Have Yoo'z

[trenchfighter]

Have Yoo'z got any idea's/pics of recirculating and filtering water for dry country highbanking?
I understand having a bucket inside a bucket etc etc, but anyone got idea's/pics or even use some kind of water filtration before it gets sucked up again?

 

[Goldtarget]

Hopefully someone else comments, i built mine from a aluminium fuel tank split into two chambers, with a small gauge mesh screen backed onto a 90 degree inner wall, one side for the banker one side side for pumping out, picked up the tank from the scrap yard but probably an expensive option. Biggest trouble ive had is bloody gumnuts floating in the top. i run the hose in through the old screw cap which allows an adjustable depth. The drawbacks are its a Bitch to clean out and bulky, and i have to take what feels like a million litres on site. I'd suggest a plastic 44 or ibc, and pick up a Mesh screen rubbish or wastepaper basket as a flow strainer from the cheap shop if your looking for a quick cheap solution.

 

[TenOunce Tone]

Try setting up a secondary screen over the water tank below the outlet of the sluice tray. Not sure how much water you have in the catch tank but if you get some bird cage mesh you should be able to filter out the gum nuts and leaf litter to a fair extent. If you angled the mesh with a frame or star picket you may find it self cleans.

Just a thought

Cheers, Tone

 

[trenchfighter]

quick doodle of what i was thinking, could even possibly have another container in there, covered in the cloth that the pump intakes from....
idea's ? comments?

 

[Goldtarget]

That's amazingly similar to you're drawing.

 

[trenchfighter]

GT. nice man nice.
By the looks of it, it certanly does look like it would be a pain in the arse to clean out.
I was thinking of using a HUGE plastic tub as the "HOUSING", cause all my camping gears allready stored in one.....serves two purposes then.
Does the sludge tailings have to be cleaned out very often with your set up? ie does it clog your screen up ?

 

[elrodeo]

Or save all the hassle of carting water, tubs etc and get yourself a dry blower if you have the spare $$

 

[trenchfighter]

*best Tony Montana impression*
first you get the gold.....
then you get the money.....
then you get the blower..

 

[Goldtarget]

Its not so bad with run of the mill clay tailings, i forgot my tank screen in this pic which does a pretty good job. That pic is in heavy clog everything pipeclay so i was doing my best to keep it out with a stainless mesh screen out of an industrial dishwasher and a finer grade sheet curled up but the organics were a major hassle. I'd just stop shovelling clear the screens let it recirculate until it was clearer again and keep going. The left side in the pic is the pickup and right tailings recirculation, in the centre is a wall on the inside with a bottom and top triangle cut out fired with a permanent screen of fine industrial stainless p punch hole material (i used to be a scrap metal worker/business owner) i collected up, so the right side gets sludge the left should be dirty water pickup. I cleaned it this morning after 2 cubic metres for for mats and it had about a 2 inch blanket on the right and a couple mms on the left. I figure though none else would bank those type of diggings its hard on the equipment and after panning well it made for a better day than at work. Its a killer setup next to a flowing creek, but those diggings are less than two kms from home.you could make a pretty handy tank from a tub but just be careful how brittle they can be, i ended up with the aly one because i was tired of breakages, most types as soon as you start giving them a hard time want to split. I'd suggest a stormwater square type if its plastic type your thinking of they are dear but solid, they keep coming back for more if you're rough on things. Good properties for glittering and drilling to.

 

[Village]

Have Yoo'z got any idea's/pics of recirculating and filtering water for dry country highbanking?
I understand having a bucket inside a bucket etc etc, but anyone got idea's/pics or even use some kind of water filtration before it gets sucked up again?

G day Trenchfighter

Difficult problem you face, and your not the first to trend the path. Rules of thumb for commercial drilling, same will apply here. Volume or buffer needs to be 3 to 4 times greater then what you will have in process, if that makes sense, so from pump pickup all the way back to the tank. To improve your design, you would be better served using geofabric, it is designed to let water through, but retain silt and mud. Bidum you will easy find at a landscape supply place, which is the thinnest available, if you can Geofabric 100, 200, or 300 would suit best and last longer as a filter media. They probably have new product names now.

Your tank, tray or tub, would best served as a tray,, in that being more wider and longer then higher. The reason being that the filter media will only allow so much permeation per square cm of face exposure, so a wider tray would be more effective, giving greater face area. Your tray I would set on a reverse incline, on 5 degrees backward, this will allow for the heavy silt to settle away from the media. The bucket idea I would suggest at clean out, that you pump the water into a separate container, so that you can then clean the tray of the retained silt.

There is a loss factor, even commercially the problem is faced. How they achieve the recirc issue is to use what is called mud or sand pups on a manifold, look like poly ice-cream cones, they trap the majority.

Good Luck

 

[trenchfighter]

f#ck you blokes are the Bomb-diggity