I love my dream mat sluice, 6?x24?, and am thinking about ways to convert it into a highbanker. Has anyone built a hopper for a 6? sluice? Would like to get some insight into what you made if you have. Thanks!
I have made hoppers out of wood, old buckets my favorite was made from an old grow light hood and aluminum grating off the back of a bus. Highbankers suck for fine gold as the wash action and drop from the hopper ads a lot of bubbles to the slurry, a length of plain sluice trough a slick plate before the riffles helps to get the fines to drop.
I like making hoppers out of aluminum sheet metal. If you have a brake it's easy to bend the aluminum into any shape or configuration of hopper you want. you are only limited by your imagination. A brake, a pop rivet tool, drill, and the aluminum is all you need.
Just decide whether you want a grizzly to do the classifying or whether you will be pre classifying the material before feeding the high banker.
With a 6" wide sluice I would recommend pre classifying but you could always build it with a grizzly and do it either way.
For ideas click here -> Hopper for high banker Scale the hopper of your choice down to the size you need.
If you dont have a brake then just get the size heavy duty plastic storage box/tote you need and go from there..........
Good post Buddy ! And sheet metal brake's function is EZ to duplicate with aluminum clamped between 2 2x4's and hammer the alum. over to do the 90 degree bends OR take your alum. to a sheet metal shop and pay them to bend it up for you OR like Buddy stated ,buy a plastic tote ! You just cant beat simplicity at it's finest !
If your using a 6” wide mat you could find a gray plastic triple wide exterior grade electrical box. Like you’d use with plastic conduit. Should be cheap ish and easy to locate.