Hopper idea

[chris t]

Hi all I was just wondering about expand metal in the hopper over carpet 

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[nuggethill]

G'day Chris and welcome to the forum
normally there wouldn't be any thing in the hopper
as you need the over burden to escape with ease,

secondly I think the jets from your spray
should kill any chance of keeping
anything in the top of the hopper,

that being said you can only try it to see what happens

regards Harry

[Ric]

G'Day Chris

I'm not sure there is much merit in this system. To me it would be a hindrance to the initial stratification of the wash. I can also see the water jets blowing any gold out of the expanded mesh and on down to the bottom tray.
It will also be a lot more mucking around, not to mention double the amount of wash to pan off at cleanup.

A slick area (smooth plate)at the top 1/3 to 1/2 of the top hopper with a grizzly or punch plate classifier is the easiest to make and most effective.
The wash should drop through this onto another angled slick tray that deposits it and the water up towards the back of the bottom sluice tray.

The two slick areas the wash has already passed over should have separated out much of the heavies and washed away a lot of the light material before the heavies hit the bottom hopper.

Here is the link to the full video



Cheers Ric

[chris t]

Thanks guys I'll just have to try everything out when I get to reedy creek in April the 5th to the 7 th can't wait to get there for the first time

[chris t]

Hi I took the expanded out like you said it did not work . I feel the grizzles should be longer wat do you think or should I leave in alone you avice would be helpful ? 

[golddiggerart]

Mate whatever works for you, if that expanded was working okay for you then use it, I would have thought that it would hold the clay better to then wear down and process better. Do you have a video of it going?

[shivan]

G'day chris, do you have a dirt hogg highbanker or is it a home built one?
You can drop out gold in the top hopper, i have seen ribbed v matting used and a setup like that you showed in the first picture with expanded and miners moss. The biggest problem is unless the gold is coarse, it gets washed and knocked into the bottom sluice anyway a lot of the time.

The biggest function of grizzly's is to keep water flowing at a constant rate, whilst preventing larger rocks from getting into the bottom sluice. Most people suffer slightly here with a build up of larger rocks not sliding off and a slight damming effect just at the edge of the grizzly. The quickest way to combat this is just by clearing out with the shovel/hand's a bit more often. Something else to look at is to have a layer of punchplate sitting just off the bottom the hopper and running just past the start of the grizzly. This allows a constant flow of water just under the punch plate as well as a little more angle to get the bigger rocks moving.

[chris t]

Thanks guys I like the idea of the punch plate I saw another idea but the same principle using small square mesh but you all if you don't try things you never learn !

[chris t]

I thought I would put the expanded and carpet back in the hopper I'm glad I did went out to try that set up again now each time I go out I'm going to use this set up because it does catch gold all I did was about six 20 litre bukkets got some gold in top hopper and in the riffles  this bit of gold was just out if the hopper! 

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[nuggethill]

I'm glad it worked out for you mate
we all had a bit of hit and miss to start off with
so good yours is working out
cheers