edison bargin pump specs indicate it will be ok for 50 m head thats got some grunt to lift water that high or along a hose, but the killer is the size of the hose 50mm diameter has less frictional loss than the 38mm hose ,,,, the factors to consider are ...... the head that is the level of the water supply in relation to the outlet, and the distance the outlet is from the pump , there are formulas for working out the pressure req to pump a certain distance ,.....
spotted gum handles look at the grain but if your a tinkerer , cut a sampling above 75 mm diameter then work on it with your spoke shave to make a handle, the other overlooked wood is the good old tea tree lots around for hammer handles but you need at least 500 mm for shovel handles and it aint always straight but they are strong

 

[xcvator]

As an ex plumber/drainer that used to work up to his cloacer in mud and water another trick to use for your pump inlet is to have a hession bag filled with WASHED 3/4" scoria over the end. This stuff is very light to carry and because of it's rough surface it lets water flow through pretty freely but filters out the bigger gunk

 

[iamagoldenoldie2]

ecvator,,,,,, remember box's formula , flow thru long pipes and the one to calculated the flow thru orifices , a long time ago plumbers ruled the earth. do you remember the theory on the gravitational pull of the moon and rotation of the earth to ensure the the waster water from the basin spins in the right direction and how it also applies to gold in streams

 

[G0lddigg@]

Fantastic informative thread, but what I find missing in here for banker beginners is 'Size' of Highbanker.

I'm sure many highbanker beginners like me would love to have a 12" model and probably with an extension. Bigger looks better, right?
But, I can't find any threads or even single posts about benefits/pitfalls of different sizes of Highbankers.

- Is 8" too small for a healthy energetic person wanting to feed it bucket after bucket all day long?
- Is 12" too big for the occasional hobbyist?
- Is 12" only for a LOT of material?
- Is 10" the nice medium to start with?
Regardless of Pump size and water flow which IS covered in here (obviously a bigger banker needs a bigger pump).

These are all samples of the type of questions about 'size' from the Newbie to highbanking.

I personally have no idea what size to start with or what benefits one has over the other. I'm sure others don't know either.

Any help would be greatly appreciated regarding the Size of Highbanker to use

- 8 inch - you'd be surprised how much dirt you can wash with the added befit of being easy to carry, but yes width and length = volume and with added volume comes added water requirement to move waste product faster, with an 8 inch you'll get away with a 3000 gph or 12000 litres tmc3000 or thornado 1.5inch pump fit that brief.
- 12 inch - Thats a hard one to answer, i'll say this when i use to go out at minimum 3 times per week for 15 odd hours it was no big deal for me to carry a 36kg pump with hoses and a gear to run the 12 inch pioneer series. I could easily pay my rent each with taking from in and around Ballarat vic. Being further away from the Goldfields no living in qld i tend to drive 3 hours to good ground and for me 3 hours in the car slows me down some, i tend to take my 8 inch these days because i know my capabilities and don't want to bust my hump its a personal preference i have two kids (2 and 3 years old) that expert dad to be full of energy when he gets home.
The benefit of the 12s really is volume and if you have low yield pay and a good back you cna make it work and take good gold home and the fact you can buy a 2 inch pump for sub $300 that will put out allot of water very far if needed.

- the 10 inch this is where things get complicated and its sucks, Australia has one of the worst quality pumps on offer for the low to mid range output that's around 14,000 litres and the only pump that hits the mark perfectly is the Honda GXH50 or Honda WX15 (Australian model) these pumps are hands down the best on the market there is no other 4 stroke pump in this size and weight that can put out 7000rpm to produce the flow. it has a price tag to suit at $699 from most honda dealers. the 10 inch is great for people who already ahve access to this pump its a no brainer and you'd be surprised how often you can pick one of these up on ebay for $400 . I've recently been approved as a dealer by BLA Australia who are the distributor for most bilge pumps and will be testing a new bilge that puts out 4000 GPH I believe this will suit the 10 inch as well but wont say unless ive flogged it for a few months myself.

Put simply the right banker will accommodate your average session and what you have access to already, guys who travel on motorbike tend to run the 6 inch recirc, guys with 4WDs and plenty of room tend to lean towards gear that will process more gravel and that's the 12 inch. but thats not always the case as you ahve to balance carried gear beer, food etc etc

a simple guide for standard size Dream mat cell (2 inch cells)
8 inch - min 3000 GPH / 12,000 lt per hour petrol pump
10 inch - min 3700 GPH / 16,000 lt per hour
12 inch - min 3700 GPH / 18,000 lt per hour min for a petrol pump works best but with less pressure resistance 16,500 will run the material well at a loss of cleaning pressure.

There are variants to this rule with classification and gold size but these really are the values that work well. I hope this helps some.

 

[Dragon Man]

Thanks Dustin, very informative answer.

Personally I am considering a 12" Gold Rat banker with all the trimmings mainly because at one of my sites I only have carry everything about 40m from the car and the other site I only have to carry everything about 5m from the car. I am able to park right where I set up.
And I have just purchased an 8hp Walton pump pumping 30,000 litres per hour.

Gotta get rid of my detector first so I can pay for the banker though. So I am spending all the waiting time researching and asking questions.
Meanwhile I'll plod along with my little Rocker Box/pretend highbanker :lol: