Newbie wanting to get his hands wet

[Boulders]

Looks like tomorrow should be nice so I'm heading up the upper Turon around Palmers Oakey in the morning, hopefully get some good colour

Good luck mate. Have fun. Never been up that way. Thinking of heading somewhere tomorrow with the 'handbrake' and maybe staying the night before we head home.

Have you been there before? What's the river flow like at this time of year? What time you planning on heading out there.

Might consider meeting you out there.

 

[7.62marksman]

Come on boulders i have my pictures all ready for you but you have to remember it was 4 against 1 lmao like you i am going to extend the arms and also as you said some longer legs would be good as well. i read on here that someone put flat feet on the bottoms to stop them sinking in the dirt so i will be doing that as well as you seen with yours it was sinking
it was a very good day and mate that chicken your chief cooked was to die for once the fire got started lol sorry
just to rub it in i will slip a picture in for you

 

[blisters]

To stop the legs sinking in sandy conditions I use small buckets with a flat stone in the bottom and fill them with gravel to stop the legs moving.
Jon

 

[Boulders]

Haha. Not bad. That's how much colour I was getting out my test pans.... Lol :lol:

Yeah we had a good crew. The boys were all keen and enjoyed themselves. They all said they'd be back but next time with some yabbie traps and a couple rods to give it a go along side the pans.

I really need to make one of those magnets cause the fine black sand I got left over in one of the concentrates is overwhelming.

You should have stuck around for the second course mate. It was just as good if not better.

I might 3D print some feet up in ABS and give them a run. I'll make you a set also.

 

[Boulders]

To stop the legs sinking in sandy conditions I use small buckets with a flat stone in the bottom and fill them with gravel to stop the legs moving.
Jon

Not a bad idea Jon but thats more stuff that I'd need to pack up at the end of the day or move around when relocating. I am getting lazy as I ripen.... Lol

 

[AussieChris]

Yeah if you have the tools and some flat bar etc you can tinker and tune them up a bit, not real good about the pop rivets on your one. I noticed on mine they stick out a mile at the grizzly's and tend to catch stones too.

I have been in the shed at 2am with my missus on my back the day before heading out just trying to figure out a better design, pretty bad when you cant sleep cause your highbanker is keeping you up. I noticed they have put the price up to $475 as well, I was able to pick mine up for I think $380 so didn't sting as much. Those Gold Rat ones look so much stronger with the welds rather than bends/rivets. I like the look of the header box too, plus Dream Mat! Best to shop Aussie too I guess, the Gold Hog one I was looking at the freight is almost $600 to get it out here, lol can just buy 2 Gold Rats with that logic?

Yeah I'm pretty close to the action, so the Turon is not far from me, we have not had much rain since the floods that pretty much everyone experienced so hopefully be some nice exposed bedrock. I had a pretty decent run last weekend in another spot and must have run about 30 buckets (apparently it was the buckets my missus dug and ran through the highbanker that caught all the gold hehe)

In your sluice the V mat does not run the full length under the grey moss? unless the expanded mesh and riffles have really bedded that stuff down I'd worry I was losing gold, although you said the tailings were clean?

Oh yeah another thing I did was to grab a bit of pvc pipe a little wider than the sluice box and cut grooves into it slotted it over the top of the sluice, really helps stabilizing it and firms it up.

 

[Boulders]

The grey mat has a sealed bottom being originally designed as a door mat so nothing can get through it. Only reason I use the rubber V mat is because you can't get a mat long enough to run the entire length. Being a door mat it has a 30mm or so lip of flat rubber also right around. All of it has been cut off but I left the lip on the top end and the v rubber mat overlaps this and butts up nicely where the mat turns to moss.

Once it's all in and the the riffles are tightened up the mesh creates a nice clamp for it and holds it all down firmly.

 

[AussieChris]

Ahh ok, yeah that sounds the go, I hate losing even flour gold as it all adds up

If you are having trouble cleaning black sands out of your cons, google "DIY Bluebowl" and take a trip to Bunnings lol.
There are prob posts on here about homemade Blue bowls too. Once you are dialed in on the stuff maybe consider buying a real one or a miller table or recirculating clean up sluice, plenty of options but cost wise the homemade Blue bowl works really well.
I was in Brittish Columbia, Canada a few years back and there was so much black sand we had to run fixed magnets over the top of the sluices to stop them gunking up after even 10 mins.

 

[7.62marksman]

i made a blue bowl think the cost was about $20 - $25 for the finished project
i used it once it took so long for it to clean up that it now lives under the shed but if one has the time then it does work just takes a while

 

[Boulders]

I'm going to persist with the miller table. Going to call a billiards table manufacturer and see if I can score a piece of slate off cut.

 

[hyperscott]

Looks like you had a decent day?

hey when you finish you highbanker run, do you then just put the material from it through your finishing sluice or do you have to further classify it first.

Regards

Scott

Come on boulders i have my pictures all ready for you but you have to remember it was 4 against 1 lmao like you i am going to extend the arms and also as you said some longer legs would be good as well. i read on here that someone put flat feet on the bottoms to stop them sinking in the dirt so i will be doing that as well as you seen with yours it was sinking
it was a very good day and mate that chicken your chief cooked was to die for once the fire got started lol sorry
just to rub it in i will slip a picture in for you
https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/img/member-images/8005/1483782646_101_60671.jpg

 

[7.62marksman]

only thing i do is pan the last dregs of stuff out when i get home takes about 5 min

 

[Boulders]

This is the first test run we ran with the new bunnings mat setup. It was 10 x half buckets. ( 5 full 20 litre buckets of dirt. )

Still gotta do the rest of the days clean-up. Hopefully get it done Tonight and I'll post the results.

 

[7.62marksman]

that looks good mate must have been a good spot

 

[Jaros]

Gotta be happy with that.

 

[Boulders]

I think the camera makes it look chunkier than it actually is.... Lol

Once I pan it all and dry it out I'll weigh it and that'll tell us how good that spot actually was.

 

[7.62marksman]

mate NEVER blame the camera its the look that counts lol

 

[Boulders]

Here is the rest of the clean up so it ended up being a nice hole.

 

[7.62marksman]

looks good mate i will clean mine today and put one up as well

 

[Boulders]

I'll be waiting