Wals' Hi-banker Specifications

G'day Wal and folks,

I've finally got to the end of my WalBanker build over in the end of Spring with crude but effective backyard techniques so I had a chance to test run over the October long weekend without fault.. This beast is hungry as, one man shoveling and I couldnt keep up with the clearing of bread crate riffles.. Angle was good on the WalBanker with WX 15 was running at its capacity going through 1 full tank for roughly 3 hours or so.. I moved roughly tonnes of dirt and this is my recovery after roughly 3kgs of concentrates:



Device seems to be catching fines and flakes and not sure how much I am losing out the end if any? As I did not test pan the exodus material (most of it ended up in my sons Constantines shirt as he was using it as a scoop and catching all the material at the end of box while I was wide eyed and full of adrenalin feeding the beast .. Most of the gold was found in the first section of slopped mesh before it even got to the bread crate riffles..

Wal? Slopped mesh section before the bread crate riffles was clogged after a while but the bread crate riffles was clearing just fine other than a few odd shaped rocks wedging into the diamonds which I cleared by poking it out with a thin twig.. Should I be poking around in the riffles like that? Or just let it be till clean up?

I dug a hole 800mm x 800mm x 1m and hit the water table without hitting bedrock so I was ankle deep in mud and loving it! I moved the dirt to camp to unloaded into WalBanker.. Outcome was a great success, learnt a hell of a lot and the kids were happy which is always a +





By the way I purchased from eBay 0.1g 500g scales for $5.35 including delivery and the gold didn't even register any weight but I had a ball digging a hole and when looking through my x30 loupe these fines and flakes look like boulders

Thanks for looking and reading,

Ross

PS: I will put up some pics of build when I have a chance to filter through lots of work picks which are mixed up together over the build period but there isn't anything new or added mods as its built from Wals standard specs so it will look like everyone elses here, not entirely the same dimensions due to scrap lengths but not far off..

Looking good Ross, If your sloped mesh is getting clogged then your water flow is too slow. Up the WX15 to close to half throttle and that will fix the problem. As you have found, most of the gold will be under the sloped expanded. The crate will take care of the fine flour gold. Don't need to poke around in the crate...it will clear itself.

Love to see how you go when you get to bedrock instead of the surface stuff. Best of luck on the next outing and great to see the kids enjoying themselves.

Cheers Wal.

Great pictures & fabulous result + happy kids. Probably should feed him!!!
Did you dig all that with that tiny shovel?
Looking foward to the build pictures

slowflow said:

Great pictures & fabulous result + happy kids. Probably should feed him!!!
Did you dig all that with that tiny shovel?
Looking foward to the build pictures

Click to expand...

Hey slowflow,

nah mate there was no room for a shovel down in the hole, was mostly on my knees de-rocking 400mm x 400mm boulders and breaking everything up with my 22oz Eastwing and scooping it up with with my sons old beach sand bucket scoop into a bucket which was in the hole with me.. He said me "you can have it dad, I'm a big boy now"

Christopher gets a good feed all right, he eats more than an adult every sitting, growing fast now! I forget the kids get hungry sometimes as I can go all day without a feed if needed when I'm sampling or looking for a spot but that the time to down tools and head back to camp for lunch.. He was pretending it was a gold nugget testing on the bite for a happy snap



Sorting through build pics now then going out for coffee and lunch so when we get back this arvo and the kids let me have the PC later on tonight I'll post up build..

WalnLiz said:

Looking good Ross, If your sloped mesh is getting clogged then your water flow is too slow. Up the WX15 to close to half throttle and that will fix the problem. As you have found, most of the gold will be under the sloped expanded. The crate will take care of the fine flour gold. Don't need to poke around in the crate...it will clear itself.

Love to see how you go when you get to bedrock instead of the surface stuff. Best of luck on the next outing and great to see the kids enjoying themselves.

Cheers Wal.

Click to expand...

G'day Wal,

I started out with the pump running on over halfway and doing adjustments back and forth, it just seemed too fast and I was worried about the little bits not dropping out due to fast flow so I toned it down to 1/4 so next time I'll crank it up to 1/2 and to a test pan out the end and see whats happening..

As for poking in the riffles, these add shaped rock wedge into bread crate diamond pattern and are stuck and wedged in, it takes a bit of force to dislodge with the twig so I cant see water flushing those wedged ones out of diamond.. Bread crate riffles clear just fine, its these odd ones that wedge.. I can see the interference in the vortex when the twig goes in.. Its so hypnotic watching the material in vortex but I love 8) The kids and Mrs. just dont quite get it

I would have gone deeper into the whole going for bedrock but the water was starting to lap against the side wall with every movement I made and side wall seems to be crumbling away so it wasn't such a good idea to go deeper, no amount of gold is worth a fatality or serious injury but in saying that, gold makes you push the boundaries but I'm just a addictive/compulsive type of person too so keeping it safe.. I might employ a bilge pump next time and carry on working the hole also I making it wider as well will help work it efficiently and better body placement..

Cheers,

Ross

hi wal i am keen on getting wal banker of my own was wondering if you are going to still get some made up

Ditto

richo966 said:

hi wal i am keen on getting wal banker of my own was wondering if you are going to still get some made up

Click to expand...

Been over worked trying to get the bankers ready for the guys who ordered one before i went over to WA. Hope to have all these out of the way shortly and will then be taking a break, and trying to get some time together for running my own banker. May look at supplying some more after Xmas. More than willing to help out with advice on banker builds.

Cheers Wal.

Hello all,
Have started the planning process to build my own for this christmas break
Having trouble finding the expanded aliminium mesh for the gemstones and the right cable tray to remove larger stones.
Anyone know where to find some around Melbourne?

Wal, what disance is there between the holes in the cable tray?
And what is hole size of the catwalk mesh?

Thanks!
Riley

Edit: if anyone has any spare mesh, i'd be happy to buy some + postage. About 420x270x12

thanks wal I will take you up on that mate some time after Christmas I may be allowed to have some money again sounds good. Wife and kids and Christmas equals no money for me lol 8.( it would take me a long time and many mistakes rather expert make it for me cheers wal

RileySS said:

Hello all,
Have started the planning process to build my own for this christmas break
Having trouble finding the expanded aliminium mesh for the gemstones and the right cable tray to remove larger stones.
Anyone know where to find some around Melbourne?

Wal, what disance is there between the holes in the cable tray?
And what is hole size of the catwalk mesh?

Thanks!
Riley

Edit: if anyone has any spare mesh, i'd be happy to buy some + postage. About 420x270x12

Click to expand...

G'day Riley,

The Cable tray holes are 1cm x 2 cm and i use the Heavy duty version. They also come in a light gauge version. The Catwalk is 12mm high and comes expanded to 4cm x 8cm. Make sure you run at least a 50cm length of skid plate if you're running a single box.

Cheers Wal

Hi Guys,

Look how many people you have inspired Wal nLiz, its fantastic!

I am wondering, if I bought a sheet of aluminum. Could I take it along with the plans that we have on this forum to somewhere and have them make the main metal structure. And if so where would I take it to and how much is it likely to cost?

Once again, answers are greatly appreciated!

spottedgum said:

Hi Guys,

Look how many people you have inspired Wal nLiz, its fantastic!

I am wondering, if I bought a sheet of aluminum. Could I take it along with the plans that we have on this forum to somewhere and have them make the main metal structure. And if so where would I take it to and how much is it likely to cost?

Once again, answers are greatly appreciated!

Click to expand...

A sheetmetal worker can buy that Ali sheet for half the price you can , and part of your cost is wasted due to the unusable off cut .

Your cheapest option is ask wal for his price to supply one if he wants to

He might have had 5 or 10 made last time so they work out cheaper and it will be perfect the first time around

If wal has no time or none left then get a few quotes for the whole thing to be made to the drawings ,it would be cheaper

Trying to do it the way you mentioned is kind of false economy

Send me a PM Sg. Ive supplied about 25 so far and finalizing the last 10 orders. I'm not going to make any more before Xmas due to the length of time it takes to put them together.....eating too much into my own highbanking time. May be able to help you out with a shell, and at least some advice.

Cheers Wal.

Hi Wal, the aluminium chanel that you have on the edge of your expanded mesh, does it sit on top of the first angle section? Therefore leaving around a 3mm gap underneath the actual expanded mesh?
Just making sure all details are correct .
Thanks
Reeko

Yeh Reeko, the expanded in my version is a boiler box section for trapping the coarser gold and the expanded sits off the bottom of the box. I actually run 3 versions for different locations.

If you need any clarification just send me a PM and I'll talk you through it.

Cheers Wal.

Wal,

A couple of questions.

1) I've got some ribbed rubber matting, and the blue miners moss matting from Bunnings which I have cut to size and fit (quite nicely I might add) into my bottom box. Couldn't find the backed stuff, maybe cause our local store is a smaller store and doesn't have the full range. When putting the bread crate on top and then fixing it down, how much squash do you need?

2) Also with the thickness of the rubber matt approx 2- 3mm the thickness of the blue miners moss matting approx 8 -10mm and then the bread crate on top its nearly 20mm thick. Is that normal?

3) How critical is the section of expanded mesh at the top end (I'm making a gold only box so I'm not putting the section of walkway mesh at the outlet end). Will the recovery rate drop significantly with only bread crate?

4) In the photos of your highbanker on page 1, the bottom section of expanded mesh has carpet underneath it however the top section is sitting on bare metal. Is this intentional by design? And if so given that your carpet and bread crate section is about 20mm in height I'm guessing I need to find some expanded mesh with a 20mm height profile to roughly match assuming its going to be sitting on bare metal or a 10mm height profile if its going to be sitting on carpet??

Cheers
Adam

G'ay Wal and folks,

As mentioned in previous post I finished my WalBanker towards the end of Spring so the build goes a little like this:

Sourced some scrap 2mm aluminium sheet from Fold n Roll Bending in St Peters NSW which was 400mm x 1000mm x 1 for body, 400mm x 400mm x 2 for hopper sides and galvanised steel air conditioning ducting scrap for the rear of hopper.. So its only gold for the moment and if I decide to to go gems I'll do an bolt on/off add on..



Scored with a grinder and beat into submission with a rubber mallet







The little fella Christopher doesn't seem really impressed in this photo as he had been at school all day and spent the afternoon with me and was a little tired for happy snaps but he just loves hangin out with me in the garage tinkering and really all he wants to do is hang out with his old man.. Gone are those years where I would say "don't touch this and don't do that".. I encourage him to have a go and help problem solve and in fact children can surprise you in their creativity if given the chance! Kids wont be children forever so cherish those golden moments while you have them I reckon?



I am happy with the bends..



The hopper sides had me stumped for a while on how to bend but I got it sorted after a few VB's, Stella's and Becks



Best I could do was a bit of scrap galvanised air conditioning ducting for the rear of hopper, I am happy with cuts and bends even though it was my first attempt.. Not sure of gauge but this stuff is thin..



For the leg stands I tech screwed 2 aluminium C channels [] together and used a hole saw.. I offset the hole saw's top and bottom so the devise would sit in an A frame rather than straight position for a little bit better stability and you still get some flexibility..

I didn't have a jigsaw for riffles pattern so I used a hacksaw blade the old fashion way by hand and man it was a tough gig, took me 4 hours but got there in the end! I neglected the kids that night and spent a l lot of the time gritting my teeth :lol:

I had to cut some angles and pop rivet them together to get the Z shaped piece I needed to bolt down the start of riffles catchment..

I cut small pieces of angle and pop riveted to body for slopped mesh and riffles brace..

I found a piece of galvanised slopped expanded mesh 800mm x 800mm at some building recycling yard on the Pacific Hwy at St Peters NSW for the first section after the skid plate and before the bread crate riffles..

I have deep grooved V matting from Clark Rubber at the bottom, unbacked vinyl looped from Bunnings and Wal's bread crate riffles on top



I made an interchangeable riffle section out of the slopped mesh but it has gaps underneath and cant be pushed down into vinyl looped matting to eliminate the gaps so either I will grind it back till it has no gaps but I will loose height or stick it down to the looped vinyl matting with polyurethane or silicon and fill the holes underneath? What you reckon Wal?



I bought some cable tray for $10 while I was looking around an industrial area in the back of bankstown NSW someplace and found these computer servers frames recyclers, cant remember the name..

Bought from eBay 9m roll of pool hose for suction for $25 bucks..

Legs are 50mm PVC from Bunnings and are strong as!

All my camlocks I bought from eBay Hose Warehouse..



I slapped everything together with tech screws and polyurethane, It looks rough but its the ducks guts and goes hard, its hearty and robust perhaps like some PA members? What a beast of a devise!

I need to add an extra hole in the middle of hopper for spray bay.. I like using the one towards the front as it helps keep rocks in the hopper while washing rather than pushing them down off the classifier too quickly as when you use the end holes for spray bar.. Its a bit hard to get your hand in underneath the spray bay to rake so moving this hole to the centre will help hand raking position and still keep the rocks at the back of the hopper for washing..



Good stuff wal, good onya your a champ mate!

Thanks for looking,

Ross

G'day Adam,

The pics in Ross's build above is almost identical to the general use Banker that i use most weekends. The one with the catwalk on the front is purely my sapphire banker and is mainly used in high spinel areas like GG.

In answering your questions...1) The crate needs just a firm pressure onto the moss, enough for it to have a little pressure on your ribbed rubber matting. By the time the gold gets through the moss and onto the ribbed there is pretty well no water pressure on it, and the gold wont move on the ribbed base. ( Still would try to hunt up the backed moss somehow ). :/

2) The added height by adding the rubber mat won't make any difference to the performance.

3) For the gold version you don't need the catwalk at the end of the sluice. I run my crate directly to the end of the sluice on this version as well. The expanded mesh for the boiler section is very important and i always run this without any form of mats.

This boiler section sucks the gold to the bottom of the sluice, and traps 90% before it even gets to the crate.The ironstone suspends in this section and the gold creeps underneath it to the start of the crate.

4) The carpet under the front catwalk is more for ease of assembly as the catwalk and the crate are about the same height above the mat. It's critical that you allow 50cm from the back of your box to the start of the boiler section (expanded mesh). The expanded i use has a 10mm profile.

Stick with crate to end of box and 10mm expanded in the boiler section (with no matting )and you won't go wrong.

Cheers Wal

G'day Ross,

Let me say what a great job you have done with that banker mate. Love the way you used the services of the ute tray for your bending machine. As a gold box you will be more than happy and it will serve you well.

If you press your expanded down firmly, the lower sections of each expanded should compress the mat, the gaps will be in the offset sections and these offsets should have enough coverage to stop the gold from moving along the ribbed backing mat.

I still highly recommend you hunt around for a backed mat, or ask them in store to order one in for you. The middle hole on the hopper box is also the main one i use.

Again, a great effort, and look forward to seeing you on the stream with it. Best of luck ,

Cheers Wal.