My DIY Highbanker

[Tathradj]

I reckon with the lenght you have, Use a piece of cable try in it with the slots pointing side ways.
What is the length of the grate. It looks close to 600 long.
I see you have riveted the diverter on. Bloody good move mate.
You may have to add a support under it from top to bottom to stop it from bowing
or pulling out.
But, That is a bloody well done build mate.
Thanks for sharing.

 

[bazxa]

I reckon with the lenght you have, Use a piece of cable try in it with the slots pointing side ways.

This works well on my current sluice.

You could make a chute for the top to get the dirt in easier, I did and noticed more fines exiting the sluice. IMO it is important not to overload the riffles as it turns the race into a carpet ride for the finer gold. I'm now dumping shovels of dirt slower which gives the riffles time to clear and fewer bits of fine gold in the tailings.
nice job of the sluice.
Barry

 

[DropBear]

Wow this looks great!!

 

[casper]

https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/img/member-images/7422/1461837695_highbanker01.jpg

I need to add a couple of flanges to the top to help when shoveling alluvium into it, stop it from falling out the side. I also need to look at a different classifying grate (circled in red) on the hopper as too much gets caught up & in turn builds up eventually blocking it, any suggestions will be awesome!

I have a youtube video of it in action, I will post link to it as soon as I am allowed to, I haven't posted enough yet and can't do video links

...... re the classifying grate I'd hinge it at the bottom - so it works like a flap when you lift the higher unsecured end - lift and move it thru 180 deg and the rocks end up on the ground

casper

 

[user 5286]

damn, almost backpackable... nice one...

 

[Russman80]

damn, almost backpackable... nice one...

Not quite backpackable, cricketbagable. lol. If it wasn't for the 30kg battery to run the bilge you could take it anywhere, bags not very heavy at all. The battery is a nightmare to lug through the bush though.

I'm heading out today, hopefully I can find some water in the creek beds I'm heading to, its pretty dry out there at the moment, will post results later. Will try another video too :Y:

 

[Russman80]

Here's a short video of my highbanker doing its thing. The idea behind the classifier at the top was to hold muddy clay until it breaks down and releases the gold, didn't really work as well as I hoped it would, I don't use it anymore. You can get good results in this area if you have the patience to break up the clay, it takes a long time though, I assume it wouldn't have been payable back in the day, thats why theres some good gold in my spot. Its still hit and miss though, some days you get SFA, others a fair bit of color.

[video=480,360]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLxFsBdKpFI[/video]

 

[xcvator]

those leg mounts are brilliant mate... where can we buy some??? the hammer in corners for the alloy frame are cool too..

I got the square aluminium profile & corners through bunnings. The tube clamps (for the legs) I sourced through my previous job. But you can now get them off ebay if you search for HD Plastic tube clamp. Just make sure you can find the right diameter tube to suit before purchase, sometimes they have weird sizes for tube that isn't very common in Australia.

Can you give us a bit more detail on those leg mounts please, I've done ebay and google searches and the only ones I can find are made in Germany
cheers Keith

 

[Russman80]

Went out for approx 3 hours today, a little bit of exploring but only about an hour of highbanking, the creek I go to has hardly any water in it, and where there is water its been gone over too much by others. Where there normally is water there are now a lot of exposed riffles that looked good, I might go back for a day of dusting with my paint brush, I've had success with that before.

I may have to look into an alternative for the classifying grate as it gets blocked up easily, I have to manually flick the rocks of the end. Casper mentioned to raise it up more, I'll try that before doing anything drastic, will need 2 longer legs to support the hopper though. I hope I have more tubing under the house! I did recently crack the sads and had a massive clean out, I collect too much crap! Also made a couple of flaps for a chute today which were a great addition!

Next step is to modify the fall of the hopper and/or the classifier.

Not much gold today but still better than none, a nice little chunk there! It was all sitting under the miners moss, not much ever makes it to the drop riffles in this thing.

[video=480,360]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwYb7ixGzpA[/video]

:Y:

Cheers,
Russ