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Post by curtislowe on May 23, 2012 21:50:02 GMT 10
Hi all,
Has anybody purchased one of those Australian made Highbanker/Two Tier Sluice's from Miner's Den in Sydney. If so what do you think of it, any advice as to any benefitial modifications that can be made it one.
I was originally intending on making my own Highbanker but just don't have the time. I thought it's easier just to buy one.
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Post by shivan on May 23, 2012 22:03:03 GMT 10
G'day curtislowe, we got ourselves one of the two tier sluices from miners den. By itself it does work and will catch gold bit i would highly recomend adding some spraybars which just seem to wash the rocks better than the water manifold. Most people i have seen with this unit have added spray bars of some type. Our unit came with marine carpet as matting, which does catch the gold but getting it back out was the problem we got some miners moss in ours now which made it alot easyer to clean out but will bet taking all the riffles and matting out soon to replace with the gold hog matting when i can afford it. I rambled on a bit alluvialgprospectors.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=alluvialdiscussion&action=display&thread=3429 is the link to most of the mods i did.
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Post by danielkrupski on May 24, 2012 8:21:12 GMT 10
What's the price of the highbanker. Tried looking online but their site is still under construction. Is there a brand to do a google search for reviews on it.
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Post by curtislowe on May 24, 2012 9:23:19 GMT 10
From what I remember, it was priced at around $450 etc or close to it. Don't know the brand but the the guy at Miner's Den said it was locally made.
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Post by shivan on May 24, 2012 11:18:26 GMT 10
$450 really? How do they justify the price raise that they were only $300 last year when we got ours
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Post by aushunter on May 24, 2012 12:30:11 GMT 10
Hey Ian, I bought mine for $465 a cuppla months ago, maybe since the price of gold has gone up they reckon we can afford it They are an excellent little addition to the kit and worth investing in one. Also a lighter than my green beast I used to lug around. Ian, what dia pipe you use on this little model for a spray bar,Im thinking the 40mm. Cheers Brad.....
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Post by curtislowe on May 24, 2012 12:40:38 GMT 10
$300...damn, I'm going to have to do some serious haggling!!!
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Post by shivan on May 24, 2012 14:03:10 GMT 10
Aushunter you are spot on i used 40mm pipe for my spraybars and i do agree they are a good unit, just supprised at the price jump within a year but i guess like you said rise in gold price and higher demand for them i guess. Did you buy yours with the piping and bilge pump aushunter or just the hb by itself?
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Post by ray101 on May 24, 2012 14:55:42 GMT 10
..I only paid $275 back in 2005 for mine... they work ok and as someone else said get rid of the blue carpet and add spray bars and they will work a treat.
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Post by aushunter on May 27, 2012 22:25:23 GMT 10
Ian, Ijust bought the sluice as I already have a Honda wx15, neat little bit of kit but need to get some of that layflat hose as the clear hosing has a tendancy to split after a while. I will plump up to the spray bar system later but atm I will leave it the way it is as I work very muddy recycled water and I dont get the spray bar holes blocked up problem/ The matting seems to work Ok for the bigger gold, scored a 0.45g lill nugg a while back and a few of its smaller bretherin, nice and chunky but a lot of digging to get down to where the bigger ones are,so I will keep the carpet for now...but I will be making an extion to the sluice areathat will see if any gold gold will be lost over the end of said sluice. Also 4 days chasing that nuggety stuff a good story to be made in a coming GG&T magazine just might appear, if I do good. Also migh have a property to dig on soon, aparently pretty good gold to boot. Any way fellas enough of me Cheers and HH Brad.....
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Post by curtislowe on May 28, 2012 7:46:02 GMT 10
I ended up buying one from Miner's Den and the price was $465. At the moment I've made a few mods to it and will post some photos up later. I've cut the marine matting down to the first riffle and have placed some thin 'v' ribbed matting in front of it which I bought from Clark Rubber. I'm going to leave it without the spraybars for the moment, but will definately be adding them later. All I need now are the hoses and a pump which I'm getting this week. Can't wait to break it in...are any of you guys heading out to Oallen this coming weekend. I know the bridge is supposed to be closed for repairs so I'm thinking of driving down through Nowra etc.
By the way, do any of guys know were I can purchase some perforated sheet metal which I can use as a classifying screen over the 'v' ribbed matting. I have no idea were to get some.
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Post by curtislowe on May 28, 2012 7:53:53 GMT 10
I almost forgot, I got a question for you guys...is the miners moss that you speak about the same thing as the blue nomad matting which is sold in Bunnings? Also I've used some expanded metal grate over the matting which I've taken off my Keene a52 river sluice. Do you think this will be a good idea or a waste of time? I thought if it works for the river sluice it should also work in the highbanker...but I'm no expert.
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Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on May 28, 2012 8:36:55 GMT 10
The perforated metal from the a52 should work fine, I have one aswell. Did you know that there is a highbanker kit for the a52 sluice? You just unbolt the flare and stick a hopper on and a set of legs. Saves carrying two yet you still have the flexibility.
Diggerdude
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Post by shivan on May 28, 2012 9:26:58 GMT 10
G'day curtislowe, good to hear you got your highbanker iam sure you will enjoy it. The nomad matting from bunnings is miners moss (or extremely similar) go for the unbacked version if you can. The expanded metal should work well with the fine gold at Oallen i would think. If you cant find any preforated plate or for some reason the one off the keene sluice does not work, have a look at in bunnings at gutter guard, it is a very small expanded metal mesh but i have seen it used in highbankers and it may work insted of a preforated plate. Iam hopeing to make it to the ford this weekend but i will have to see how my daughter is by then. Aushunter, ill be looking foward to another great story
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Post by chimpy on May 28, 2012 11:32:52 GMT 10
G'day
Curtislowe, that thin V matting has a tendancy for cavitation unless it has something like expanded mesh over the top of it. I found this out the hard way. Make sure you give it a good test run before heading off for a dig. Goodluck and find heaps
Cheers
Chimpy
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