Highsluice

[mudgee hunter]

Every creek and flow conditions change.
The Meroo was up to where it was 2 years ago.
Pooled up nicely.
But only flowing 80ltr a minute in total.
Yet a wide river that only seems to be gently flow can be harnessed into a decent flow to run a decent sized sluice etc.
Basically compressing the flow volume

As I mentioned before, we need to rethink our hoppers and water induction principals.

Less cutting pressure means a longer break down/wash time.
Either longer hopper, or less angle hopper....or both.... !

Thinking Outside the box..........!
I have jokingly said on many occasions with new people seeing my banker run for the first time......
I'ld cut the base off straight after 450mm mark past the WAL cat walk mesh if I could.......
Because it catches the 98% of gold, (twice the weight and length of base dose not justify the 2% missed gold)
But the hopper would be twice as long and it would be top heavy and fall over!

"Outside the box"
WHO EVER SAID THE BASE/TRAP CONFIGURATION MUST HAVE THE LEGS ATTACHED TO IT??????
I would rather a 900mm L hopper. Legs off it!
And the base variablely hinged and hung suspended. 450mm long.

Time to get my grinder and tig out and start chopping it up!

 

[Lesgold]

Some good thinking occurring here. Well done 7.62 for starting this topic. Like you, many people have been toying with similar thoughts for quite a while now. Good to see the discussion taking place. Starting to regret the selling of the sluice when the bans came in. Mudgee Hunter, you are coming up with some good ideas. I immediately thought of my sea anchor sitting in the front of the boat. It would work very well in this situation where there is a large body of slow flowing water. Would be a simple task to modify the outlet and attach hose.

 

[Lesgold]

A bit more rain will have the creeks flowing again. The Shoalhaven at Warri is up at about 1.8m at the moment. Oallen might be worth a look soon.

 

[7.62marksman]

yes thats where i am headed next week mate

0.81m
View
Shoalhaven River > Oallen Ford To Tallowa Dam

LEVEL:0.81m
LEVEL UPDATE:05-Mar-2020 13:03

 

[mudgee hunter]

Throw all those ideas of yours this way! erfect:
Let us all perfect the best out of a BS situation

 

[Lesgold]

OK. Next question. Tathra was talking about his lay flat hose. I like the idea of using it otherwise you may end up needing a semi trailer to move all your gear to your prospecting site. Havent used it before so therefore the questions. Does it take much pressure to inflate the hose? Would there be much in the way of friction losses in keeping that hose open? If the answers to those questions are no then it could be worth considering. Having a long run of hose gives you quite a few options. In places like Oallen, you are chasing flood gold and just need the volume of water rather than pressure. If you need to break down a lot of clay, spray bar pressure sure does help.

 

[Tathradj]

Les, The lay flat I have is Town Fire Brigade issue
and is rubber lined with a smooth bore to cut
down friction loss.

As far as I am concerned, The higher and longer
you can get the better.
Reducing the last length of hose at your sluice will
increase pressure accordingly when the water starts to flow.

Not much but every thing helps.
I have even thought of running one length up to a receptacle.
then back down again keeping it constantly topped up.

It is volume you are after, Not pressure.

And yes, It is legal to do this. As long as you keep the turbidity
out of the equation.

Besides, If you only have a medium amount of water to work with,
Recycling comes to mind.

 

[brendomac]

I'm not very mechanical minded. But as far as a replacement for highbanking goes, I can't think beyond a fluid bed sluice.

I have have never used a fluid bed slice.

I think legally we can:
- pump to a tank.
- Then use a connection to the tank to fuel (which is water) a highbanker for processing.
- But the punp must be off for this connection

Then repeat. Happy to be corrected.?

So... Embracing the rules, how can we improve on this setup?

Between us, surely we can think of a way to process high volume pay.

 

[mudgee hunter]

It could still be considered as part of the "process" perhaps.....
Even though not connected directly.

Even though I'm sure in now you can pump a certain amount of water from the same place without an irrigation licence....
Even take a petrol pump down to the river and make a big water fountain for the kids to play under!!!!
Crazy hey.

But even before they where "supposedly" defined a no go...
In legislation of new water acts etc, one can not dam/weir, alter the natural flow of a water way. (Creek/river)
So a #anker inspector could even pin you for diverting flow via rocks into a sluice!!!!
Total of crap

 

[mudgee hunter]

I think the blue cheap blue pool hose would be less restrictive than layflat.
Light, but a bit bulky. Also comes in one meter length.
Black AG pipe without the holes is also available in a few sizes I'm sure.

 

[20x]

 

[20x]

150d lengths of pvc cut long ways to sluice the volume to your feed..half full should give you a decent flow rate..

 

[2inaboat]

Hello all, I responded to this thread last night but I don't see it here, which makes me think maybe I didn't do it right.

 

[2inaboat]

I have been considering doing something like this for my mini high-banker but my plan was to use a 20 Litre bucket with a hole cut into the bottom, then plumbing with reduced diameter pvc fittings connected to a 50mm roll flat fire hose with the final reduction to the high-banker less than 10 feet long.

I have to ask Marksman, How did your kit work for you? I hope it was successful for you

 

[7.62marksman]

Hi all
Sorry that i haven't added anything more to this but due to ill health
and also the virus i have become a hermit until they work out what is wrong with me