A cold weekend at the Ford!

[WCJ]

Hey all!
First time poster here!
After watching Wal's video (countless times) on how to make a high banker, I thought that i would give it a crack! I had a few quiet days on at work so myself and my apprentice made a high banker!!
I went for a trip down to the ford last weekend to give it a run, I have only just got the feeling back in my fingers!. It was so cold!

Anyway we spent a couple of hours on Saturday and a couple of hours on Sunday shoveling sand and we brought home a 20L bucket of concentrate from the high banker.
Last night i stood at the laundry tub at home and panned about a 1/4 of the bucket. I was pretty stoked with the result!

Looking forward to panning the rest of it over the weekend and seeing how much more i come up with.

Cheers
Craig

 

[kawman]

Very nice... I have yet to land any colour... Very inspiring.. 8)

 

[Colin&Lee]

Welcome aboard Craig, nice bit of colour mate be keen to see the end weight.

Cheers

C&L

 

[Black-Pete]

WCJ, Just how big is your highbanker as 20ltrs of concentrates is quite a lot for about four or so hours digging. I usually only have about half a pan full of concentrates to process after 2 to 3 days at the ford.
Pete

 

[PipeclayJim]

Nice show of gold. What pump was you using and how far where you pumping?

 

[WCJ]

WCJ, Just how big is your highbanker as 20ltrs of concentrates is quite a lot for about four or so hours digging. I usually only have about half a pan full of concentrates to process after 2 to 3 days at the ford.
Pete

Hey Pete,

Its only a standard size high banker, But my pump doesn't pump much water so i would find that it was "clogging up" I was having to clean it out every 10 min or so. What ever sand was in the high banker i just washed straight into the bucket.
With a bit of fine tuning and a bigger pump i expect it to clear out a lot better and i wont have to "empty it" as often.

Craig

 

[Mudguts]

Nice work
I love the forde easy to access and there is colour there
Nights see you there one day
Cheers Mud Guts

 

[Black-Pete]

Craig, have you tried increasing the angle of the bottom hopper a little bit to increase the speed of the water to help it clear a little faster. When you said that you had 20ltrs of concentrate I knew that the highbanker needed fine tuning. Hope you sort it out and I might also see you up there sometime.
Pete

 

[Black-Pete]

Quote
" Its only a standard size high banker, But my pump doesn't pump much water so i would find that it was "clogging up" I was having to clean it out every 10 min or so. What ever sand was in the high banker i just washed straight into the bucket.
With a bit of fine tuning and a bigger pump i expect it to clear out a lot better and i wont have to "empty it" as often."


What sort of pump are you running, is it an electric bilge pump? Most petrol pumps should handle the water supply needed for Oallen even if you are 60 to 70mtrs from the water although some of the 1" ebay chinese ones may struggle at the longer distances. I have a honda 1" wx10 and it supplies plenty of water up to about 70mtrs from the river level.
While the honda is a bit expensive there are good quality cheaper ones available that should be fine for the job.
Pete