Today I MADE

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Today I made... well a few days ago...

Additional classifier on my river sluice (mix n match so I can use the same bed in my highbanker by adding the header box and removing the flare/3.5 mil classifier screen), it is my 6th revision and seems to work quite well, I get quite a strong flow of water on top of the classifier screen - enough to push the big rocks through and slow enough under the classifier and over the riffles/mesh/mat to capture , if anything it captures a about twice as much cons as before buts that's ok , at least it is grabbing the gold.

Again a bit of mercury on some of these flakes from Oallen and about a 1/3 cubic meter of material shoveled through.

Photo looks impressive but it would only be about a 1/4 gram, I was more interested in the performance and the gold was a bonus.

cheers

Barry

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Hey Baz,

That is really a cool concept. Do you shovel directly onto the screen then rake the gravel off or classify all the material before feeding the sluice? Obviously plenty of water flow required for a sluice that size.

Do you rake the gravel with your shovel, so there is no bending down?

Would be a handy addition when you don't want a pump chugging away all day in your ears. Would also be a great option if there was houses near by that did not want to hear a highbanker pump going all day.

Gotta love the portability as well, no pump, fuel, hoses, legs to carry and fit into the car and pack up at the end of the day is a breeze.

Cheers
 
Hi,

Shovel directly on the screen and the high flow rate washes the large rocks through - occasionally I have to remove rocks that are larger than 75mill in dia.

What is good about it is the water rate under the screen is slower allowing the heavies to settle.

It requires a good fall and high water throughput.

Cheers
Barry
 
Barry,

It looks great.

I need to change my breadboard in my sluice, I would like to build something like your riffle/mat/mesh, I think its the go. I'm trying to keep it low as possible, as I now have a classifier tray on top of my river sluice. This means there is less area under the classifier tray and the breadboard is not clearing.

Can you give me some details of how yours is built and materials used.

Kind Regards,

Phantom
 
Not gold related at all, but last week I was frantically finishing this holster and bandoleer for a convention:
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Anyone who is a bit of a gamer and has played the Uncharted series may recognise it.

A few other things I've made over the past few months:
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Anything from replica weapons to puppets, I have a fun day job :p
 
Phantom said:
Barry,

It looks great.

I need to change my breadboard in my sluice, I would like to build something like your riffle/mat/mesh, I think its the go. I'm trying to keep it low as possible, as I now have a classifier tray on top of my river sluice. This means there is less area under the classifier tray and the breadboard is not clearing.

Can you give me some details of how yours is built and materials used.

Kind Regards,

Phantom

Hi Phantom.

The bed of the sluice is pretty much standard at 250mm wide - non tapered , first a layer of miners moss, then expanded mesh with a 15 mil gape and on top of that is a hinged riffle bar with standard hungarian riffles, with this config I can add the stand and header box to use it as a highbanker with pump etc.

I can also remove the riffle assembly / expanded mesh and use a bread crate config which also works quite well as a highbanker.

Later I added a removable flare to use it as a river sluice (versatility in mind here) but got jack of pre classifing the material so the addition of the classifier screen over the whole length was the next logical step.

I found the Aluminum classifier screen at a recycle place - it has about 3mm holes. I simply made a frame for it to give it strength and easily removable from the sluice bed. From the flared end there is a slight upward slope for about 300mm and under that is some V rubber mat so any material I shovel in tends to sit for a while and gets thoroughly washed before it gets washed away down the entire length of classifier screen.

There is about a 15mil gap between top of the riffle bar and the classifier screen - in practice the water runs slower under the classifier layer and it collects more material than I am used to - so a little more fine tuning may be required and I have not tried it with bread crate yet as a river sluice.

Above all it requires a lot of water....

I will post a drawing later as this all came out of my head with the available raw materials I had.

cheers
Barry
 
Barry,

Thanks for all the info on the riffle/mesh design. I think we are on the same track, trying to avoid classifying. Your solution looks much lighter than mine and the riffle design will help me with the clogging.

Can the riffle be made from aluminium or would they wear too quickly?

A few pics of my current config, after some more hacking and bashing, can shovel on or if using hand sucker for crevice straight into feeder. Waiting to test this week. Might get up to Barrington tops not sure yet, but will just pick a spot and give it a go.

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Regards,

Phantom
 
Cheers Mackka :)

Still working on it, but today i did some more on my budget highbanker:
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Today i made/modified my hand sand scoop... Long handle
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Im not sure how long this will last ,as the scoop itself is pretty flimsy
I saw sa bogan's new scoop , i reckon i can make one like that ... will stay tuned to hear his review ( weight has been mentioned already)
 
Yeah couldn't resist putting the chipper handle on.
The pot belly was recycled from my 2.5hp air compressor.
The vent on the front came from BCF marine hardware.
The flu pipe, ebay
Remainder scrap metal and off cuts.
 
Nice mod on the scoop mate. The only thing I can suggest is getting a hand scoop that has more basket space. The scoop PaulMarr has is fairly narrow and takes longer to dig something out if it's deep. The one I bought has a large mouth and is super strong with a foot plate. Works well in the rocks
 

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