Highbanker project

[Bnugget]

So I have some friends joining me for an upcoming trip and I needed a piece of equipment that could keep up with 3-4 guys shoveling all day. But Lacking the funds to buy needed equipment I decided to try and utilize equipment I already own and convert it.

My first attempt was to use the over/under sluice off our 4" dredge and turn it into a high-banker, but during test runs with water flows I could not achieve proper flow/velocity to make it work properly feeding it with just a pump so I moved on to plan B.

I was looking at the designs of Keene's " big banker" and Heckler fabrications "810" high-banker and that's what I decided to build. I have lots of raw materials laying around from past projects and leftovers from work.

One tool I lacked in my garage was a sheet metal brake so I looked it up and decided to build one with things I had laying around. Utilizing one of my steel work benches, some unistrut, and You Tube, I had one built.



Now I already owned a 12"x 48" sluice that I got years back of CL so decided to use this as a starting point. Now that I had the sheet metal brake I could build an extension for the sluice using some .080 sheet aluminum I had from a past project. Using my brake which worked well I bent up the sluice.



Now I needed to focus on the hopper. I liked Hecklers design allowing for classification to 1/2" which is what we were doing with our sluices so I figured this would help with production.







After bending the shell I worked on the frame work for it last night.







This is where I am with it right now, I'll be working on the rest today hopefully finishing it. So I will follow up later.

Brandon

 

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[Bnugget]

Made lots of progress today, need to finish off riffles and tie in water and should be it besides a dry run in the kiddie pool in the back yard.











I have riffles for lower section since that was part of the original sluice. Anyone have any ideas for upper section? I don't have any Hungarian style riffles all I have is some 3/4 and 1" angle or flat bar that I was hoping to use, any suggestions? I'm not looking to buy anything if possible.

 

[Goldwasher]

Man Brandon that thing is GINORMOUSLY AWESOME..You have angle iron just mimic the heckler riffles. Your gonna have a hard time feeding that beast enough. How much water are you planning on running through it?

 

[kazcoro]

That is a really nice build. The only drawback I see is weight and space.

 

[timberjack]

I am far from an expert but what i have read in 2 diffrent canadian studies ( clarkson and dawson? Idk) use the angle iron , put the first riffel in with the leading edge 20 degrees out of vertical tipping upstream then the next riffel 5 degrees back towards vertical continuing until the riffels are tipped 20 degrees dpwn stream, upstream from that in the sluice use big expanded metal under the hopper then drop down to smaller expanded covering miners moss or veranda carpet, mabey glue in som v matt in the top and place v mmatt under the miners moss. Like i said im new to this,,that just what i have read worked well for others. I can email you copies of the studies if you would like,
You want the slurry exposed to a veriety of types of catch areas
Great looking build! Good luck!

 

[Bnugget]

Thanks for the replies, the sluice is 12" wide and I'll be feeding it with my 9hp honda with Hp500 from my 6" dredge, I made a frame for it out of EMT conduit so it'll sit by the river easier without tipping over.



So for the riffles, is it better to start aggressive or it seems I should stay less aggressive to catch fines right? What spacing would I put on the clarkson riffles? 3-4" I'll try looking it up. I was gonna line the front section with 3# expanded but can't find any anywhere local in Antioch, tried all scrap yards and I don't want to buy a full sheet.

There will be 3-4 of us guys digging and feeding it so I hope we can keep up, maybe we'll stock pile a bit and do some runs. I'm just afraid of shutting down and loading up mats. The area I plan on digging is only one foot to bedrock and fairly easy to dig compared to some so maybe we can keep up? We'll see I guess!

 

[Bnugget]

Well finished up today, started water testing and noticed riffles loading up bad in lower section of sluice, I reused the expanded metal and Hungarians in the first section and a combo of 3/4" angle vertical and some set 15 deg forward for clarkson style and the last 3 riffles are 1" angle set 15 deg forward and top lip shortened to 1/2". I was running about 12/1 slope.









Now I figure i need more slope(more velocity) for the clarkson riffles but less for the Hungarians right? So I tried tilting downward at more of an angle and saw improvement in lower section but my Hungarians and expanded were blowing everything out.

Is there any way to make both work or should I just scrap the Hungarians and go clarkson all the way?

 

[timberjack]

I only know what i have read and have little practical experiance in this area but clarkson did much testing and found the best recovery using his final designs. He fou d thet were an inprovement over the hungarians. Mabey you could have a set of each and swap in the field to see what worked better. Sell the gold you get the first trip and get some goldhog mats for a high production application. As with any new endevor experimentation is key

 

[Goodyguy]

Well finished up today, started water testing and noticed riffles loading up bad in lower section of sluice, I reused the expanded metal and Hungarians in the first section and a combo of 3/4" angle vertical and some set 15 deg forward for clarkson style and the last 3 riffles are 1" angle set 15 deg forward and top lip shortened to 1/2". I was running about 12/1 slope.


View attachment 997014


View attachment 997015



Now I figure i need more slope(more velocity) for the clarkson riffles but less for the Hungarians right? So I tried tilting downward at more of an angle and saw improvement in lower section but my Hungarians and expanded were blowing everything out.

Is there any way to make both work or should I just scrap the Hungarians and go clarkson all the way?

That is definitely a monster highbanker!

Clarkson riffles require 4 inches to the foot of slope while Hungarians are good at 1 inch to the foot. To run both simultaneously you will need to have the capability to run each separate section at the appropriate angle.

With the length sluice you are running I would start off with a 14 to 18" length of deep V mat. Makes for a nice inspection mat as well as providing a stratification area before the slurry hits the riffle sections. (plus most of the fine gold will be captured there)

Nice work on the build.
Just be prepared to have a lot of concentrates to have to process at clean up time with the setup you're using.

Gold hog mats from top to bottom would reduce those concentrates to less than an eighth of the volume plus eliminate the need for any riffles.
Of course that will always be an option down the road if you chose to go that route.

Go for the Gold
GG~

 

[Bnugget]

That is definitely a monster highbanker! Clarkson riffles require 4 inches to the foot of slope while Hungarians are good at 1 inch to the foot. To run both simultaneously you will need to have the capability to run each separate section at the appropriate angle. With the length sluice you are running I would start off with a 14 to 18" length of deep V mat. Makes for a nice inspection mat as well as providing a stratification area before the slurry hits the riffle sections. Nice work on the build. Just be prepared to have a lot of concentrates to have to process at clean up time with the setup you're using. Gold hog mats from top to bottom would reduce those concentrates to less than an eighth of the volume plus eliminate the need for any riffles. Of course that will always be an option down the road if you chose to go that route. Go for the Gold GG~

I would love to run gold hog mats, unfortunately they are not in the budget right now. I ended up stoping by Mike Dunn's shop, Gold pan California in Concord and he suggested I ditch the Clarkson riffles and stick to Hungarians/miners moss all the way through along with the expanded. He set me up with some used 3/4 Hungarian riffles from an old dredge which I modified to to fit my sluice width wise. I also suggested inserting some black rubber floor mat upside down which was shaped like an ice cube tray on the back.

So after all the mods I set sluice back at 1/12 pitch and ran a test run, looked good, good flow through box, no rooster tails, and good action all the way through. I ran my test gravels through to put it to test which included pieces of test lead and split shots hammered to different shapes and sizes, At shut down I inspected box and nice collections of heavies at each riffle a all lead pieces had stopped within the black mat at front of sluice. So I think I'm dialed in for now. Will make additional adjustments in field as needed.

 

[Goodyguy]

Did you put the mat under the miners moss as well? Not a good idea to run miners moss without V mat or something under it due to fine gold migrating underneath and off the end of the sluice. A short water tight gate across the end of the sluice may work in leiu of the mat under the moss if you can make one.

GG~

 

[Rdg Sluicer]

Did you put the mat under the miners moss as well? Not a good idea to run miners moss without V mat or something under it due to fine gold migrating underneath and off the end of the sluice. A short water tight gate across the end of the sluice may work in leiu of the mat under the moss if you can make one.

GG~

The water tight gate at the end of your sluice and v matt under the miners moss does wonders and is very cheap and easy to install. I am getting way more fines,

 

[Goodyguy]

The water tight gate at the end of your sluice and v matt under the miners moss does wonders and is very cheap and easy to install. I am getting way more fines,

Great to hear
Most folks are reluctant to try the gate but those who have swear by it.

GG~

 

[Rdg Sluicer]

This is prior to silicone but you get the idea. Thanks for the idea GG.

 

[mu50stang]

Great to hear Most folks are reluctant to try the gate but those who have swear by it. GG~

Hi GG, what do you mean by a gate and would it work on a 4 inch dredge.

 

[Goodyguy]

Hi GG, what do you mean by a gate and would it work on a 4 inch dredge.

The gate is a watertight short wall placed at the discharge end of the sluice to keep fines from migrating under and through the miners moss and off the end of the sluice.
It sort of converts a regular sluice into a fluid bed gold trap.



I have not tried it yet myself due to using an add a trap at the end of my sluices but if not for that I would definitely be installing one on all my sluices including on my dredges.

GG~

 

[Bnugget]

Did you put the mat under the miners moss as well? Not a good idea to run miners moss without V mat or something under it due to fine gold migrating underneath and off the end of the sluice. A short water tight gate across the end of the sluice may work in leiu of the mat under the moss if you can make one. GG~

Yes I have v mat under the moss. Thanks for the tip!

I got a chance to use the high banker this weekend, worked great! It was definitely a hungry beast. 3 of us could hardly keep up with it, we had to stock pile and do runs to run efficiently. Very happy with the way it turned out.

On clean up I tested each section of riffles separately to check recovery rates, I found the short 10" rubber mat in the front if my box caught 85-90% of my gold and the upper expanded metal section with Hungarians caught the rest, found little to no gold in last section if riffles.





We cleared a 6' x 24' wide area 3' deep to bedrock in less than 3 days. Needless to say were a bit sore, lol! We had to dam up an area on side of stream and pump water out to work the area. It was a challenge keeping the water out. We also reclaimed the area when we were finished and to the untrained eye you can barely tell we were there.

Unfortunately we only found 6.3 grams for all that work but we still had fun doing it. Need to find some better ground for the next run.



We also found a bit of mercury that I happily removed from the river.

 

[Goodyguy]

Yes I have v mat under the moss. Thanks for the tip!

On clean up I tested each section of riffles separately to check recovery rates, I found the short 10" rubber mat in the front if my box caught 85-90% of my gold and the upper expanded metal section with Hungarians caught the rest, found little to no gold in last section of riffles.

That's why hand fed sluices are generally no longer than 48"
When they are set up right most all the gold will be captured in the first 24-30"

GG~

 

[Reed Lukens]

That's why hand fed sluices are generally no longer than 48"
When they are set up right most all the gold will be captured in the first 24-30"

GG~

Exactly. I did tests on my box with another 6ft extension just to test the recovery in the box and found that the first 4ft was still more than needed. Sometimes gold would travel down to the last few riffles but not enough to warrant the extension. But this was on a 4" dredge testing the hp400 pump and then the over sized hp500 pump maxed out. Mega suction and no noticeable gold loss so I run the hp500 on it most of the time for the mega throughput

 

[Bnugget]

Yeah I think I might just eliminate the last 4 foot section to reduce the cons and make the unit lighter. I have a few other small mods I need to change but small and simple.