short high banker lenghs

[jamie]

Hi all, i am looking to build another high banker soon, my current one is rather bulky, 1100mm long, large hopper box and being made from 3mm ally and steel expanded is a little on the heavy side when walking it up a creek/stream on my own, plus pump and all the other odds and sods we need

what my question is what is the shortest length banker people run?, assuming angle, water level/flow, and riffle setup being right, i am after something a little more compact and light weight

and if it helps will be mainly used around tuena and oallen (4x4 isnt an option at the moment unfortunately)
Cheers
Jamie

 

[Guest]

That depends on the type of design you have in mind?

 

[jamie]

thanks mate should of really mentioned that, was thinking along the lines of the regular high banker design, hopper on top, sluice run underneath similar to this

 

[aussiefarmer]

Test how early your current banker is catching the gold by washing and panning the bed off in three sections and washing each end of the matt seperately then the middle . I have done this and my banker catches 95 % in the first 6 inches so really with the setup of mine i beleive i could have the bottom run 1 foot long and not loose much, how ever the top run would be 2 foot long at the moment and any shorter i think the washing and seperating process would be greatly comprimised , i am thinking of remaking the top run to match the bottom about 1100.
Maybe its the transport side you may need to adress as no matter the lenght of your banker you still need to haul your pump, i put a post up on pump transport issues solved if you can find it that will be some feul for thought , i will see if i can add the link

 

[Guest]

about 800cm long by around 22cm wide is a good rule of thumb. The top hopper 3/4 the length of the bottom hopper. cheers

 

[aussiefarmer]

https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=15476
Try that
I my self am thinking of i short river sluice so i can kayak with it and run the pump when i can get a vehicle near it .

 

[ozziii]

I have a Sluicy Gold GS10, sluice section is 700mm by 250mm, had it set at 10 degree today & it was good, ran pretty well & wasn't loosing anything. It has rubber backed matting from bunnings & a different spraybar, seems to work well.

 

[jamie]

Cheers guys, my current set up catches most of the gold fairly early in its run, I would be happy with around 700-800mm in length
Ozziii I have got a trolly like yours but think I will mod it somewhat like yours to make it a little more useful

 

[ozziii]

I got the idea from this forum, but I only use a couple of milk crates (for batteries) & a plastic tub. Bottom crate held on with cable ties, top crate with occy strap & tub with pump & banker just have the occy strap to hold them as well, going to fix some ply board to it though, just to make it better for mounting stuff on.
The modded one on the forum has the handle cut down & the section that was cut out is welded on like a rack & the petrol pump is underneath it bolted onto mounts welded onto the base plate, its a good set up. There's a thread somewhere here about it.

I want to build a sluice section a little longer than the 700mm one on our highbanker, wouldn't mind 1000mm but I also want compact so even 8-900mm would be alright still.

 

[ozziii]

Much easy than doing multiple tips to carry everything, specially when a fair way from the car.

 

[jamie]

After looking at that I am sold on the idea now, going to measure, cut and glue back together my trolly now cheers for that ozziii
I had contemplated just cutting my sluice down a bit but I do like the size of it when it is practical, so going to build a shorter more compact setup, just means more clean ups but I can live with that, now I have my ac/dc welder working again going to make it all in ally, sluice, rifles etc now the hunt for ally expanded starts lol

 

[Tige]

I have two that are 700mm long that i use in tuena. .. they work fine. Originally started off with a 1.5m version which i found to be excessive
Cheers
Tim

 

[Tathradj]

Hi Jamie,
The banker I am building is,
900 long in the sluice,
500 long hopper and
both are 270 wide.
The design is influenced by a mixture of
a sluicy 16,
listening to other peoples comments,
and a wonderful design idea from a highly respected member on here, He knows who he is. :lol:
I also have come up with an idea that I have not mentioned on here so I will see how she goes.
I too got a bit over carrying a heavy long banker around and after seeing a few bankers in the small range
have designed mine along the same lines.
I have also gone to a lot of trouble to not have any thing protruding on the out side and in the sluice area's.
And no sharp edges either. LOL
It will be in action at Oallen. It's maiden voyage.

 

[Guest]

Yes indeed the Oallen trip is highly recommended.

 

[ozziii]

After looking at that I am sold on the idea now, going to measure, cut and glue back together my trolly now cheers for that ozziii
I had contemplated just cutting my sluice down a bit but I do like the size of it when it is practical, so going to build a shorter more compact setup, just means more clean ups but I can live with that, now I have my ac/dc welder working again going to make it all in ally, sluice, rifles etc now the hunt for ally expanded starts lol

They are a good thing to have but the thanks should go to whoever it was on this forum that made the one I seen that was cut down with a petrol pump mounted on the bottom.

Being able to make the lot out of alloy would be a bonus, I would love to have the gear to build some alloy stuff myself, will have to find lots of gold first though,haha.

I find I probably need to do a clean atleast each hour, maybe more hard to say really, guess it depends how much gravels you're putting through it. I have rubber backed spaghetti mat from Bunnings, seems to work well but does catch a good amount of cons, might even do a few 30 minute clean ups just to see how things look. Got some video of mine today, its in the video section if you want to see a short highbanker running, shows some of the gold we got from a clean up as well.

 

[jamie]

Doug, i am keen to get to another oallen meet up but seems like every time i say i am coming either oallen or tuena it seems like something comes up and in the way to prevent it

Tige, thanks for the feedback mate, what rifle,mat, expanded setup/configure do you have in it if you dont mind my asking

ozziii, i have to admit i am lucky that i have alot of the equipment i have welders, lathes etc but took me awhile to amass what i now have what i really want is a sheet metal brake and a tube bender, the sheet folder i can make myself just havent as of yet, the bender will come sooner or later.
i dont mind the extra clean ups, gives me time to drink more beer

 

[ozziii]

I looked at hand folders on ebay, they are too small though, I need something atleast 1100mm long for what I want to do. Could make one as well but will have to look into some tools to do it, think I might have to soon.
An AC/DC pulse TIG welder would be great but I guess if I had something to fold sheet, a 5" grinder to cut, a rivet gun, drill & drill bits then I'd be right to make a few things, it doesn't take much really. The folder would be the main thing I'd need though, have to make sure all folds are spot on, wouldn't be happy if they were out of square a little bit.

 

[Wooly#1]

G'day Ozziii, You don't need a folder just yet, I've found if you use a circular saw & cut at half the thickness of ally sheet and bend it gently it will stay together, 4043 ally is better as it won't break, if you use 5356 it will crack through it is high tencile / marine grade, Don't use a grinder as they can bog up with ally and shatter (Found this out the hard way). Your trolley Idea is good but I'd make swing down legs so the trolley was adjustable stand, mount the sluice where it is so all your stuff is in the box &
you'd have enough room left to mount a esky for refreshments as well, I'm going to do mine that way as the one i'm building is 1200 mm long, I just bought a Lincon 180 C mig welder with ally gun attachment so when I have enough posts up I'll send a couple of pics.

Happy building and sluicing,

 

[ozziii]

Hi Wooly, I don't have a circ saw, but think I'd rather use a folder anyway so there's no weakening of the bends because of the metal being thinner, & as I don't have the tools anyway I'd get more use from buying a bender than I would with a circ saw.
Got a few plans for the banker & trolley but just doing it over time, no rush here, but a folding stand for the trolley is something I have thought about, it might come later, also going to mount some ply to it at some stage as well but being compact like the highbanker is of major importance, need to keep things light as well because just the 2 batteries are 40kg.

 

[G0lddigg@]

i make and run a little baby highbanker mate, 600 long dialled in with a bilge pump. makes for easy loading and unloading and of course being a smaller system means you need to feed to suit and clean-cut more often than a larger system. key is using the right mats, right combo etc.
best to own a few sizes i reckon, id say 600mm would be a minimum for sluice length then 1 meter, 1200 and so on, remember you can always go wider